Oxfordshire County UNISON AGM

Oxfordshire County UNISON AGM

Council Chambers, County Hall

Wednesday 25th February 2015

Attendance

Anya Greig, Barbara Harper, Caroline Raine, Caroline Villiers, Cathy McArdle, Danny Pusey, Dave Allen, Debbie Hollingsworth, June Barrett, Diane Newman, Dom Kingsmill-Stocker, Dorothy Allen, Duncan Hall, Francis Dix, Gareth Smith, Geoff Barrell, Herbie Coleman, Janet Cullup, Janie Slaymaker, John Payne, Maria Fawunmi, Marian Kuhlig, Martin Kershaw, Matt Egan (Speaker), Maureen Ball, Nik Sutton, Nina Sutton, Peter Fryer (Chair), Philip Stevens, Philip Wilde, Dave Stavras, Iain Mott, Barrie Finch, Alistair Bastin, Rod Bowes, David Groves, Manda Maple, Mandy Bristow (minutes)

Introductions

Peter Fryer (PF) introduced the branch and explained that he has been invited back to work for the branch re the proposed HR move to Hampshire. He thanked the branch staff for all their hard work.

Apologies

Marilyn Corbett, Nicky Sutton

Speaker

PF introduced Matthew Egan (ME), Assistant National Officer for Local Government, Police and Justice Section. PF explained that Matt had worked in the branch some years ago over a six month period.

ME thanked the branch for inviting him to speak. He had started his working life as a Housing Officer in Salford and had seen early on what a vital service home care is and how it is something that potentially we will all need to call on at some point either for ourselves or for someone else.

ME gave snapshotsof how home care workers find their jobs in such a rich country in these times of austerity with the huge cuts since 2010 and eligibility being restricted as councils are forced to make more and more savings. 90% of care has been privatised and terms and conditions for workers have been run into the ground. This has had a knock on effect on the NHS with service users unable to leave hospital because inadequate social care provision.

• Lack of time per visit (15 minutes for personal care). They are rushed over complex medical care and this can lead to mistakes. Because of
• Zero hours contracts so there is no guarantee of work and as a consequence they are less likely to speak out against poor practice.
• Because of the shortage of staff service users do not get the same care worker and the rapport is not built up that you would get with a regular carer.
• There are poor standards of training. No standards for care workers. Increased incidence of the elderly being dropped and of care workers injuring themselves.
• There is widespread incidence of care workers being paid under the minimum wage because they often not paid for travelling between users. There is the highest level of job changes in this field. ME reported that OCC advocate 15 minutes per users and 75% of the private providers used by OCC do not pay for time between visits.

ME said UNISON has an ethical care charter

• Standards around home care which eight councils have adopted but not OCC.
• Non-payment of the national minimum wage. HMRC are supposed to ensure this but only 7% of providers in England & Wales agree that staff should be paid for travel time.

ME said that Andrew Smith (MP Oxford East) has organised a debate in parliament re the care sector.

ME finished by saying that 0xfordshire County UNISON Branch could put pressure on OCC to adopt the ethical care charter even elements of it. He suggested we ask OCC to check the care providers are paying the national minimum wage. MEsaid it was incumbent upon the branch to do something about this.

Questions:

Alistair Bastin – asked about the health & social care is being devolved to Greater Manchester Council

ME – said he had not seen the details but it would be a false economy to drive social care into the ground as supported properly it could help the NHS.

Barrie Finch (Retired Member) – Thanked ME for his speech. He said that he had witnessed the Cabinet heading through all changes because of the care act. He said that OCC do not employ anyone to look at the 15 minute visits and to take action over the national minimum wage. BF said he would keep an eye on what was going on.

Nina Sutton (NS) – said she had two daughters working in the care sector and one had faired very badly during her pregnancy to the point she had to leave. NS also said she had heard of 10 minute calls.

Barbara Harper (BH) –said her understanding is that 10 minute visits are only to give medication.

Martin Kershaw (Retired Member) – asked if UNISON had looked at the profits made by care providers to justify a pay increase? Is this information released?

ME – replied that 10 of the top care home companies are owned by private equity companies so they must be seen as a good investment. There may some small care providers who are struggling but at the other end there were big profits.

BH – said that Cllr Judith Heathcoat (Conservative) had refused to sign the dignity charter policy. BH was not sure whether she was the only councillor who refused. BH is to email her.

John Payne (Retired Member) – said the NPC had a big event around the dignity care charter last year including support from members of OCC who have now left.

PF – said there had been a large article in the Oxford Mail around care homes.

Iain Mott – said ME had given a very good talk. He said social workers who organise visits and had been told to cut care packages. Care Home fees were such that they have to move residents to cheaper accommodation. He had experienced a resident dying 6 days after being moved. It is really hard to squeeze the benefits.

Overview of the Private & Voluntary Sector

Anya Greig, Branch Officer with responsibility for recruitment and organisation, and Dom Kingsmill-Stocker, caseworker spoke about their work in the private and voluntary sector.

Questions:

Alistair Bastin thanked AG & DK-S for their impressive overview and asked about the Bradford Factor. DK-S reported that Bradford had distanced itself from the factor but many organisations are still using it.

Nina Sutton said the National Disabled Committee was very aware of the use of the Bradford Factor and the loss of income that effects disabled members in the workplace.

John Paine asked if there were resources in other branches that could be used to work together.

AG said that historically the branch always shares ideas but recently there had been no meetings.

Barrie Finch (retired member) talked about Carillion and the NHS strike and how the stewards and activists had been victimised.

AG knows about the problems with Carillion but pointed out how lucky we are in local government as we have a good working relationship with the company. Carillion had honoured all of the TUPE transfer and there were very positive relations.

Minutes of the last AGM – passed.

Notification of Branch Officer

PF reported that the result of the ballot for the post of Branch Officer had left both Barbara Harper and Philip Wilde in post. PF sent his commiserations to Iain Mott for being unsuccessful this time. There was a show of hands to endorse these posts.

Self-Organised Groups (see separate sheet)

Branch Officers’ Reports (see separate sheet)

Treasurer’s Report

Duncan Hall the new treasurer reported that UNISON Internal Audit Section had audited the accounts but had not been able to sign them off in time for the AGM.DH explained that Marilyn Corbett had resigned due to ill health and he thanked for her work as treasurer. PF thanked DH for standing in and now welcomed him to his role as Branch Treasurer.

Branch Rules (attached)

JS explained that the branch rules had been amended to remove the word ‘October’ and to correct that the private & voluntary post is not elected by branch employed staff.

a)DH pointed to Section 5 and asked for the branch to maintain an industrial action hardship fund to which all members. This fund is subject to annual vote at the branch AGM, at which at least two thirds of those present should vote positively for. The rule book says that the AGM should set the rate of deductions for the fund for the following 12 months. This was passed.

Expressions of interest for Local Government & National Delegate Conference

JS explained the branch has booked three hotel rooms for each conference. JS asked anyone interested in attending these conferences to contact MB. BF asked about gender balance and whether retired members are allowed to attend. CR explained the retired members have their own conference and the LG & NDC are only available to full members.

AOB

AB reported that the OCC budget for the next two years looked at a pay rise of 2.5% in 2016. He asked how this affected the local agreement.

BH suggested waiting to see what the national offer is.

PF that OCC had agreed to honour any nationally agreed increase.

JS said we would need to ballot members again.

DHall said he had been shocked that so many UNISON branches had gone to local agreement.

BH said any changes to terms & conditions would have to go through the members ergo ballot.

JS thanked all attendees for their hard work over the years and for coming to the AGM.

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