Monklands petitioning

Great day at Monklands yesterday fellow workers, patients and visitors supporting our campaign to end the Pro£steering in NHS Lanarkshire. Over 500 names on our petitions and 200 individual letters to local politicians! SOLIDARITY AT WORK

East Kilbride News highlights issues in Hairmyres

Article from this week's East Kilbride news on ISS at Hairmyres bringing in cleaner's from Coventry to help clean hospital following a Healthcare Enviroment Inspectorate visit. This despite the fact that ISS have earned extra thousands of £££'s from the taxpayer through NHS Lanarkshire. This weeks EK News article here

Branch active and campaigning against the PFI pro£iteers in Hairmyres and Wishaw

We have had a great response from the staff and general public at our two stalls in Hairmyres on Tuesday and Wishaw General today, with over 1,000 signatures collected in support of our campaign.

Thank you to everyone who has supported our campaign so far, and to those who have already committed their support to the Branch.

Keep an eye out on our Facebook page for more campaigning and perhaps a sighting of a Fat Cat!

An easy way to contact your local politicians.

We have produced a put online a draft letter for you too use/adapt while writing to local politicians, which can be downloaded. Below you will find the same text and a link to send it to your local politicians MSPs, MPs and Councillors simply by imputing your postcode. Simples! Copy and paste the letter below and then visit this page .

Suggested letter

Dear

NHS LANARKSHIRE: HAIRMYRES AND WISHAW PFI CONTRACTS

I am writing as a constituent who has grave concerns surrounding the proposals of NHS Lanarkshire to extend the Soft Facilities Management (cleaning, portering, catering, and security) contracts with private contractors Serco at Wishaw General and ISS at Hairmyres Hospital.The NHS Lanarkshire Board requires to make this decision by the end of 2014.

It is my understanding that the Board intends to simply roll on the contracts with the existing Private providers, thereby continuing to pay taxpayers money to the shareholders of SERCO and ISS, for the provision of public services. UNISON and the other Health Unions and Professional Associations are campaigning to have the services brought back in house, and I as a constituent and service user support this view and would request your support to lobby the Board on this issue.

I firmly believe that staff employed in Wishaw General and Hairmyres should be employed by the NHS and not private companies who are in the NHS to bleed money from it. There is a real opportunity for NHS Lanarkshire to bring back in-house these services and ensure quality and public control of public money.

I look forward to hearing your view of this vitally important issue.

Yours sincerely

We would like to thank those friends and supporters who have already acted on this request. Please share widely and encourage others to do likewise remember PFIs bleed the NHS dry!

1% Pay Rise Delayed

The 1% pay rise awarded to over 155,000 NHS Scotland staff has been hit by further delays.

The pay rise was due to be paid in April but health workers will now have to wait until June for the extra money in their pay packets.

Although the pay rise will be backdated to April staff may have to wait even longer for back payments.

Willie Duffy, Head of Health for UNISON Scotland said: "Clearly this is unacceptable. We signed off a circular instructing health boards to implement the pay rise, three weeks ago.

"I was assured the pay rise would be in the May pay packet. Our members will be angry about this given that they have had the pay rise in England, the North of Ireland and Wales and we are still waiting."

"I am going to be writing to the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Alex Neil, to express my anger at the way the whole process has been handled and the fact we were assured it would be paid in May. I will be asking for an explanation from him as to why it has not been."

PVG PAYMENTS SUCCESS

Below we re-produce the text of a letter received by UNISON's Scottish Health Committee regarding PVG payments. We are please that the new Scottish Health Minister, Alex Neil has listened to the concerns that UNISON and others organisations have had around the financial impact of passing on PVG payments to already hard pressed NHS staff and came to a sensible conclusion.

Mr Tom Waterson and

Mr Willie Duffy

Chair and Secretary of

Uhison Scotland Health Committee

Unison House

14 West Campbell Street

Glasgow

G2 6RX

Your ref: SHC/JG/WD/WK

Our ref: 2012/0036638

December 2012

The Scottish

Government

 

Thank you for your letter of 5 November about payment of the fee for membership of the

new Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) Scheme.

I am aware that the issue of whether staff or employers will be responsible for payment of

this fee has been a particularly difficult one for STAC to resolve and that my predecessor,

Nicola Sturgeon, was approached for a view on the matter at the end of 2011. She

acknowledged that registration belongs to the individual and is transferrable and can

therefore be seen as analogous to a professional registration fee, for which a staff member

· would be liable themselves. However, she was also conscious of the need to protect the

lower paid and asked STAC to progress discussions on the basis that only those earning

over £21 ,000 would pay their own registration fee.

This led to further discussions but, unfortunately, no agreement has been reached. There is

no doubt that PVG registration is a transferrable benefit which can be used to facilitate

· employment with a different NHS employer, a local councilor a private service provider.

However, I acknowledge that the situation has moved on since 2011 and have listened

carefully to the points being made around this issue. I am particularly conscious of the

significant ongoing pressures hard working NHSScotland staff face on their take home pay

and have therefore written today to the Joint Chairs of STAC asking the Committee to

· discuss an approach which would see employers cover PVG registration fees for all staff.

I hope this is helpful in clarifying the position.

Alex Neil