Having held further discussions with management and councillors, Camden Unison is now in a position to give updated advice for members on the proposed new contract buyout. This particularly relevant to members on old contracts, but also to members on the new ones so please do read the attached document and take note of this advice.
We would like to thank those of our members on the old contracts for their steadfastness in refusing to sign up to the new contracts so far. We had requested people do this in order to win improvements to the new contracts over the past 5 years, and improve our bargaining position in these discussions. Those improvements are included in the document.
As a consequence, some people may benefit financially on the new contracts. So rather than maintain our initial position of not signing up to the new contract, we are no longer asking people who will benefit financially not to sign. If you will have significant financial loses because of reduced/removed anti-social or out of hours payments for contracted work, we believe there can be a trade dispute because of financial detriment and therefore members should not sign. This applies to specific groups of workers, listed in the document.
Therefore the position of Camden UNISON is that we will ballot for industrial action if management moves to force these people onto the new contracts by dismissing and re-engaging them. So if you’re already on the new contracts, or if you decide to sign up, we would ask you to remember that we are all better off because of those members who have so far refused to sign, and we would ask for your support to defend these members if management moves to dismiss and re-engage them.
Please speak with your colleagues about the need for us to stick together to prevent pay cuts for the lowest paid, and encourage them to join UNISON – together we are stronger.