All of this means that our members, who are your employees, will get a poorer deal from the local authority.

Doing the Tory’s job?

Is it accidental that officers make this proposal at the very same time that the Tory government is trying to put its anti-Trade Union legislation through parliament? We expect a Tory government to attack the unions; we expect council officers to attack the unions; we expect a Labour led council to defend worker’s and union rights.

In private discussions with cabinet members, it is clear that the officers have given different sets of “figures” to justify this attack. It is our belief that you, as the politicians who are elected to run the council, have not been provided with accurate facts and figures about union membership or the cost of facility time. Rather, you have been presented with statistics designed to persuade you to do the Tory’s dirty work and attack the unions.

We have always been honest with you about our role. We know that there will be situations where the unions will oppose management (your) proposals. We will not always agree about the best way forward, but we have always conducted ourselves in a fair and democratic way in that ultimately we are there to represent our members.

We would hope that with a new leadership and a new direction in the Labour Party, there would be more opportunities for us to work together for the common good of the people of Hull. Attacking the Trade Unions will only set us on a collision course which is in no one’s best interests but the Tories and those who wish to see a worsening of worker’s rights and austerity continue in Hull.

We would urge you to stop this proposal immediately and look instead at ways we can work together for everyone’s sake.

JOINT TRADE UNION’s NEWSLETTER

SEPTEMBER 2015

An Open letter to Cabinet/Councillors in Hull City Council.

Dear Colleague,

We are dismayed, disappointed and angry that officers in the authority have brought forward proposals to cut by half the convenor facility time in Hull City Council.

A False Economy

The officers claim that the council will save approximately £100,000 by making this cut but the reality is that cutting full time convenor time will end up costing the authority more money in the long run. This is because an increasing amount of case work and consultation meetings will have to be carried out by other representatives/stewards or full time paid officials of the union outside of normal works time.

Most senior stewards in the local authority face difficulties getting release time to represent members now. Has the authority thought about the overtime it will have to pay those stewards to attend meetings out of works time?

Case work has become increasingly complex and difficult. Many stewards automatically pass these issues up to the convenors. Most stewards are not trained or indemnified to represent the union at that complex level. Full time officers face huge claims on their time and can often only attend meetings weeks in advance rather than the convenors who can usually respond to issues fairly quickly. The full time convenors are the part of the union structures that can properly represent members in case work and consultation meetings.

If these proposals are adopted, it will not only end up costing the authority more money, it will also lead to a clogging up of the industrial relations framework and worsen employer/employee relations. Meetings and issues which could have been resolved quickly will drag out because the right representation will not be available.

The authority has identified high levels of sickness absence as a major problem. Cutting convenor time will lessen the Trade Union’s ability to support members back to work.