Tuesday, July 15, 2003
I've been a member of UNISON for a couple of years now and haven't been particularly impressed with them. Admittedly I haven't needed to call on their help for representation at some kind of disciplinary meeting, thank god, but signing up to them does seem rather like paying them some money to send me junk mail a few times a month. Last Summer we took part in industrial action. There was the national strike for more pay for public-sector workers, which got lots of mention in the press and resulted in a two stage deal over two years. But London UNISON members have also been striking for an increase in London weighting, on the grounds that it has not kept pace with the cost of living in London. I don't have a problem but apparently nurses in London are finding it just too expensive to live anywhere near their hospitals or the surrounding areas. There's still no agreement on that.
Anyway, I took part in all but one of the strikes and after the final one last November got a thing from UNISON saying I could claim back from them some money for each day of the strike at the jaw dropping amount of £15 per day which, in total for all my strike days came to £75. It's less than a day's wages but I took it anyway. They needed proof of my being on strike so I provided photocopies of my pay-slips. I couldn't do this for the most recent day, because we'd obviously only just had the strike and I'd have to wait one or even two months for our payroll department to deduct the money.
Now, here's where I made my mistake. I wrote on my slip asking UNISON to check with the payroll department to confirm I had been on strike for the final day. I know this was a mistake because the UNISON steward told me that, being an outside organisation, of course UNISON had no right to private financial information from my employers. However, I only know this because I went and asked the local UNISON rep when I could expect the money, some three months after I'd put the claim in. Despite the fact that they have my name, my address, my work address and contact phone numbers on file, they had put the unresolved funds claim in a filing cabinet where it would stay indefinitely, unless I just happened to pop in and ask about it. Nice huh? You join the organisation, you pay their wages, and their local secretary can't even be bothered with a thirty second phone call or a postcard through the door with the junk mail exhorting you to take out a UNISON credit card. So, on finding this out, I returned a week or two later with the proper proof, so this all has to be checked. I return two months later, so we're looking at mid-May now, to find out what's happened and I find out that the previous week it had been accepted, and I would receive the cheque. Which arrived today.
Now, UNISON are planning more strikes in London over the weighting issue. They are considering closing down targetted services for anything from a few days to possibly even a month. My service isn't currently intended to take part in this, although we might be involved in later action in the Autumn. If we do take part we've been assured already that the pay situation will be different this time, that we'll receive cheques from UNISON at the start of the week we'd normally get paid. Because I know I haven't been the only one in the library to have to struggle to get anything out of our branch of UNISON.
Anyway, I took part in all but one of the strikes and after the final one last November got a thing from UNISON saying I could claim back from them some money for each day of the strike at the jaw dropping amount of £15 per day which, in total for all my strike days came to £75. It's less than a day's wages but I took it anyway. They needed proof of my being on strike so I provided photocopies of my pay-slips. I couldn't do this for the most recent day, because we'd obviously only just had the strike and I'd have to wait one or even two months for our payroll department to deduct the money.
Now, here's where I made my mistake. I wrote on my slip asking UNISON to check with the payroll department to confirm I had been on strike for the final day. I know this was a mistake because the UNISON steward told me that, being an outside organisation, of course UNISON had no right to private financial information from my employers. However, I only know this because I went and asked the local UNISON rep when I could expect the money, some three months after I'd put the claim in. Despite the fact that they have my name, my address, my work address and contact phone numbers on file, they had put the unresolved funds claim in a filing cabinet where it would stay indefinitely, unless I just happened to pop in and ask about it. Nice huh? You join the organisation, you pay their wages, and their local secretary can't even be bothered with a thirty second phone call or a postcard through the door with the junk mail exhorting you to take out a UNISON credit card. So, on finding this out, I returned a week or two later with the proper proof, so this all has to be checked. I return two months later, so we're looking at mid-May now, to find out what's happened and I find out that the previous week it had been accepted, and I would receive the cheque. Which arrived today.
Now, UNISON are planning more strikes in London over the weighting issue. They are considering closing down targetted services for anything from a few days to possibly even a month. My service isn't currently intended to take part in this, although we might be involved in later action in the Autumn. If we do take part we've been assured already that the pay situation will be different this time, that we'll receive cheques from UNISON at the start of the week we'd normally get paid. Because I know I haven't been the only one in the library to have to struggle to get anything out of our branch of UNISON.
