UNISON Scotland to campaign for all Covid responders to be rewarded equally

UNISON Scotland will mount a strong campaign to win the £500 payment announced by the Scottish Government for all public service staff who have kept services going throughout the Covid pandemic.

Delegates at UNISON Scottish Council backed an emergency motion from Renfrewshire branch which welcomed the payments but pointed out that it has missed tens of thousands of our public sector workers across local government and emergency services who have also worked and continue to work throughout the pandemic.

Moving the motion, Brenda Aitchison, in a nod to the panto season, said that council workers are “pure scunnered at playing Cinderella yet again,” and would be telling the Scottish Government, “Oh no you won’t!”

A number of speakers supported the motion, pointing out the wider groups of members who have been unrecognised in this payment.

UNISON Scotland will lobby the Scottish Government to demand all COVID-19 responders across Public Services are rewarded equally; issue an immediate press release highlighting the failure of the Scottish Government to recognise all workers who have put their lives at risk whilst responding to the pandemic; work alongside the STUC in their condemnation of the position taken by the Scottish Government; refer the matter to the Scottish Labour Link Committee and ask them to liaise with Labour MSP’s to raise the matter in the Scottish Parliament; and will establish an immediate online petition to be submitted to the Scottish Parliament.

Please watch out for the petiton and make sure you sign and share it, and ask colleagues, friends and family to sign it too.

Full details regarding the petition will be on the Branch website once available.

Business Critical Posts

Branch representatives have been attending Operation Talla Gold, Silver and Bronze groups for Police Scotland and SPA Forensic Services in response to the Covid-19 emergency to represent your interests.

At yesterday’s Bronze Business Continuity meeting the employer side has informed us that People Services are asking all business leads to assess their work area, the roles within, and make a judgement on what is “business critical”. If all or part of a business area is deemed to be “not critical” options must be considered for home working, redeploying staff into other business critical areas within the function and if that is not an option then staff should be advised to go home until further notice as per the advice of the Prime Minister and First Minister for non-critical workers.

Any individuals asked to go home are not reporting absent, they will be recorded as “home deployable”. They will be expected to be available during their normal working days as the organisation will look to redeploy some staff to business-critical areas across the organisation.

Branch representatives will meet with Police Scotland to work on a recognition agreement for redeployments to ensure your rights are protected and that guidance is clear.

We are satisfied this is the right direction to take and will continue to monitor the deployment of our members. Thank you all for your support, your emails and examples that have helped us move this issue, and for the service you are providing to keep us all safe.