Governments yet again ask key frontline workers for huge national effort, but they are still not paying them properly, says GMB
GMB Union encourages everyone to get their booster – but says frontline workers need a pay boost too.
Rehana Azam, GMB National Secretary, said: “There has been no respite for our frontline workers throughout the covid pandemic.
“They’ve put themselves in harm’s way to serve the public – particularly when governments and employers failed to ensure the provision of proper PPE and testing to keep them safe at work.
“GMB members know the importance of keeping safe and well, that’s why we’re encouraging everyone across the four nations to get their booster.
“But as governments, yet again, ask our NHS, social care and key frontline workers to undertake another huge national effort, they are still not paying these workers properly.
“Against the backdrop of covid, there is a cost-of-living crisis, key services face an understaffing crisis and the people delivering them are enduring a wage crisis.
“That’s not good enough and it’s got to be confronted.
“Our key workers must be paid properly – it’s the least they deserve for everything they are doing for all of us.”
To highlight the annual Respect for Shopworkers week, taking place from 15 – 21 November, retail trade union Usdaw has launched shocking statistics from their annual UK-wide survey.
Interim results from nearly 3,500 retail staff show that in the last twelve months:
89% have experienced verbal abuse,
64% were threatened by a customer,
11% were assaulted.
46% said they were not confident that reporting abuse, threats and violence will make a difference.
7% of those who had been assaulted did not report the incident.
Scottish voices from the frontline:These are some of the comments Scottish shopworkers shared when responding to Usdaw’s survey:
Central Scotland: “Abusive because they are having to wait in a queue or at self-scan to get alcohol or security tags taken off.”- “Have been threatened by violence once I finish work, will wait on me outside and kick my head in.”
Glasgow: “Had a bottle held over my head for my till. Been called a rat and been warned to watch myself walking home at night.” – “Customer tried to punch me, had threats of physical violence and called several demeaning names by customers.”
Highlands and Islands: “Social distancing and mask wearing have resulted in confrontations that have got particularly aggressive.”- “I have had someone throw their shopping at me when I have asked to stay 2m away.”
Lothian: “Lack of respect for requesting social distancing.” – “Multiple times I’ve had stuff thrown at me and once was kicked into a machine.” – “People insulting me or raising their voices when asked to follow basic covid regulations.”
Mid-Scotland and Fife: “We have been verbally abused regarding the safe system in place with regards to reopening our cafe.” – “Mainly shoplifters, threatening behaviour and verbal abuse.”
North East Scotland: “Mainly verbal aggressive abuse from customers. Rudeness, insults and shouting.” – “Customers argue when you explain the licensing regulations.”
South Scotland: “Sworn at, spat at, kicked at, punched at, eggs thrown at me.”- “Customer would not social distance, I got an absolute mouthful, said he knew better as he was a doctor.”
West Scotland: “Staff being grabbed by customers, threatened with knives, racially abused and received degrading comments calling us stupid little girls, worthless, and idiots.” – “Customers really think they can say whatever they want to us.”
Usdaw General Secretary Paddy Lillis says:“It is heart-breaking to hear these testimonies from Scottish shopworkers who deserve far more respect than they receive. Our latest survey results clearly show the scale of the appalling violence, threats and abuse faced by shopworkers.
“It is shocking that 9 in 10 of our members working in retail are suffering abuse from customers, with far too many experiencing threats and violence. So it is extremely worrying that over half are not confident that reporting these issues will make any difference and 7% of those assaulted did not report the incident.
“The new protection of workers law in Scotland is welcome and we continue to campaign for the UK Government to follow MSPs’ lead by extending similar protections to retail staff in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Retail staff across the UK have a crucial role in our communities and that role must be valued and respected, they deserve the protection of the law.
“It is also clear that the new law needs to be enforced right across Scotland with the police and judiciary prioritising retail crime. Usdaw is urging retail workers across Scotland and employers to help make that happen by recording incidents and reporting them to the police. Our message is ‘report it to sort it’.”
Following a workforce meeting in George Square yesterday (Monday 8 November), Glasgow City Council cleansing workers demanded a fresh strike ballot against their employer over low pay.
It means a second wave of strikes could hit cleansing services in Scotland’s biggest city in the run-up to Christmas. Eight days of strike action conclude this evening at 23.59 hours.
Calls from the workforce come after talks this weekend between GMB and Glasgow City Council Leader Susan Aitken, which secured commitments from the council to:
review the value of pay for all workers on the lowest grades (Grades 1,2 & 3 – an estimated 10,000 workers currently earning less than £20,000 a year) as part of the process to remove its discriminatory pay and grading system; and
pursue investment for cleansing infrastructure and resources to tackle the city’s waste crisis, alongside a range of new employee development and well-being measures to address management mistreatment of staff.
However, the council refused workers’ demands for a one-off “Glasgow Payment” for all workers on Grades 1, 2 and 3 as a means of addressing the cost-of-living crisis being faced now by many council workers in Scotland’s biggest city.
GMB Scotland Senior Organiser Keir Greenaway said: “It’s taken a strike to get Glasgow’s leadership in the room and acknowledge the council’s chronic low pay problems, the waste crisis in our communities, and the toxic management culture in the cleansing department.
“It is important to understand that strikes don’t happen by accident. They are a consequence of workers’ feeling undervalued, disrespected, and ignored for too long, and it’s clear that a few days of talks and the initial outcomes from this aren’t enough to remedy the impact of a decade of cuts.
“Our members in cleansing, like so many of their colleagues in other services like home care, school support, parks and gardens, and Glasgow Life, are the backbone of the city’s workforce but they are struggling on wages that simply do not make ends meet.
“It’s why our members have demanded a fresh ballot, which could mean a second wave of strikes in the run up to Christmas. They want more to be done to properly value key workers and to tackle the significant service and workforce challenges facing their city.
“That’s something the council, COSLA and ultimately the Scottish Government should reflect on today because it’s very clear this anger isn’t going away until these problems are confronted.”
UNISON, Scotland’s largest local government union, has started to issue formal industrial action ballot papers in a dispute over pay.
COSLA, the umbrella body representing council employers, had previously offered staff earning less than £25,000 a flat rate rise of £800. Last week COSLA came back with a revised offer of £850 – working out at approximately 97p per week for the lowest paid staff.
The union says council staff who have kept services and schools running throughout the pandemic deserve a proper pay rise. They say the latest pay offer falls far short of their pay claim and does little to address low pay which has become endemic following a decade of austerity.
The trade union says that councils have suffered a decade of cuts and jobs losses, and that staff have received year-on-year pay cuts. It has meant delivering services has become increasingly stressful for the workforce.
Pressure is mounting on both COSLA leaders and the Scottish Government to find an urgent resolution to this issue.
UNISON intends to take targeted strike action, which means select groups of workers will be balloted. These include members working in school cleaning, school catering, school janitorial as well as those working in waste and recycling services.
Tom Connolly, Branch secretary said: “The last 18 months have taken an enormous toll on council staff who have been working flat out for no reward. Their courage and sacrifices need to be rewarded, yet the employers are failing to recognise their efforts.
“These workers, mostly women, are amongst the lowest paid in the country and have seen their pay drop substantially in recent years. The pay offer falls far short of their colleagues in the NHS and local government workers are left feeling exhausted and undervalued. Scotland’s council workers deserve fair pay.”
Johanna Baxter, UNISON Scotland head of local government, said: “We’ve all relied on council staff to keep our communities clean and safe, protect the most vulnerable and to work in our schools throughout successive lockdowns to allow others to work.
“Without these workers going above and beyond to keep services running over the past year their colleagues in the NHS would have been left without childcare, our mortuaries would have been overwhelmed, our children would have been left without an education and our elderly would have been left without care.
“Yet to date they have received no reward or recognition of their efforts at all. It’s simply not good enough – our council staff are worth more.”
“Honest answers” needed from pladis after proposals for future rejected
Following an announcement this morning by the McVitie’s Tollcross owner pladis, confirming its rejection of counter-proposals to maintain production and intentions to proceed with closure, GMB Scotland Senior Organiser Hazel Nolan said: “It seems clear now that pladis had no intention of engaging in good faith over the future of Tollcross – General Manager Jim Cuthbert told us they “expected more” from the counter-proposals but offered no specific comment on what “more” would look like.
“That’s not good enough. If pladis are walking away from this community after nearly a century of production, and after eighteen months of constant manufacturing during this COVID-19 pandemic, the very least the workforce deserve is honest answers.
“That honesty is also needed for the members of the Action Group because if a firm like pladis no longer sees Scotland as a viable place to do business, then everyone needs to understand why and what must be done to prevent further manufacturing decline.”
GMB Scotland has today advised thousands of local government cleansing workers to prioritise safety and exercise their ‘right to refuse’ requests from employers to continue working if they have been exposed to COVID-19.
It follows the Scottish Government’s announcement that double-vaccinated workers in key services, returning negative PCR tests and undertaking daily lateral flow tests, can avoid self-isolation if notified of exposure to COVID-19 by the test and trace app, and continue working if their employer’s requests meet conditions set by Ministers.
The union has over 2,300 members in cleansing and waste services across Scotland’s local government, including Glasgow, North and South Lanarkshire, and West Lothian councils, who have worked throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and the decision was taken after consultation with their workplace representatives.
GMB Scotland Senior Organiser for Public Services Drew Duffy said:“A major underlying factor in the so-called ‘pingdemic’ is the chronic understaffing in our frontline services after years of cuts, and our cleansing and waste is no different.
“But the Scottish Government’s new guidance has opened the door for employers across the country to heap more pressure on these key workers if they have been exposed to COVID-19. That’s not safe for workers, families, or communities.
“And again, some of the lowest paid are being asked to take the greatest risk in another example of how poorly they are valued by government. You cannot cut and coerce your way out of a crisis, if you want services to function then you must invest in them.
“That lesson needs to be learned, and it’s why we are advising our members to exercise their right to refuse and instead follow the general self-isolation rules if they are exposed to COVID-19.”
GMB members across Scottish Local Government have overwhelmingly rejected the Scottish Government’s £800 increase for staff earning under £25,000 a year, sending a clear message to politicians and employers: “We’re worth more.”
Following the close of the union’s consultative ballot, 93 per cent of members voted to reject the offer tabled by the Finance Secretary Kate Forbes in the recent Scottish Budget, increasing the prospect of significant industrial action across local services this summer.
GMB, which represents 20,000 local government workers, pre-dominantly in services like home care, refuse, school support, and roads and maintenance, will now write to the First Minister and COSLA leaders to call for fresh negotiations and a significantly improved offer.
GMB Scotland Senior Organiser for Public Services Drew Duffy said: “This is a clear demonstration from key workers across Scottish local government that Kate Forbes’ valuation of their efforts isn’t anywhere near good enough.
“It’s been a wretched year and a desperate decade for council workers, especially the lowest paid and the services they deliver. Home carers, refuse workers, and school support staff have got on with the job for all of us despite being failed on PPE, testing and safe working guidelines. Furthermore, they did this after years of political austerity, which cut their pay in real-terms and gutted their services.
“After the applause and all the political platitudes, to recognise their dedication and sacrifice with an increase that won’t amount to much more than £10 a week for many staff is derisory, and the message to Ministers, politicians on the election trail, and councils is clear: “We’re worth more.””
Ahead of the start of the 124th STUC Annual Conference today, GMB Scotland members from care, nursing, refuse, ambulance, and school support services, will tell Ministers, “We’re worth more!” as they campaign for a rejection of the NHS and COSLA pay offers for 2021.
GMB workplace representatives in NHS Scotland and COSLA are strongly urging members to reject the respective 4 per cent and £800 increases for the lowest paid workers, arguing the Scottish Government can and should go further after the last twelve months.
The union’s consultative ballot in COSLA will run until Thursday 22 April, and until Wednesday 5 May in NHS Scotland.
GMB Scotland Senior Organiser Drew Duffy said:“We were told at the start of the pandemic that Scotland was prepared for COVID-19, but nothing could have been further from the truth.
“Health and social care staff tackled the first wave of COVID-19 without proper PPE, home carers were left without workplace testing until January, and school support staff were an afterthought in the education recovery plan.
“From PPE, testing, sick pay support and socially distanced working arrangements, everything that’s been put in place to protect the workers on which we all depend had to be fought for by the workers’ themselves.
“And after a wretched year and desperate decade, where their modest incomes have been cut by thousands of pounds, our members are prepared to fight again for their proper value, against pay offers that don’t amount to much more than a £10 a week increase for many.
“They’ve heard the applause and they’ve read all the political platitudes, but now they are telling the Scottish Government to listen, and the message is clear: “We’re worth more.”
The continuing safety concerns due to COVID-19 means that the 2021 annual Congress will be held as a digital event.
Delegates from over 50 affiliated unions and trades union councils, as well as the STUC equalities committees, will meet over three days to debate and agree new policies.
We will also hear from sisters and brothers from other Trade Union Centres and from politicians.
The STUC General Council will deliver its report of the past 6 months work.
The digital format of Congress limits some of the things we can do but we still have a busy fringe event as well as expo sessions from our sponsors and supportive organisations.
You can watch the whole of Congress live on Facebook or YouTube!
200 workers sacked in national ‘Fire and Rehire’ dispute
British Gas doesn’t give a toss for either customers or staff – and that is shown by the mass sackings of engineers who are badly needed by customers to clear huge backlog, says the GMB trade union.
British Gas went ahead with yesterday’s mass sacking of striking gas engineers who refused to submit to corporate bullying to accept a 15% cut in pay rates and other imposed changes in terms and conditions.
This coincides with British Gas suspending the sale of boiler insurance cover amid scenes of ‘van graveyards’ from the vans returned by the sacked gas engineers.
This mass sackings were enacted as gas engineers took part on the 43rd day of strike action in the long-running, deadlocked and increasingly bitter dispute.
British Gas announced in July last year that staff in the Field staff bargaining group who refused to accept imposed 15% cuts in pay rates and other changes would be sacked.
GMB says the company bullied the rest of the staff in the Field staff bargaining group to sign terms they had overwhelmingly rejected and still don’t accept.
These GMB members at British Gas have already taken 42 days of strike action against the imposition of the 15% cuts in pay rates and other changes via “fire and rehire” notices.
In addition, a national official “lockout” dispute between British Gas and GMB will become effective from 14 April and will include further strike action and action short of a strike.
The strikes have led to a backlog of millions of customers waiting for planned service visits and hundreds of thousands having to wait for emergency repairs.
British Gas has suspended sale of the standard boiler service insurance.
Justin Bowden, GMB Regional Secretary said:“That British Gas doesn’t give a toss for either customers or staff is shown by the mass sackings of engineers it needs so badly for customer services that it has suspended the sale of boiler insurance cover.
“The ‘graveyards of vans’ returned by the sacked gas engineers shows this.
“These sacked gas engineers are badly needed by customers to clear the huge backlog of missed planned annual service visits and repairs.
“There is sadly nothing in law to stop corporate bullying by companies of their own staff to sign terms they don’t accept and sacking those who don’t submit to this bullying.
“But GMB members won’t accept the outcome of the bullying. This is why we are staging the 43rd day of strike action today.
“I have news for Mr O’Shea. This is not the end of the dispute. As well as being in dispute with his own staff he is now in dispute with the national union GMB.
“This is why this dispute will continue and become an official national lockout dispute. There will be more strikes and action short of strikes.
“The British Gas leadership disaster reaches its low point today (April 14) with mass sackings of British Gas Engineers – in the only consistently profitable part of the company – by a management team too stupid to see the true value of a uniquely skilled and loyal workforce.
“With hundreds of thousands waiting in the backlog for service, customers have been treated as collateral and so, it seems, too will staff – as Mr O’Shea prepares to go down in history as the first major CEO to mass sack his highly skilled and qualified engineers.
“They are his most valuable asset. He will be universally condemned by politicians and public alike for doing so.
“The arrogant gamble has been lost. Any fool can start a war and, it seems, ruin a good business.
“History will not be kind to Mr O’Shea or the Centrica Board who failed to rein in him and his out-of-control leadership team.”
A statement posted on the British Gas website yesterday said: “Unfortunately, due to strike action by some engineers on Wednesday the 14th of April, we’re only able to offer a very limited emergency service.
“During this time we’ll be prioritising our most vulnerable customers, but we’ll do our best to help everyone as quickly as we can. Thanks for understanding – we’re so sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you.”
A Centrica spokesperson said: “There is a job for everyone at the end of this process. We are changing the way we work to give our customers the service they want and protect the future of our company and 20,000 UK jobs. Today marks the end of the period for our employees to sign new contracts.
“These are highly competitive, and our changes are reasonable. Around 98% of the entire company has accepted and we hope the remaining, also sign and choose to stay. We have not cut base pay or changed our generous final salary pensions. Our gas service engineers remain some of the best paid in the sector, earning £40,000 a year minimum.
“While change is difficult, reversing our decline which has seen us lose over three million customers, cut over 15,000 jobs and seen profits halved over the last 10 years is necessary. The changes will also unlock our ability to grow jobs and hire 1000 green apprentices over the next two years.’’
Health and social care workers made up 70% of reported occupational deaths, GMB Freedom of Information request reveals
More than 350 deaths and 31,000 infections have been linked to Covid-19 exposure at work, new Health and Safety Executive (HSE) figures reveal.
The data, released in response to a GMB Freedom of Information request, shows that 31,000 the suspected cases of occupational exposure to coronavirus were reported to the Health and Safety Executive between 10 April 2020 and 13 March 2021.
367 workers’ deaths were suspected to be linked to workplace exposure to the coronavirus during the same period.
It’s likely the figures significantly underestimate the true extent of exposure and deaths among workers, warned the GMB Union.
GMB calls for urgent investment to make workplaces safe and full sick pay cover so that workers can afford to self-isolate.
Health and social care workers accounted for the overwhelming majority of infections and deaths notified under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR). 70 per cent of occupational deaths, or 257 fatalities, were recorded for workers in this group.
In total, 2,134 staff infections and seven deaths that were linked to workplace exposure were also recorded in educational settings since the start of September, despite Ministers’ repeated assurances that schools and other educational establishments were safe.
Occupational infections peaked in January at 5,710 and the highest monthly count of worker deaths (60) was recorded in February, according to the figures.
26,705 infections were reported in England since 10 April 2020, while 2,228 infections were reported in Wales and 2,447 were reported in Scotland. Northern Ireland is not covered by the figures.
Reports of infections and deaths should be filed ‘where there is reasonable evidence that the worker was exposed because of their work,’ according to the HSE, which means that many infections that cannot be directly attributed to a person’s work will not be recorded. The HSE acknowledges that ‘RIDDOR suffers from under-reporting’ and that ‘it is likely that [COVID-19] disease reporting is lower’ than the true rate.
The new figures, which had not previously been published, were uploaded to the HSE’s website following a GMB Freedom of Information Act request. The Information Commissioner’s Office issued a Decision Notice last week which required the HSE to reply to the request after it initially failed to respond.
Rehana Azam, GMB National Secretary, said: “No one should go to work in fear of their life. Each worker’s death was preventable and the damning reality is that too many workplaces are still not safe.
“The fact that 70% of reported workers’ deaths are in the health and care sector should be a wake-up call, and sadly these figures are likely the tip of the iceberg.
“Two thousand infections and seven deaths in educational workplaces since September is the final proof that Ministers reopened schools before they were safe.
“Across the country too many people still face insecure workplaces and inadequate PPE.
“These figures shine a new light on the abject failure of too many to keep workplaces safe. Seven out of ten reported infections were since the start of the second wave, when the steps required to limit the spread of the virus were well understood.
“GMB calls on Ministers to urgently meet with unions, and for full sick pay cover to be provided to end the financial pressure that is leading to presenteeism and a greater spread of this terrible disease.’
