As promised, we will be sharing some of the recent agreements between UNISON and Cornerstone, and explaining how they affect you as a member of staff.
The first is the Terms of Reference on Testing Self Organised Teams – (click here or on the graphic.).
It’s a short document, and not overly technical (although a tad formal) but essentially this is the agreement that UNISON and Cornerstone jointly agreed to after UNISON reacted to our members concerns about contracts being unilaterally changed, about how staff would transition to testing a different role, and how pay for hat temporary role would be dealt with.
We’d draw your attention to the following points:-
- As you can see, this is a formal agreement signed by both Cornerstone and UNISON on 27/09/17
- The agreement is clearly around the “Testing” of SOT’s. This shows that we are in a pilot period, which is what UNISON has been stating for some time.
- Your substantive post (original job – support worker, support assistant, team leader, service manager) still exists during this test.
- Staff need to volunteer to be part of the pilot/test.
- That staff have the right to go back to their substantive post at any point during the pilot.
- Pay for the role will be discussed as part of the normal pay talks.
- Assessment of ability to join SOT, which leads on to training requirements, is defined
- That any decisions taken around the pilot will be ratified with UNISON at JNCC meetings. These are our formal negotiating meetings with Cornerstone.
UNISON feels that we acted to protect our members on the issues that were of concern to them at the time, whilst allowing Cornerstone to move forward with no industrial disruption at a time of proposed major change. This is a practical example of how trade unions and employers can work together to head off problems and find a way to move forward without detriment to trade union members.
UNISON would point out that this is not the actions of a trade union that wish to adversely affect an employer’s strategic and operational objectives as stated in the Chief Executives email of 12/11/18.
We hope you find this useful, and we will be commenting on the Fair Work agreement with Cornerstone soon.
John Mooney
Area Organiser
UNISON Scotland