Secretary's Corner
September 2009
By now I’m sure you will all be aware of the very sad, sudden and untimely passing of Archie Morson.
Archie was a member of Unison and its predecessor union for over 23 years and was always very supportive of our work. I personally found Archie a very easy Manager to work with who was prepared to listen, discuss and find solutions to issues in a fair and proper way. The work that he undertook in pushing forward the pre-hospital thrombolysis agenda, the training and support that he offered to clinicians in having the confidence to treat patients in early cardiac arrest and his passion for arguing the case for highly trained and well equipped Ambulance staff were, I believe, second to none. Archie was well thought of by his friends and colleagues and will be sorely missed by those that knew him.
A card has been sent to his wife Lizzie on behalf of the Branch and a donation will be made to a suitable good course in his memory. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Lizzie and the rest of Archie’s family at this very sad and difficult time.
You may recall from our last Newsletter that the Branch wrote to the Trust Board with a list of questions that had been put to us by the membership. At the time of going to print, no response has been received in answer to those questions. I have been assured by the Chief Exec that a response is being prepared and I would hope to be able to report further in October’s edition.
We are aware that some staff, when applying for annual leave over the Christmas period, are being told that the length of time when leave limits are reduced has been extended to encompass the weeks 23rd November to 3rd January. Whilst this may be the case I would like to inform staff in the strongest possible terms that this is a decision that has been taken in isolation by Management, staffside have NOT signed up to or agreed this position. Management contacted us back in April/May asking that we review the annual leave policy for this coming Christmas due to dangerously low levels of resources that were available over Christmas 2008. Our current position is, as it always has been, that we have an agreed policy that was signed up to some 2 years ago. However, if the Management side were to put forward a written proposal, we would take that back, consult with our members and act on their behalf. We were promised that written proposal on 14th July and to date we have still not received it.
Please keep an eye on Unison Notice Boards and the Branch Website as we will be reporting further on this situation over the next few weeks.
On a similar note, there have been other decisions made recently where no discussion or involvement has taken place with staffside. Deploying Students on frontline vehicles and backing up singletons with PAS and VAS vehicles are 2 prime examples. In view of this total breakdown in partnership working and staffside engagement at any level, it was decided at a meeting between Senior Branch Officers and Senior Executive Managers on the 29th April, that we would enlist the help of an external expert in getting partnership working back on the agenda. The meeting took place on 24th August, was fairly well attended and some open and forthright views were aired. Management expressed their view that they are as committed to the partnership approach as we are.
We will continue in our endeavours in getting partnership working back on track as history has proven that more can be achieved in this way than the mess we currently find ourselves in. I also believe that the difficulties that we are currently up against are merely the tip of a much bigger iceberg that is heading our way. Let’s just hope the commitment from the Management side will match the rhetoric..
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