The indicative ballot of members in scope of the Council’s new employment contracts has returned an overwhelming ‘yes’ in support of industrial action up to and including multi-day strikes. Overall, 732 members took part in the ballot between 5 and 22 April with 529 or 72.3% voting ‘yes’. The turnout of just under 40% was significantly higher than in recent UNISON ballots on industrial action.
In the wake of the result, branch officers will be speaking urgently with regional officials about next steps including an offical strike ballot, which would be conducted by post to members’ home addresses, in line with the strict legal requirements for official trade union ballots. Meanwhile, the branch awaits replies from management about a number of serious concerns, especially the current absence of any commitment in the new contract to honour National Joint Council pay awards, the general move away from any form of collective bargaining over pay and the length of the working week for those on the so-called P&M contracts.
We hope to provide members with a further update by early next week.
As an update on this, this strong vote in favour of industrial action was sufficient to bring management back to the negotiating table. Negotiations restarted and are ongoing. We hope to provide an update for members early in the New Year.
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