Welcome to UNISON Scottish Water Branch

As Stephan Walker has decided to step down from trade union activity, the Branch Committee have agreed that his position of Branch Secretary will be filled by the current Depute Secretary, Steve Scott. Steve was formerly the Branch Secretary of NOSWA Branch and Joint Secretary of Scottish Water Council therefore will make an excellent replacement for Stephan. The Branch wishes Stephan the very best and thanks him for his significant contribution to the organisation of the Branch and for his positive work on Scottish Water Council.

Stephan's seat on SWC will be taken by David Wilkinson, currently Chair of the Branch. David has experience of negotiation at a senior level as NOSWA Branch Secretary and Joint Secretary of the NOSWA JNC.

To assist in covering the workload of Secretary, Jim Anderson (Edinburgh) will take Steve's position of Depute Secretary. Jim will still retain his position of Service Conditions Officer.

After approximately 15 years as a steward and officer for UNISON and NALGO, Jean Swan left Scottish Water in July this year. Over the years Jean did a power of work for UNISON and her experience eased the transition from the 3 former branches into Scottish Water Branch. The branch will certainly miss her contribution and as a small token of our gratitute, Jean was presented with a set of engraved crystal glasses at the last committee meeting. We wish all the best in her new endeavours.

You may – or may not – be surprised to learn that not everyone has had a proper STAR appraisal this year.

Unison has received many complaints from people who have been given performance scores without having had the opportunity to review their performance with their manager. A straw poll in Assets SW indicated that almost 1/3^rd of staff hadn’t participated in a STAR review.

This is simply unacceptable as this year STAR provides a mechanism for variable consolidated payments and people are being denied the opportunity to challenge the decision of their manager.

We have acted upon every single one of these complaints and have been supported by SW HR in making sure that everyone will receive a proper review. Credit to management in the Customer Contact Centre who have acted swiftly following the representations we made on behalf of our members. HR have also committed to carrying out a full audit of the STAR reviews.

If you have had any problems with your STAR review, please get in touch with your local steward or one of the Branch Officers.

On 13^th July Parliament passed the “Local Government Pension Scheme (Amendment) Regulations 2005” which will retrospectively rescind the legislation which came into effect on 1^st April in England and Wales.

A communication is expected from the Scottish Public Pensions Agency to indicate that the proposed changes in Scotland will also be withdrawn. This legislation was only revoked due to sustained Union pressure on the government – led by Unison General Secretary Dave Prentis.

Unison will continue to fight hard to protect our members’ pensions. Look out for regular updates in our forthcoming newsletters.

One of the consequences of the recently passed Water Services (Scotland) Bill is that Scottish Water must, by 1^st April 2006, set up an entirely separate retail company (Scottish Water Retail) to provide water and wastewater services for all our commercial customers. From April 2008 this service will be opened up to competition and new retailers will be able to enter the market.

Competition does not apply to domestic customers, and since there will be no common carriage of water all our customers will continue to receive water from Scottish Water as they do at present.

Unison already has experience of such wholesale/retail splits in the energy sector. From our experience those affected by this are in the customer facing parts of the business – contact centre, billing, key accounts, etc. However there are also implications for staff providing support services to those functions. The Minister has already stated that he will issue a TUPE transfer order to transfer key staff across to the new business. Scottish Water will have to identify all those key staff in order for the transfer to take effect.

Unison will be working closely with Scottish Water to ensure this transfer goes as smoothly as possible. There will be a number of issues which we will have to address through this process and we will be doing everything we can to secure the maximum protection for our members. We will also be working hard in the long run to ensure that the terms and conditions which transfer along with staff are maintained and improved.

Our aim in all of this is to work with Scottish Water to protect our members’ jobs, and terms and conditions; and help make sure that Scottish Water Retail becomes a successful and sustainable business.

After a period of relative inactivity we have brought our Branch Website bang up to date with all the latest news of Branch activities, national initiatives and changes to Branch personnel. On the site you can find minutes of meetings, contact names and numbers, information on membership services, education, health and safety and links to TU related sites.

The Branch is committed to keeping the site updated regularly so please add it to your favourites and check back often. Remember it’s your site, so use it as your first point of reference for information on the Branch and feel free to tell us what you want to see on the site.

To encourage you to take a look through the site, we have cunningly hidden the name of a famous politician and trade unionist somewhere on the site. The first member to email the name of this person together with the name of the webpage they are on will win a £20 high street voucher. Entries should be sent to david.wilkinson@scottishwatersolutions.co.uk. The winner will be announced on the Website in due course.

This June, Scotland will host the G8 summit of the world’s leading nations. This is also the year that the UK holds the Presidency of the EU.

One of the major talking points will be third world debt. Unison has long campaigned with charities to urge the UK Government to address debt, aid, and trade issues through various campaigns such as “Drop the Debt”. Unison, while welcoming a Global New Deal, has called for the Government to show strength and go it alone if agreement cannot be reached with the G8

To coincide with the summit Unison will be supporting a demonstration and rally to draw attention to these issues. Events include:

Please take notice of these important events and do what you can to get involved. For some of us it’s an opportunity to demonstrate against the stranglehold the developed world has on third world countries and get our MI6 portfolios updated.

The very least you can do is support the MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY campaign by buying one of the wristbands for £1 (or more if you want) at your local Oxfam shop.

Local government pension strike called off

NEW RESOURCE CENTRE

We have now successfully moved our resource centre. The address for correspondence is :-

UNISON Scottish Water Branch
6 Shillinghill
ALLOA
FK10 1JT
Tel 01259 220830
Fax 01259 220832

The Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA) has been consulting on introducing draft amendment regulations covering the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) in Scotland. These changes replicate what has happened to the LGPS in England and Wales.

The SPPA aims to bring the LGPS in Scotland into line with UK Government policy on occupational pensions. The two main issues affecting the LGPS with these amendments would result in the normal retirement age being increased to 65 while the minimum retirement age would rise to 55.

For UNISON members, pensions represent the most important condition of employment after pay itself. Pension is deferred pay that will enable workers to survive into old age and, hopefully, to avoid poverty for most of their retirement. In addition, it is seen as the primary method of protecting against leaving work early on either ill health or redundancy, and of providing for partners and dependants in the event of death.

UNISON Scotland is therefore strongly opposed to the proposed changes to the LGPS advocated by the SPPA, which would have the effect of downgrading the future value of the scheme and decreasing the pension expectations of hundreds of thousands of hardworking public service workers who have made substantial contributions to the pension funds. We believe that the proposals, if implemented, would undermine the trust of public service workers in the Scottish and UK Government’s commitment to providing them with good occupational pensions, and would lead to an increase in poverty and dependence on means-tested state benefits in retirement. In addition, we are concerned that the proposals would worsen current recruitment and retention problems for LGPS employers in Scotland.

UNISON is of course aware of the withdrawal from responsibility for occupational pension provision that has taken place amongst private sector employers, as manifested by the widespread closure of final salary schemes and the downgrading of scheme benefits. However, we believe that the UK Government and Scottish Executive should respond by setting a positive example to the private sector by maintaining a high standard of occupational pension provision for public service workers, not by cutting back their future pension entitlements.

In England, Wales, and Northern Ireland the changes to LGPS will take effect from 1^st April. UNISON will be consulting members there on industrial action with a view to strike action before the end of March.

The Branch took part in the TUC organised lobby of Parliament in November and expects to be involved in similar events in Scotland prior to planned changes in 2006. Our pension funds are currently managed by Aberdeen City Council, Glasgow City Council, and Edinburgh City Council. The funds have been under additional financial strain due to the large number of members who have taken early retirement in the past few years following the formation and restructuring of Scottish Water. Industrial action to prevent the erosion of our pension rights cannot be ruled out in the next 15 months.

The ballot period opens on 25^th January and closes 28^th February. The result will be announced on 9^th March. If you have not received a ballot paper by 3^rd February the please phone the UNISON Ballot Line on 0845 355 0845.

The November meeting of the Branch Committee agreed to nominate Dave Prentis, current General Secretary, for the post. In a poll conducted by The Guardian newspaper Dave was identified as the most influential Trade Unionist in public services; and we encourage all members to vote for Dave when the time comes.

UNISON is unique in having two political funds – General Political Fund (GPF) and the Affiliated Political Fund (APF) which is known as UNISON Labour Link; and members can choose to donate part of their subscriptions to one, both, or neither fund. Legislation brought in by the Thatcher Government in 1984 requires unions to ballot every ten years on retention of the political fund.

The GPF is used by UNISON to pay for campaigning at branch, regional, and national level and lobbying Parliament, the Scottish Parliament, and the European Parliament. Campaigns against some of the proposals in the Water Services Bill; and in support of Scottish Water as a viable public sector business; would not be possible without the GPF.

As its name suggests, UNISON Labour Link is affiliated to the Labour Party. This means that UNISON – through its members who pay the affiliated levy, and the UNISON MPs and MSPs – has a voice in policy making and elections within the Labour Party, and direct political influence in both Houses of Parliament; the Scottish Parliament; and the European Parliament.

These two funds help UNISON maintain its strong position. The ballot period for this opens on 11^th February and closes on 11^th March. The result will be announced on 14^th March.

The National Executive Council of UNISON is the body which is empowered to manage and control the union between National Delegate Conferences; and has full power to act on behalf of the union in every respect. It comprises representatives from the various Regions and Service Groups plus additional seats for lay members.

The ballot starts 4^th April and closes on 16^th May. Results will be announced 3^rd June.

In times of great hardship the labour movement shows the meaning of solidarity and mobilises to bring support to the workers, their families and their communities.

UNISON UK is donating an immediate £10,000 to the Disasters Emergency Committee fund to help survivors of the south Asian earthquake and tsunami, and is urging all branches and members to give generously in support of the appeal.

The union has also earmarked a further £10,000 to help sister trade unions in the area rebuild their organisations after the disaster.

The union is working closely with the TUC and international union federations on the issue and general secretary Dave Prentis has written to all UNISON’s sister unions in the area to express condolences and pledge support them at this terrible time. Throughout the UK and across the globe trades unions have been donating money and sending volunteers to assist in the emergency.

The branch will be making a donation to the appeal and we would also urge all members to donate whatever they can.

We’ve finally outgrown the Resource Centre at Stirling and on the 27^th January we will be moving to new premises in Alloa which we will share with the other branches who currently use the Resource Centre. Full contact details will be available in the next newsletter.

SCOTTISH WATER BRANCH

Local government pension strike called off