New Year, Old Issues

Branch News

Today, we have written to the LAS management to raise two issues ahead of the next Staff Council meeting where we hope to discuss them further. 

At the last LAS UNISON Branch Committee meeting in December our Branch Chairperson made two proposals that the committee agreed. 

The first being that we, as a branch, gain affiliation to the White Ribbon UK campaign and further request the LAS Trust affiliate too.  It is recognised by the Branch that violence against women is prevalent in our society and we wish to end this once and for all.  The campaign can provide the Branch training and support to help us deal with women affected by violence and we can benefit the communities in which we live and work by supporting and promoting this campaign. 

Please take a look at https://www.whiteribbon.org.uk/what-we-do/ and take the time to become an ambassador or champion yourself.

The second issue we agreed and today raised with the LAS management is the request for a formal review in partnership with LAS UNISON of night working and how we roster the provision of our services. 

The negative effects of night working to worker’s health is widely recognised and with the current roster review nearing conclusion it is already established that our members are again being required to increase the night work they undertake across the service without thought for how this can be mitigated or how the service can increase support for our members.  It is has also been recognised by our reps involved in the rota negotiations the disparity between the distribution of night work across stations.

These issues will be discussed further at the next Staff Council meeting on the 14th January.

Lastly for today, we are still awaiting acknowledgement from the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock, of the petition we delivered with its organiser UNISON member Matt Fisher calling for a reduction in pension age for frontline ambulance staff from 67 to 60 in line with our partner emergency services. 

We hope to expand this campaign given the support for this petition and will update you when we have some more info on what we can do.

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