News

A letter confirming proposal from the Department for Education on the Pay and Grading Dispute has been received. 
Unions and their negotiators have agreed to recommend this proposal to our lay leaders and shop stewards. 
UNISON will then consult with all our affected members for their democratic endorsement.
We are all at the  UNISON conference until Tuesday next week. When we return we will convene an on line meeting for Tuesday morning of our Local Government Service group who will debate and decide what advice we will issue in the coming week to members.

UNISON, the largest union representing workers across health and social care in Northern Ireland, notes with serious concern the statement issued by the Chairs of six Health and Social Care (HSC) Trusts in relation to the budget available for services. Commenting on the statement by the Chairs, UNISON Regional Secretary Patricia McKeown said:

‘‘This is an extremely worrying intervention by the Chairs that should provide a stark warning as to the damage that inadequate funding for essential services can do.

UNISON’s Northern Ireland wide Industrial Action committee has pledged to continue its extensive action short of strike throughout the month of June.

Plans are also in place to make settlement of our pay and grading dispute an issue in the forthcoming July 4^th election.

All Northern Ireland parties will be contesting seats in the Westminster parliament. Their candidates’ declared intention to convince voters they will represent the interests of people in Northern Ireland must be challenged. We are issuing that challenge to them.

Council and school staff in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are worth far more than the “disappointing” pay increase they’ve been offered by employers, says UNISON today (Thursday).

The union in all 3 jurisdictions is to consult hundreds of thousands of our members on the annual cost of living pay offer made last week, with a recommendation they vote to reject it.

UNISON is calling for an improvement to pay that fairly rewards council and school staff, many of whom are in low-wage roles, for the essential services they provide.