UNISON has successfully won an increase in grade for around 30 family support workers in CSF worth up to over £4000 per year each, plus backdating worth up to over £6500 each.
Members in the early years service, supported by local managers, argued that even though they were graded at scale 6 (level 2 zone 2 on the new contracts), they were doing a similar job to family workers in the department graded at PO1 (level 3 zone 2).
UNISON reps met with members several times and jointly put in a regrading request, which was successful in winning a regrading to SO2 (level 3 zone 1), resulting in the above pay increases.
However, these members are adamant that they deserve equal pay with their family worker colleagues, so we have put in a regrading appeal. We will report on progress on our website.
The pay increases and backdating achieved so far should be paid to workers in the January pay packet, which hopefully should make for a good New Year for these members!