Voluntary Severance Edinburgh Council - Info for members

As you will be aware the City of Edinburgh Council is looking to replace the current Voluntary Release (VR) Terms with a new Voluntary Severance Scheme.

UNISON has examined the proposals and, despite Council claims of an ‘enhanced’ scheme, the terms are either very similar to the basic statutory minimum or slightly better. Having sought legal advice there is no general claim of discrimination in terms of the scheme offered but we will closely monitor how it is being implemented.

The existing VERA and VR terms still apply for now and the new terms will not apply until approved by the Council’s Finance and Resources Committee in September. Details, and the all important timescales, will be available on the Council Orb.

Job opportunity at UNISON Edinburgh

We're looking for an Organiser/Caseworker, £34,624 pro rata 17.5 hours per week for 11 months. Closing date extended to 17 July. Click here for full details on our website.

Council Transformation - Be champions of services not cuts

Statement on Edinburgh 'Transformation' by Amanda Kerr UNISON Branch Secretary.

UNISON has major concerns about this report to council.

With so little details can councillors honestly put hand on heart and say they they fully understand exactly what they are signing up to?

Whilst we can see how the report lays out a mini council approach, it is extremely unclear what lies beneath? Where does almost 1000 jobs disappear from and how was this figure arrived at?

Time for government to stop starving councils

UNISON warns Edinburgh councillors to be sure what they are signing up to

UNISON is urging City of Edinburgh councillors meeting today to ‘be sure what they are signing up to’ when they consider plans for almost 1,000 job losses and cuts of £107 million.

“The plans before the council are so vague and so lacking in detail that councillors are unlikely to know exactly what they are voting for when it comes to delivering services. They need to be sure what they are signing up to”, UNISON will tell councillors.

“After years of £90million cut upon £90million cut and a 20% reduction in funds, another £107million cut will mean whole services are likely to vanish”, Amanda Kerr, UNISON Edinburgh branch secretary.

“It is time for Governments at Westminster and Holyrood to stop blaming councils for cutting services while starving them of the money to provide those services.”

Job at UNISON Edinburgh

We're looking for an Organiser/Caseworker, £34,624 17.5 hours per week pro rata for 11 months. Closing date 3 July. Click here for full details on our website.

Edinburgh cleaning in crisis

There is currently a crisis in Facilities Management and in particular, the cleaning service. Click here for latest bulletin (pdf).

Staff who leave or who are off sick are no longer being replaced, even by agency staff. Combine this with an overtime ban and we are left with schools and council buildings facing a 30% or 40% reduction in hours, leaving staff to clean more classrooms or cook more meals

Please do the survey

You may have recently received a letter from UNISON inviting you to take part in a survey about how you feel about your work,pay and conditions. Can I please urge you to complete and return the survey as your views are extremely important to us.

The results of the survey will help us to campaign for better pay and conditions for you and to campaign on the issues that matter most to you. They will help us to keep UNISON on the map as the union for local government and other vital public services.

Completed surveys need to be returned by 24 April 2015 in the pre-paid envelope that will be provided. The results of the survey will be compiled into a report and made available on the UNISON website.

Thank you very much for your help with this important research.
Best wishes,
Amanda Kerr
Branch secretary