I have calmed down (a very small amount) and have decided that i am not taking this lying down like a Patsie! Step one: contact my trade union - i have written a letter see below (i doubt that there is a claim under public law, but it is worth mooting the point) - Step two: contact my work mates, see how far we can push the issue as a pressure group. Step three: might have to think about some direct action! DIY stylee ;)
Dear Sir/Madam
I am writing to you as a member of Unison to ask you for some advice and help regarding a letter I received concerning a cut in my salary by my employer NHS Professionals (NHSP). I have included the letter NHSP sent me with this cover letter.
In essence the letter informs me that I am taking a pay cut from the 1st of August 2011, with no consultation and agreement on my behalf or indeed by any of my colleagues. The spurious reason being to save the East Kent NHS Hospitals Trust Budget; I have not been informed by any other employees (i.e. not NHSP) that they are also taking a wage cut in this NHS trust, indeed the received wisdom is that this Trust has a budget surplus.
Could it really be the case, that NHS management, are cynically using the media panic of public sector cuts to squeeze people on the lowest wages and in the most and insecure forms of public sector employment? If this is the case, then it is both despicable and morally wrong.
Legally I am not sure that they can do this? I consider myself a public sector worker; I pay into an NHS pension scheme and NHSP is a public sector organisation set up by the Department of Health – however they have tried to push their status as a private company, but as far as I know, they are not a private company with shareholders, so I don’t think that they can just make these types decisions using their own fettering discretion.
I would like to know if there is a case for judicial review? This pay cut would seem to be unlawful on the following grounds:
The decision-maker does not have power to make that decision, or is using the power
they have for an improper purpose;
the decision is irrational;
the procedure followed by the decision-maker was unfair or biased;
the decision was taken in breach of the Human Rights Act; or
the decision breaches European Community (EC) law.
Would it be possible to forward this correspondence to a legal firm that works with Unison, such as Thomsons. And perhaps get a second opinion if there has been a breech of law and if this is the case, then should it be corrected? However, if this is not the case, then is there another option to appeal under employment legislation?
On a personal note, I think that this would be a good issue for Unison to get behind; this pay cut seems extremely cynical and unfair to me; this pay cut effects a significant number of hard working Health Care Assistance (HCAs) that work in the East Kent hospitals Trust (Some on full-time contracts with the Trust using NHSP to help supplement their low incomes). Perhaps next time when I discuss with colleagues the importance of joining a trade union I can cite this a positive reason for joining.
In the meantime, please contact me with any other ways in which this wrong can be corrected. I have not contacted the people from NHSP about this grievance, I would prefer to meet with yourselves (Unison) and discuss how best to bring this issue forward; and as it says in the letter, it would seem that NHSP and the East Kent Hospitals Trust have already made their decision regardless.
Kind regards
paulofmedway
I will keep the blog updated on developments...
Wednesday 29 June 2011
Friday 24 June 2011
East Kent Hospitals Trusts and NHS Professionals are... C*nTs!
Excuse me ladies for using the ‘C' word! But I really don’t know how much more I can tolerate from my employers!
I have just received a letter from my employers informing me that “workforce efficiency group” which incidentally sounds like a made up title for a bunch of morons who earn far too much money making up farcical names to justify their own bloated existence to the tax payer! Have just decided in their infinite wisdom, that (me), earning Just above the minimum wage, needs to take a pay cut, to help East Kent Hospitals reduce their budget deficient. Is it possible to get much more blood from a stone? I can think of a few ways to save money and I would not start at the very bottom; I.e. the people who work in the same trust as myself, but get paid such hideous amounts of public money that the HR department thinks it is much wiser not to disclose the salary and benefits when vacancies get shuffled around at the top.
Really not good timing today! I have just awoken from a twelve-hour night shift on a heavy and busy orthopedic ward - I did not have time to take a break last night (that’s twelve hours on my feet, which is extremely illegal especially when looking after post-operative high dependency patients and major trauma cases.) The management response is to fill out a clinical incidence form when these occasions arise, which we all know is a load of old bollox because…
1) We don’t have time – not all of us can afford to employ a private secretary at work; (well thats not our problem you need to make the time sunny jim?) No, we really don’t have time you fecking twats, because we work like slaves for (feck all money) to make your budgets balance! As long as it all looks pretty and good on the surface? Yes, that’s what really matters.
2) We have it on very good authority that these forms just get chucked into the bin and so nothing ever gets done – so I have better things to do with my time at work… like (try) to care for patients. You know? Real Patient care (a novel concept) Not all of us in the NHS sit around board rooms and cynically put our snouts into the troft!
I doubt very much that the people in the ‘orwellian workforce efficiency group’ come to work on an average day and have to put up with disgusting and understaffed working conditions that exist in this farcical place that tries to pass as a hospital! I doubt very much that the ‘orwellian workforce efficiency group’ has to constantly apologise to patients and relatives (at the coalface) for a continually failing NHS trust, supporting a top-heavy bloated plutocracy. And no, I am not talking about the contrived statistics from an agreeable and clueless private sector marketing company such as ‘Dr Foster’, but the real angst and frustration of the people I work with everyday who just want to do their job well.
I have just received a letter from my employers informing me that “workforce efficiency group” which incidentally sounds like a made up title for a bunch of morons who earn far too much money making up farcical names to justify their own bloated existence to the tax payer! Have just decided in their infinite wisdom, that (me), earning Just above the minimum wage, needs to take a pay cut, to help East Kent Hospitals reduce their budget deficient. Is it possible to get much more blood from a stone? I can think of a few ways to save money and I would not start at the very bottom; I.e. the people who work in the same trust as myself, but get paid such hideous amounts of public money that the HR department thinks it is much wiser not to disclose the salary and benefits when vacancies get shuffled around at the top.
Really not good timing today! I have just awoken from a twelve-hour night shift on a heavy and busy orthopedic ward - I did not have time to take a break last night (that’s twelve hours on my feet, which is extremely illegal especially when looking after post-operative high dependency patients and major trauma cases.) The management response is to fill out a clinical incidence form when these occasions arise, which we all know is a load of old bollox because…
1) We don’t have time – not all of us can afford to employ a private secretary at work; (well thats not our problem you need to make the time sunny jim?) No, we really don’t have time you fecking twats, because we work like slaves for (feck all money) to make your budgets balance! As long as it all looks pretty and good on the surface? Yes, that’s what really matters.
2) We have it on very good authority that these forms just get chucked into the bin and so nothing ever gets done – so I have better things to do with my time at work… like (try) to care for patients. You know? Real Patient care (a novel concept) Not all of us in the NHS sit around board rooms and cynically put our snouts into the troft!
I doubt very much that the people in the ‘orwellian workforce efficiency group’ come to work on an average day and have to put up with disgusting and understaffed working conditions that exist in this farcical place that tries to pass as a hospital! I doubt very much that the ‘orwellian workforce efficiency group’ has to constantly apologise to patients and relatives (at the coalface) for a continually failing NHS trust, supporting a top-heavy bloated plutocracy. And no, I am not talking about the contrived statistics from an agreeable and clueless private sector marketing company such as ‘Dr Foster’, but the real angst and frustration of the people I work with everyday who just want to do their job well.
Sunday 19 June 2011
Rest in Peace Brian Haw
After a battle with lung cancer, a good man with a big heart has passed away - The UK Government and London Greater Authority should hold their heads in shame.
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