Branch AGM Nominations for elected positions
Please note that this years AGM will be an in-person event to be held in the Branch Office, 131 West Nile St, Glasgow, on Thursday 9th March 2023 at 7pm sharp.
It is imperative that we have members attend to elect our committee members for 2023. There are nominations and elections for several positions.
We ask members to attend and have their say on who they want to be managing our branch. It is your branch and your voice is important.
Voting will commence from 5pm until 7pm, come along and cast your vote, please bring your membership number or have your DOB and address ready for registration.
For more information please go to our AGM tab.
UNISON, Scotland’s largest NHS union, has announced today (Monday) that its members have voted to accept the Scottish government’s pay offer.
UNISON has announced that 57% of NHS members balloted have voted to accept the offer. The turnout in the digital ballot was 62%.
The deal will see most NHS workers in Scotland paid an extra £2,205 per annum, with some staff paid an extra £2,751 a year. It also creates a new minimum wage of £11.09 per hour.
The online ballot closed today (Monday) at noon. UNISON’s health committee have met, and UNISON negotiators will now work with the Scottish government, NHS employers, and other unions to process this pay award as soon as possible.
Chair of UNISON Scotland’s health committee Wilma Brown said: “Whilst this decision ends the immediate threat of industrial action, it is not a win for government – it is a warning. It was far from a unanimous decision and many of the NHS professional grades feel badly let down. Almost half of UNISON NHS staff voted to reject this latest pay offer, and many who did vote to accept, did so reluctantly.
“There is a staffing crisis in the NHS. The health service is consistently understaffed and under-resourced and every day staff are expected to deliver more with less. We have the highest job vacancy rates, the longest waiting lists and longest waiting times since records began.
“The cabinet secretary has secured himself a pause in our members’ anger. He now needs to use the next pay round to resolve the under staffing, low staff morale, and pay.”
UNISON Scotland’s head of health Matt McLaughlin said: “The NHS is a very stressful place to work. Teams are under-resourced and NHS staff often work with patient-staff ratios that are dangerously high.
“NHS staff are incredibly resilient, caring and hardworking, they rarely complain about not getting a break or leaving late from a shift. But what they cannot bear is being unable to provide the high level of care that patients deserve because of a lack of staff and the pressures on the service.
“Staff are leaving at an alarming rate and the Scottish government has not been putting in the planning over the last 10 years to avert this staffing crisis.
“Without urgent intervention from the Scottish government the staffing crisis will continue, and more people will be anxiously waiting for treatment. Both patients and staff deserve better.”
Due to ongoing restrictions, this years Branch AGM will once again be held online.
Please contact the Branch in order to register to attend as a link will be sent out nearer thime of the AGM.
We look forward to seeing you all there and listening to our General Secretary Christins McAnea, and Jillian Merchant who will be discussing members legal benefits.
So note the date and register to attend.
Join our NHS pension briefing to hear about the current NHS Scotland pensions consultation and how your contributions may be affected.
Webinar is Tuesday, 1 February, 6pm to 7pm. You can register for the event at Eventbrite here.
If you are a member of the NHS Scotland Pensions scheme your pension contributions are changing.
Join UNISON NHS pension webinar to hear about the current NHS Scotland pensions consultation and how your pension contributions may be affected.
Proposals to change your pension contributions are being consulted on. Your pension contributions and pension benefits will change. UNISON Scotland head of health, Willie Duffy, will explain the changes, why they are being made, how they may affect you and how you will be able to participate in the SPPA consultation process.
UNISON has surveyed Social Care members on their experiences during the ongoing staff shortages and it’s clear that something needs to change in the sector. The people who are battling every day to arrange, support, and provide these essential services need support urgently from new staff coming in, but to also feel valued by their employer and their peers for all of their hard work.
The National Care Service could fix many of the problems but this is literally years away; we need change now. UNISON will fight for change, but the only way to make that change is for every single UNISON member to play their part.
So, in our first step towards addressing the crisis in the sector we are asking you to sign and share the above petition which will be presented to Kevin Stewart, Minister for Mental Wellbeing and Social Care.
We need real change, so let’s stand for real change.
The first step is a payment to every new start and every existing member of the workforce. Let’s attract people into the sector in a way that £10.02 per hour won’t, boosting recruitment and retention. In other areas like the NHS and Local Government workers like you wouldn’t be expected to work the type of shifts that you do without an allowance of some sort, so let’s respect what you do at work by fighting for an unsocial hours allowance and a night shift allowance. And finally, why should you pay your own SSSC and NMC fees? The whole country clapped for you last year but employers and the Government are happy for you to pay to be registered with these bodies even though your pay is so low.
This is the beginning of our fight to Keep Carers in Care – will you join us?