Pandemic shows why we should ❤ Unions

It’s ❤ Unions week this month (8-14 February), an event organised by the TUC to tell the story about why unions are vital for everyone at work, and encourage people to join. Unions would not exist if a voice, pressure and – if need be – industrial action were not needed to secure the best outcomes in the workplace. So victories, large or small, deserve to be recognised this year, just like any other.

This year they fall into two camps. Many, like the education unions’ struggle over the safe re-opening of schools and colleges, relate directly to the pandemic and workplace safety. Efforts to persuade employers to make full use of the furlough system and preserve jobs have also been driven by the pandemic.

But what stands out, reported or highlighted by a wide range of unions, is the extent to which normal bargaining issues have remained on the agenda since the start of the pandemic – pay and conditions, working time, and dignity and equality.

The TUC itself helped set the scene, with successful interactions with the UK government in the following areas.

Workplace health and safety: it influenced the government’s Covid-safety guidance for workplaces in a number of areas. It also persuaded the government to encourage the publication of risk assessments, something it regards as a “partial win”, as it wants them to be legally required to publish risk assessments. A TUC spokesperson told Workplace Report: “Another partial win is that employers cannot make clinically extremely vulnerable people go to work, however they can only receive Statutory Sick Pay while shielding, which we think is insufficient”.

Sick pay and self-isolation support: rules on statutory sick pay (SSP) meant that in most cases it would only start being paid after three days of unpaid sickness, while around two million people on low pay have no eligibility. Unions argued that, as well as causing hardship to workers who fall sick, the lack of support could cause people who ought to self-isolate to continue working, as they would have no other means of support. The government agreed to make workers who must self-isolate eligible for sick pay from day one and introduced a payment scheme for people who need to self-isolate and have no sick pay. The TUC recognises these as improvements, but is campaigning for SSP to be a day-one right for every worker, paying at least the same as the real Living Wage.

Furlough payments: trade union campaigning and negotiating with government helped achieve the creation of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme. It succeeded in winning extensions to the scheme for ongoing restrictions that affect work and for the second and third national lockdowns. And it succeeded in persuading the chancellor to amend the original scheme to allow flexible working. The TUC is now calling for the extension of furlough until at least the end of 2021.

Universal Credit: union campaigning also highlighted the millions of low income families who face significant hardship from losing work, or from moving to a lower income under furlough (as the scheme only replaces 80% of earnings). The chancellor responded by temporarily increasing weekly payments in Universal Credit by £20. The TUC is calling for the increase to be made permanent.

The TUC also drew attention to another success, one with no direct connection to the pandemic. Last August the government announced plans to replace the system of Trade Advisory Groups, but the proposal for a new advisory group system to aid with trade deals after Brexit did not include trade unions. “Our lobbying produced a U-turn, with unions in the new advisory group structures which will be consulted on ongoing UK trade talks,” the spokesperson explained. “This will allow trade unions to push for protections for workers’ rights, public services and good jobs in trade deals”.

Sickness and self-isolation

Like the TUC, individual unions have also been working to protect workers while off sick or self-isolating. Unite highlights successes at food manufacturers, in a sector where Covid infections can spread quickly:

• Rowan Foods: with over 300 infections (and with Wrexham Council involved and Welsh government guidelines to take into account) company sick pay was agreed for any tested-positive and isolating employees;

• 2 Sisters Coupar Angus: full pay for all workers for a 14-day self-isolation period following an August outbreak. Unite wants this to be repeated following a second, smaller outbreak.

Unions including Nautilus secured a fairer pay scheme for staff self-isolating at Uber Boats by Thames Clippers (UBTC). Instead of SSP, from 1 January, the company agreed to record time off as furlough where a requirement to self-isolate was activated by the employer, or there was proof that an employee had tested positive.

Jobs and furlough

With several hundred thousand jobs already lost, nine weeks of strike action at Rolls-Royce Barnoldswick produced some much needed good news. A minimum of 350 jobs have been preserved and a community has been protected from ruin. The site will get a new lease of life as a core manufacturing facility and will host a new centre of excellence.

There was success for the UCU at Heriot-Watt University over a proposal to cut over 100 jobs, with the opening of a voluntary redundancy programme one of the outcomes. Meanwhile, Prospect highlighted its reps’ work on redundancy consultation at the Building Research Establishment. Felicity, one of three new reps involved, said: “Don’t be scared to ask questions and don’t be fazed by the hierarchy of it all, as a rep you are there to scrutinise and advise”.

Furlough is an alternative to job losses, but persuading employers to use it can be a victory in itself – something the school unions have taken up on behalf of supply staff.

School catering staff on the Wirral scored thanks to UNISON pressure and political support. Plans by Chartwells (part of the Compass group) to make 10 low-paid women employees redundant – rather than access the furlough scheme – were scuppered.

Pay and conditions

Many of the victories claimed by unions during the pandemic have been about pay and conditions. At the Royal Mail Group the CWU has been busy negotiating a new national agreement (see page 5).

Usdaw highlighted its success in achieving thank-you bonuses during the first wave of the pandemic (typically 10%, as Workplace Report has previously reported). It agreed with the Co-op that they will become a Living Wage employer “as part of our efforts to ensure key worker status continues to be recognised as we move on from the crisis”. And at Morrisons it has just agreed a new £10 consolidated hourly rate, removing the uncertainty of bonus payments.

Even in the crisis-hit creative sector, Bectu’s FAA branch has just secured a three-year pay agreement for Supporting Artistes (walk-on actors) with the producers’ alliance PACT. Negotiations official Emily Collin said, “it’s been a challenging year, and our members have been hit hard, and as freelancers, many were excluded by the government support schemes. Bringing forward the rates increase to 1 January will mean our members can have greater hope that financial stability shall return to them in 2021, as work continues to increase”.

In Gateshead a 400-strong workforce represented by GMB and Unite at International Paint suspended their overtime ban and planned strikes, after voting to accept a 1.5% backdated pay offer with 2% and 4% performance-related payments.

But the suspension of action at bus manufacturer Optare, after discussions with management, reflected the recognition that a pay settlement was not possible at that time. Both parties welcomed a government pledge to purchase 4,000 zero-emission buses, and Unite agreed to work with the company on a “payment mechanism” ready for implementation once recovery from the pandemic is clear and future orders have come in.

UNISON celebrated a number of deals bringing members’ pay rates into line with NHS Agenda for Change. They included 30 drug and alcohol support workers at the We Are With You charity (formerly Addaction) in Wigan and Leigh. Their 15-month campaign involved a total of 26 strike days, and their cause attracted political support from Lisa Nandy MP and Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner.

There was a similar result for outsourced cleaners at Luton and Dunstable Hospital. Cleaners, porters and security staff at Homerton Hospital, represented by the GMB and UNISON, secured the London Living Wage and NHS sick pay “from day one” but fell short on NHS equivalents for their wages, pensions, overtime or annual leave.

Following the devolution of pay setting for school teachers in Wales, the Welsh government enacted two key recommendations of the Independent Welsh Pay Review Body. Coming into force last September, they were described as “major wins for workers’ rights” by UCAC, one of the unions involved, and covered:

• the reintroduction of national pay scales (rather than pay ranges with statutory minima and maxima only); and

• the removal of performance as a basis for pay progression, and the reintroduction of incremental annual progression.

Another victory in Wales was the Welsh government’s decision to make hardship funding for taxi drivers available through local authorities. Unite regional officer Alan McCarthy said: “While it is a welcome move, the income that’s been lost since March is astounding, and individual local authorities can still do more by waiving license and badge fees”.

Pensions were also on the agenda, with the NEU persuading a number of independent schools not to follow their peers by leaving the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (using the pandemic as justification in some cases). And at the Port of London Authority Nautilus members voted to accept a new “defined contribution” scheme with an improved contribution structure and new life insurance cover.

The recession has seen the return of employer “fire and re-hire” policies but Unite was happy to report that the University of Sheffield had dropped its plans to worsen conditions for 8,000 employees. In December, striking Securitas first responders at Airbus also won their fight against fire and rehire.

Minimum wage

RMT’s successes include its long-running campaign to extend the National Minimum Wage to seafarers working from UK ports, putting the union and UK seafarers in a stronger position to compete for work when the pandemic subsides (particularly in offshore wind and other net zero industries reliant on shipping).

Before the pandemic, UK seafarers only filled 34% of all ratings and officer jobs, and that has worsened following over 2,000 redundancies (particularly at Dubai-owned P&O Ferries) as employers chose job cuts rather than furlough.

In 2018, a Legal Working Group recommendation to extend the National Minimum Wage (NMW) to all seafarers (regardless of nationality or ship flag) working on domestic routes, including the UK’s North Sea energy sector, was accepted. The National Minimum Wage (Offshore Employment) (Amendment) Order 2020 came into force on 1st October 2020.

RMT estimates that over 13,000 seafarers will be covered by the new legislation, including operators like P&O Ferries and Seatruck, and charter parties who crew their ships on some domestic routes with non-UK seafarers on terms well below the RMT Collective Bargaining Agreement and the NMW. .

Working time and shift patterns

Successes on working time include a plan negotiated by Unite at Airbus (Broughton) to cut the working week by 5 to 10% (with a reduction in pay to save jobs). Convenor Daz Reynolds said: “Airbus Broughton has been devastated by Covid-19 and we have explored every avenue available to seek a viable future for this world class plant.”.

Prison escorts working for GeoAmey have already had their working time reduced, to between two to three days a week, but Community negotiated full pay for the lockdown period. In contrast, imposition of a change to working patterns from a one-week cycle to a three-week cycle by Serco Marine almost brought 40 Plymouth Devonport tug crew members out on strike before Christmas. The action was postponed to allow for ACAS talks.

Dignity, equality and diversity

Dignity and equality remain on the agenda too. Elaine Sparks, assistant director of ERUS (Employment Relations and Union Services) at the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, said: “Whilst the focus on Covid has been essential, it has also been crucial for us to continue to provide advice and representation to members on all the usual workplace issues, such as formal procedures like grievances and disciplinaries, support for health, safety and wellbeing, the impact of service or organisational changes, or just the individual advice needed for members.

“During this time we have also focused on EDI (equality, diversity and inclusion) issues, in particular looking at tackling racism in the workplace. We are pleased to have been able to adapt to the new working environment and continue to provide support and training for reps virtually.”

Unions continued to challenge bullying, and Unite succeeded in having its Unity over Division charter adopted by Caerphilly County Borough Council, Nottingham Community Housing Association and University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.

Who you work for

A campaign to bring Hackney parking wardens back in-house succeeded (after lobbying and strike action) while the insourcing of cleaners on the Wales and Borders rail franchise by Transport for Wales (TfW) was another victory, this time for the RMT (which has cleaner insourcing as one of its priority campaigns).

There are more than 30 outsourced cleaning operations on rail franchises and open access operations, and in Network Rail’s station and estates cleaning and the massive Underground cleaning operation. In this case, the majority of cleaners were employed by Axis Cleaning and Support Services, on low pay and inferior working conditions compared with other staff.

That included cleaners directly employed by TfW to do the same work on better salaries, sick pay, pensions and benefits. A spokesperson for the union told Workplace Report: “RMT pursued a twin-track strategy of campaigning with TfW to persuade them to bring the cleaners in-house and simultaneously industrially pursuing improvements to end the two-tier workforce. This culminated in a dispute with Axis and a ballot for industrial action in May 2020”.

Following intensive discussions, and barely two days before strike action was set to commence, TfW formally proposed a working group to support the cleaners moving to direct employment (on the model used to bring the catering staff in-house). These discussions are now ongoing, with agreement on improvements to cleaners’ pay and conditions on transfer and TUPE talks due to begin in January 2021.

During the pandemic, unions have continued to pursue gains in organisation and recognition. UCU and Ruskin College confirmed the end of a collective dispute between them. Recognition gains during the pandemic were achieved by the NUJ in respect of Newsquest Local Democracy Reporters; for Unite members at Knapp UK (who maintain automated machinery at the Marks & Spencer distribution centre in Bradford) and with the Peabody Group housing association.

https://www.tuc.org.uk/events/heartunions-week-2021