Local authority withdraws recognition from union after T&Cs dispute

Plymouth City Council is to withdraw recognition from Unison after the union refused to sign a collective agreement on proposed terms and conditions for the local authority’s staff.

In a statement the council claimed that a majority of Unison’s members had accepted the changes, but the union’s leaders were going against those views.

This had prevented Plymouth from introducing the changes on 1 August 2011 as it had originally planned. The delays in implementation since April had cost £330,000 already, the council said.

The proposals included:

• Removal of contractual overtime for those staff groups that currently receive it. This was overtime that was paid whether it was worked or not
• Simplification of overtime and shift allowances by creating one single overtime rate across all council services
• Simplification of travel and other expenses to standardised rates across the council
• Keeping the total number of hours worked by employees the same but changing the standard working week to 6am to 8pm, Monday to Saturday
• Modernisation of ways of working and improvements in performance and efficiency.

The GMB and Unite unions have both signed the collective agreement. However, Unison’s leaders are understood to have raised a number of objections, including in relation to the equalities impact on female members of staff and proposed changes to maternity benefits.

Plymouth said the package was part of plans to save £18m over a three-year period. The council insisted that its position “remains that these proposals affect all staff, male and female with the aim of establishing a fairer, more transparent set of terms and conditions for all staff”.

The council said the new terms and conditions would harmonise the rights of all parents, male and female.

Plymouth claimed that Unison’s legal team had seen the equalities impact assessment and decided to ballot the membership – “which they should not have done if they had concerns over the proposals”.

At an earlier meeting with the union's leaders, the council warned that a failure to sign the collective agreement meant it would be forced to issue a formal notice of up to 400 redundancies.

“The council has lost confidence in Unison when working towards collective agreements following the union not implementing the result of their ballot,” the statement issued today (17 August) said.

“Therefore, in order to protect service delivery and jobs in Plymouth the council is withdrawing their recognition for Unison to bargain and negotiate on behalf of staff. This means that their agreement on any future proposed changes to terms and conditions in the future will not be needed.”

The statement added: “Unison will continue to represent their members but will not be consulted in future collective bargaining with Plymouth City Council. A notice has been served to the union.”

Cllr Ian Bowyer, Cabinet Member for Finance, Property and People at Plymouth, insisted that the authority was committed to protecting the rights of employees to be represented by trade unions.

“We have done as much as we can to work with Unison and have now been forced into a position we have been trying to avoid,” he said. “We believe it is not in the interests of the workforce to continue our relationship with Unison”.

Unison reacted with anger the council’s decision to withdraw recognition.

In a statement, the union said: “After months of talks, the final proposals put by PCC were once again reviewed by Unison lawyers. The message was clear, signing up to this deal was not possible as it appears to discriminate against certain groups of staff.

“Unison has serious concerns about the impact of these proposals on certain groups of staff and has raised issues with the council throughout the process. The council has ignored Unison's request to continue talks to find a solution.”

The union claimed that some of the proposals would result in groups of workers losing up to 20% of their income.

Calling on the local authority to return to the negotiating table, Helen Willis, Unison’s Regional Manager, said: "Once it became clear we could not sign the agreement Plymouth City Council have sought to play legal games by derecognising us in an attempt to impose this invalid collective agreement.

“They claim to have the support of Unite and GMB but we have been informed today that both unions have sought the withdrawal of their signatures. Unison is the largest union and if the council is serious about valuing staff they need to listen to their representatives.”

Philip Hoult