Latest news with #Unison
The Guardian
a day ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
The care sector needs migrant workers. Labour's visa crackdown is a cynical move
You are right to highlight, in your editorial, the folly of the government's decision to make it harder for migrant workers to find work as carers in the UK (The Guardian view on Labour's visa crackdown in social care: another problem for an overstretched system, 22 July). It's a cynical political move aimed at spiking Reform UK's guns on immigration, rather than alleviating pressure on the much-maligned care sector. Migrant workers are indispensable in filling roles that have been undervalued, underpaid and unwanted for too long. With thousands more care professionals needed to look after our ageing population, the government needs a joined-up approach if the crisis-ridden sector is to be transformed. While the government's fair pay agreement is the first step in turning care around, ministers must think again on their approach to foreign help – and, closer to home, announce the funding to make the fair pay agreement a reality. Decent wages and sufficient staff are essential elements of the promised national care service the country needs so McAneaGeneral secretary, Unison Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
BBC News
3 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Dorset PCC calls for more police funding at summer hotspot
A county's Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) has called for more funding for policing in his area during the Sidwick said the current national funding formula, in place since 2013, did not take account of Dorset's annual influx of comments came at Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council's Police and Crime Panel on government said this year it had given police forces "a £1.2bn boost – including £200m to put 3,000 neighbourhood officers in post by spring". Mr Sidwick also said the funding formula did not reflect the rural nature of the said Chief Constable Amanda Pearson had already warned she needed an additional £12m to provide the county with a good services, but instead was having to find £15m in said many in Dorset were in favour of a better and fairer funding formula – including Unison and the local Police Sidwick said: "The well-funded metropolitan forces could send us some of their cash because we are policing their residents and, in effect, Dorset residents are subsidising their policing."He said he would make the case to government after the summer recess of Parliament.A Home Office spokesperson said: "Funding allocations for individual police forces will be confirmed in the police settlement and we will continue to work with the police to make the best use of this funding." You can follow BBC Dorset on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
Daily Mirror
4 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mirror
CHRISTINA McANEA: 'Workers at private firms delivering NHS services rarely get a good deal'
Unison General Secretary Christina McAnea writes for The Mirror on private firms delivering NHS services, saying: 'No one should be making a profit from running public services' Since Labour came to power, things are looking up for the NHS. We've seen record investment and waiting times falling. But this progress risks being derailed. The government plans to transfer thousands of low-paid health workers out of the NHS. Ministers are allowing hospital bosses to set up their own companies to save cash. Before the election, Labour promised to bring workers on private contracts back into public services. But in power, ministers are doing the opposite. Plans to create a company in Dorset are underway. But more than a thousand cleaners, porters and caterers at local hospitals say they want to stay in the NHS. Hospital managers have said there'll be no impact on patients. Nor on staff pay, pensions or jobs. But Unison thinks otherwise. Ten years ago, Tory ministers had the same terrible idea. Health workers didn't like it then. And they don't like it now. The NHS needs help to get back on its feet, recover from the pandemic and years of Tory underfunding. No one should be making a profit from running public services. Workers at private firms delivering NHS services rarely get a good deal. I recently met a group of cleaners from east Lancashire working for contracting giant Mitie in health centres. The company regularly gets their pay wrong. The cleaners often receive less than they should, leaving them struggling. To make matters worse, Mitie refuses to pay staff bonuses given to other NHS workers during Covid. So far, the cleaners have taken eight days of strike action. But the firm still refuses to act. One in five payslips is incorrect. That's unacceptable. Company execs would be fuming if their wages were regularly wrong and they were denied bonuses. The staff take real pride in their jobs. But what really grates is that last year Mitie boss Phil Bentley took home £14.7m. And the firm's profits were £234m. Unison's calculated that giving staff the £1,655 Covid bonus would cost Mitie £70,000. Mr Bentley earns that in just ten hours. Neighbourhood health centres, like the ones the Mitie workers clean will be at the heart of the government's ten-year plan. This promises a revitalised NHS that works for patients. The plans mustn't be blown off course by unnecessary and unpopular privatisation, which doesn't work. Finally, this week I went to Gloucester in a shower of rain to meet phlebotomists who've been on strike for 121 days. These dedicated staff specialise in taking blood from patients and want to be paid fairly. But bosses won't budge. Other hospitals have paid up. It's time NHS managers in Gloucester did the same. Millions to benefit from workers' rights reforms Millions of workers will soon benefit from what's in the employment rights bill. It will stop people on zero-hours contracts being exploited, give workers sick pay as soon as they're poorly and make it harder for bad bosses to sack staff. This is the biggest set of workplace changes in a generation. But lots of people don't know much about it. The government should be shouting it from the rooftops. Filming of frontline workers for clicks has to stop Working on the front line is tough. The likes of paramedics, police officers and firefighters see and deal with horrendous things all the time. They deserve our thanks and respect. What they don't need is people making life tougher for them. But that's what's happening. Research from my union Unison found that one in seven health workers had experienced unwanted filming or photography in the past year. Staff being filmed as they treat heart attack victims. With the footage being livestreamed or put on platforms like TikTok. Someone filmed a car crash with seriously injured people. They refused to stop and had to be escorted away by the police. This ghoulish filming for clicks has to stop. Let our dedicated public servants do their jobs. Put the phone away.
BBC News
23-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
BCP Council's first unified pay structure agreed
Staff at a unitary authority will be on the same pay structure for the first time in a council's history following a vote by of employees at Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council have been on different rates of pay since it was formed in years of negotiations with unions, the changes were unanimously agreed at the full council meeting on new terms and conditions will be implemented from 1 December. Last month, GMB and Unison union members voted in favour of the latest proposals which will mean at least 92% of staff will have either an increase or no change in their facing a pay cut will have their salary protected at current levels for a further 18 Tuesday's meeting, councillors approved the additional £1.7m investment needed for the new pay leader Millie Earl said: "Achieving fairness and equality in our pay and grading structure for our staff has always been our primary aim."Getting to this position has taken a huge amount of hard work and effort from everyone involved and we are delighted that we can now offer fair and transparent pay for our workforce." You can follow BBC Dorset on Facebook, X, or Instagram.
The Guardian
22-07-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on Labour's visa crackdown in social care: another problem for an overstretched system
There are currently around 130,000 vacancies in the social care sector, a higher proportion of unfilled roles than anywhere else in the labour market. According to the industry body Skills for Care, an ageing population means that 540,000 new care workers will be needed by 2040. Finding them, in a sector where employees have historically been grossly underpaid and undervalued, will be one of the challenges of the next decade. Against that disconcerting backdrop, curtailing the practice of hiring care workers from overseas would seem to be – to put it mildly – counterintuitive policymaking. But that is what the government has chosen to do, despite opposition from both Care England and Unison, the biggest union representing health and care workers. On Tuesday, as part of Labour's broader drive to significantly reduce legal migration, the special visa route that allowed international staff to ease a dire recruitment crisis was closed down. Care workers already here on a sponsorship visa will have to stay for 10 years rather than five to win indefinite leave to remain. Justifying the decision, Labour has pointed to evidence of abuse of the visa system by unscrupulous employers. Egregious exploitation of vulnerable workers has undoubtedly taken place, and needs to be fully stamped out. But that could be achieved through better regulation, rather than what amounts to a ban on future hiring from abroad. In truth, the government's motives have more to do with the wider political goal of spiking Reform UK's guns on immigration. The upshot for the social care sector is that institutions already on the edge, as a result of rising costs and understaffing, have lost a potential future lifeline. The number of care workers recruited from overseas had, in any case, already fallen steeply last year after visas for dependants were curtailed. But in a notoriously dysfunctional system, their presence has continued to be indispensable. The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, has responded to concerns by arguing that providers will in future have to make a greater effort to attract domestic applicants. In the brave new world envisaged by Ms Cooper, that should lead to a much-needed improvement in pay and working conditions as employers seek to incentivise new recruits. To hasten this process, Labour has proposed measures designed to pave the way for a 'fair pay agreement' in the sector. Such initiatives are long overdue in a historically underunionised environment. But truly transformative change will only come about through the type of central funding settlement that successive governments have promised and then failed to deliver. It is a national disgrace that one in five residential care workers live in poverty, despite performing a vital, often stressful role that requires complex skills. But cash-strapped councils already overwhelmed by the cost of commissioning social care are not in a position to help right that wrong. Labour has charged Dame Louise Casey with coming up with a comprehensive financial solution. But her independent commission into adult social care will not make its final report until 2028, by which time parliament's focus will be entirely on the next election. For the foreseeable future, those requiring the services of Britain's chronically neglected adult social care sector will thus be obliged to take their chances. That makes this week's decision to reject future assistance from overseas look shortsighted at best, and politically cynical at worst.
