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Welcome To UNISON Swansea Branch
Dear Unison Member,
Please see attached our first branch newspaper for 2020, additionally there are our H&S updates.
Swansea UNISON sends greetings and solidarity with all our members living and working in the pandemic. Whether you are working in front-line services, working from home or unable to work due to health or caring responsibilities we are there for you. Please do not hesitate to contact us for support and representation at this time. Above all we do not want out members, locally and nationally, to pay the price in any way for the pandemic and the economic crisis.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted why workplace safety is so important.
Being a Safety rep means you will be playing a crucial role in making sure your workplace is safe, secure and clean for all your colleagues and service users.
What do Safety reps do? Safety reps: talk to members about their health and safety issues; investigate potential hazards; raise concerns with the employer to improve safety in the workplace; deal with specific problems that arise at work; promote better health and safety in the workplace and encourage everyone to get involved in the union.
Safety representatives have a specific role and functions and responsibilities and also have important legal rights. A health and safety representative have the right to training and to raise issues which affect the health and safety of members.
UNISON aims to have at least one health and safety representative in every workplace where we have members.
Please download and read our Health And Safety 3rd Edition.
Please download and read our Health And Safety 4th Edition.
Dear Unison Swansea Members
If you require further advice please contact our branch Secretary Chris Cooze
Telephone: 01792 635 271
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Facebook: Unisonswansea - Click here .....
Coronavirus Advice - Read More .....
Unison Swansea Branch is looking for volunteers for the build-up and on the day participants for 2019 PRIDE.
Branch Secretary Chris Cooze and Chair David White both volunteer on a regular basis endorse volunteering with Unison Swansea as it also provides a number of benefits.
Unison members with busy lives find it hard to volunteer. However, the benefits of volunteering are enormous to Unison Swansea’s campaigns. As well as supporting a fantastic cause we endorse what Unison stands for, you make new friends, connect with the community, learn new skills, and even advance your career. Giving to others can also help protect your mental and physical health.
Unison Swansea Branch encourages Volunteering as a family, children watch everything you do. By giving back to the community, you’ll show them first-hand how volunteering makes a difference and how good it feels to help other people. It’s also a valuable way for you to get to know organizations in the community and find resources and activities for your children and family.
Our retired Unison members who provide vital support are our ambassadors of Unison Swansea Branch, they connect with the community and are also a self-organised group and a vibrant part of our branch.
Unison Swansea Branch has members throughout Swansea in many different work environments, nobody is excluded from participation. Our main contacts on this promotion are Lead officers Curtis Evans, James Macgregor and Michelle Pow.
We are asking our members to contact the Unison branch office on 01792635271 if they would like to join our volunteer team NOW or join us on the day.
You can highlight your support on:
https://www.facebook.com/unisonswansea.council or https://ccsunison.org.uk
Unison Swansea is a main partner of this fantastic event and as such we get a stall on the day as well as being a part of the events and would like to encourage as many of our members to support our efforts in standing up for Equality and Diversity.
The Parade starts at 11am on the day at Castle Square Swansea and stalls are up and open at 12 noon, it’s a full day ending late afternoon and is open to everyone.
Council’s ruling Labour group pledges to introduce UNISON’s Ethical Care Charter after May’s council elections.
Welcoming the signing at a ceremony outside Swansea Guildhall yesterday, Chris Cooze said: “Swansea Labour group’s signing our ethical care charter and their endorsement of UNISON’s manifesto for the local elections shows a genuine understanding and commitment to good quality local public services.”
Swansea will become the latest council to implement UNISON’s Ethical Care Charter banning 15-minute care visits and zero-hour contracts next month – if Labour keeps control of the council in next week’s local election.
Rob Stewart, the leader of the council’s Labour group, signed a commitment UNISON branch secretary Chris Cooze and regional secretary Margaret Thomas pledging that “the charter will be implemented in full” at “the earliest possibility” in the next council term.
The charter contains a set of commitments to protect the dignity and quality of life for vulnerable people and the workers who care for them.
It states that:
• 15-minute client visits undermine the dignity of clients and that the length of visits must instead be matched to clients’ needs;
• homecare workers must be paid at least £8.45 an hour and be paid for travel time;
• Zero-hour contracts will be prohibited.
Swansea UNISON Branch held their AGMs this past week (27/02/17-03/03/17) and smashed all previous records for attendance.
Chris and all at the CCoS team would like to thank our members as well as those who provided catering for our events for making this a very special way to usher in a new era for the branch.
After the second five-figure payout to an employee for unlawful treatment in two years, UNISON has condemned the council’s employment practices as woeful. The trade union lambasted executives for having spent public money on unwinnable cases and said it should instead concentrate on improving how it supports staff.
The employment tribunal ruled the council’s approach to Mr Morris’s redundancy was “not satisfactory”; that it “did not act reasonably” by failing to advise him of alternative positions and that it deprived Mr Morris of any opportunity to challenge the criteria on which the redundancy was based.
Eirian Morris said, “Carmarthenshire County Council turned my life upside down and put me through hell. I suffered a horrible period of stress and depression as a result. An independent tribunal has recognised that the authority behaved unreasonably and ruled a significant award should be paid as recompense. I knew I was right all along and belonging to UNISON allowed me to take on the council and win. The truth is though, if executives had acted in the proper way this whole process could have been avoided and I might still have a job.”
Mark Evans, UNISON branch secretary said,
“This is the second five-figure payout we have won from the council in two years. The unlawful treatment our members suffered significantly impacted on them and their families. I question why public money is being spent defending the indefensible. The council needs to use its time and resources looking at improving employment practices, rather than spending thousands of pounds employing lawyers.
“This is a timely reminder why everyone should be a member of a trade union. Without UNISON's legal support, Carmarthenshire County Council's unlawful practices would have gone unchallenged.”
Just last year, Carmarthenshire council was forced to pay thousands of pounds to refuse collector David Lewis after failing in its duty of care to find him suitable alternative employment when he beat skin cancer with surgery.
The council has also been censured by the Wales Audit Office. It concluded in 2014, that the local authority acted unlawfully by letting the chief executive opt out of a pension scheme to avoid potential tax payments.
A letter with more information on this matter has been sent to all members. A copy of this letter can be found here.
To request an Equal Pay claim form contact UNISON on 01792 483911 and a form will be sent to you.
After seeing the Welsh Liberal Democrats’ leaflet that raised the question of library closures within Swansea, many UNISON members who work in libraries throughout the city and county raised concerns with UNISON Branch Secretary Chris Cooze that the library in which they work was destined for closure.
UNISON has been given firm assurances by the Leader of the Council Rob Stewart that there are no plans to close any of the libraries in Swansea. UNISON is the largest union within City & County of Swansea Council with over 5000 members, and has worked closely with the council leadership and feel they can trust the Leader’s reassurance regarding Swansea’s library service.
Unison Cymru/Wales has now launched their manifesto for the Local Government Elections taking place in May 2017.
Click on the image below to the manifesto link file.
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