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GMB members working in the Cityclean Department of Brighton & Hove City Council are to be balloted for industrial action over plans to make huge cuts to their take home pay which are being proposed by the Council’s Green Party administration.
Rob Macey, GMB Senior Organiser with Southern Region’s Legal, Political and Campaigns Department has written a very clear account for Red Pepper of the workers’ case. I recommend you read Rob’s article in full, especially as he explains well the shennanigens in the Green group of councillors, and the sharp practice of the shifty council leader, Jason Kitcat.
In January 2013 the council announced that they would seek to introduce a new pay and allowances system for staff. Importantly, they have provided no proper legal rationale for doing this, and have refused to say what has changed since 2009 when agreements were made which were certified as legally sound at the time.
The council’s framework for implementation of the proposals was contained in a pay modernisation paper submitted to the Policy and Resources committee. The document recommended delegating responsibility for the negotiation and implementation to officers rather than elected representatives.
Councillors present voted by a majority to accept the recommendations of the paper, with Green and Conservative councillors voting in favour and Labour councillors against.
During the negotiations the council issued a press release indicating that the Cityclean Service would operate on bank holidays. They also briefed ward councillors on a planning application to allow this to happen. This is significant, as the effect of doing so means the loss of ‘make up pay’ for employees taking on the additional work and hours after a bank holiday, which is paid if strict conditions are met. This action highlights a blatant lack of meaningful consultation as it is clear a decision had already been made.
As the negotiations progressed it was clear to see that the council were not prepared to budge and that little was to change between their initial proposal and what would became their ‘best and final’ offer. A large number of GMB members would still stand to lose up to £4,000 per year, and 260 members at the Council’s Cityclean department were to be particularly badly affected, with an average loss of £2,000 rising to £4,000 for many.
Charles Harrity, GMB Senior Organiser said:
“GMB members at Cityclean have said enough is enough. They cannot and will not accept these vicous cuts to their take home pay. It is now abundantly clear that the Green Party leader of the Council, Jason Kitcat, is in an untenable position and that he has brought his Party into disrepute. Thousands of people across the country have signed a petition against the cuts, including many Green Party members who say they are disgusted by Cllr Kitcat’s actions. They have been joined by the Green Party’s only MP, Caroline Lucas, who says she will actively campaign against any cuts and Green Party Councillors, who are now calling for Kitcat to resign.”
Sadly, this whole affair has revealed both naivity and duplicity from some Green Party members, not confined to Cllr Kitcat. Green Party parliamentary candidate for Brighton Kemptown, Davy Jones, has also written in Red Pepper, seeking to blow smoke in peoples’ eyes.
It’s a long story and one that is difficult to write for lots of reasons…., it is not as ‘black and white’ as it has been painted in the progressive/left media. like dozens of councils up and down the country, Brighton & Hove has had to assess past pay and condition settlements in the light of more recent equal pay legislation. Many councils have found themselves facing bills running into tens of millions of pounds – Birmingham famously faced an £800m+ bill. Almost every council has now sorted out the mess of past settlements but previous Tory and Labour administrations of Brighton & Hove had failed to do so.
Mr Jones is correct that equal pay and single status problems have affected most councils, and there are still many issues outstanding in various local authorities, and many outstanding tribunal claims. However the approach of the Green Party led Brighton and Hove council to reduce the wages of predominantly male bin workers, who are hardly excessivly paid themselves is outrageous.
Particularly scandalous is the attempt by Davy Jones to sow division within the council workforce: seeking to set women against men, and union against union.
Some low paid, mainly women workers in Unison, stand to gain significantly. And a few hundred manual staff, mainly male GMB workers in the refuse and street cleaning department, stand to lose.
Davy Jones falsely claims that GMB is not interested in equal pay, a clearly false accusation, and GMB has fought for and gained equal pay in employers around the country. What unions cannot accept is that relatively modestly paid male workers should be the ones who suffer, with substantial cuts in wages, when it has been the employers not the male workers who have benefitted by underpaying women staff in the past.
Regretably, Green Party MEP for London, Jenny Jones, has tweeted implying that those supporting the Cityclean staff are opposing women workers getting equal pay.
@sammorecroft Don’t you care about those who will be better paid now? Mainly women? @suwebsite @jasonkitcat @gmbcityclean @petercranie
— Jenny Jones (@GreenJennyJones) May 11, 2013
It would be a very unfortunate development for elected Green Party politicians to start parroting what are essentially Tory anti-union arguments, and dressing up anti-union polices with spurious arguments about male privilege.
The Green Party has collided with the reality of political responsibility in Brighton, and has been found wanting.
picture – Caroline Lucas, Green MP offering support to Brighton City Clean workers. credit, @gmbcityclean by twitter
OTHER UNION NEWS.
The recent announcement of a proposed merger between UNITE and TSSA may put the cat among the pigeons on London Underground. Previously RMT and TSSA had been in merger talks, and I understand that in addition to different views of the Labour Party between the two rail unions, there were also unresolveable differences over the structure of how the merged union would operate. It is hardly a secret that union mergers need to address the aspirations of senior officers, and informed observers found it had to contemplate how both Bob Crow and Manuel Cortes could have been accomodated in any merged union. Now the TSSA and RMT merger is off the cards, the prospect of TSSA merging with UNITE would I understand give recognition to UNITE on the underground, in direct competition with RMT on all but the train driving grades.This could create very real difficulties for the RMT.
The last week saw well supported strike action across 373 Crown Post Offices by CWU. Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary, said: “Our members have again overwhelmingly supported strike action against the Post Office’s closure and franchise plans and in support of a pay rise. The rejection of the Post Office’s position is unshaken and is bolstered by fantastic support from customers and communities which value post offices.
David Short won an Employment tribunal claim against his former employer UCATT in December 2011. In June 2012 David was awarded over £390,000 for UCATT’s Neglegence towards him, a claim for constructive dismissal and disability discrimination. On top of that award, Ucatt agreed to pay all of Davids tax liabilities on the award ( at 50% rate ) and his NI contributions.However UCATT appealed this and the hearing was held on 29th Aprilin London when UCATT failed in their attempt to overturn the original financial settlement /sum and jugdement. Mr Short claims that UCATT still owe him some of his original compensation, which has accrued at 8% per day, as set down by the original tribunals judgement.
Gerald Downing, who apparently played a key role in the recent election campaign of Jerry Hicks for the GS role in UNITE has been reinstated as a bus driver at Willesden Garage. Mr Downing was dismissed after an incident with a passenger, and bizarrely claimed that his dismissal was politically motivated. He had previously written an article for the “Weekly Worker” that made libellous claims about UNITE officer, Wayne King. Despite political differences I am sure all trade unionists will congratulate Mr Downing on his reinstatement, and wish him well.
The post GMB members in dispute to break Kitcat appeared on Socialist Unity.