Don't believe the noise

"Join us in standing together for solidarity. Ignore any distractions and be a part of our mission. Let's rise up together as one.

 hashtag #TogetherWeRise."

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Mental wellbeing tips

We all need good mental health and well-being – it's essential to living happy and healthy lives and can help us sleep better, feel better, do the things we want to do and have more positive relationships. It can also help us deal with difficult times in the future.

Try this quick Mind Plan quiz to get personalised suggestions now, or find other tips, advice and support to help boost your mental well-being.

Click here for more info and support

Mental health issues

 We all have mental health, and life is full of ups and downs for us all.

Here you will find expert advice, practical tips, and plenty of help and support if you're stressed, anxious, low or struggling to sleep – or get Your Mind Plan and discover what works for you.

Click here for more information and support 

Dealing with loneliness

Loneliness can affect us all, at any time of our lives. We might live in a busy city or a rural location, on our own or with others and still feel isolated.

Understanding our own reasons for feeling lonely and how to manage it can make a big difference to our mental well-being. And although it can be difficult to talk about, sharing our feelings of loneliness can encourage others to talk too.

To find out about possible signs of loneliness, reasons we feel lonely and ways to manage it, click here  There are also links to more support if you or someone else needs it.

Public services belong in public ownership.

 UNISON believes that public services belong in public ownership. 

Over the years UNISON members have seen first-hand the negative impact of outsourcing on service quality, staff terms and conditions and investment in vital amenities.

We deserve better.

Just to remind you that the National Executive Council (NEC) elections are now in full swing, and your vote in it is crucial. As a UNISON member, you have the power to help shape the future of our union by electing the right leaders to represent you.

 
If you haven't received your ballot paper yet, our helpline is now open, and our team is on hand to help you get your ballot paper as soon as possible. Call us on 0800 0 857 857 from 8am to 8pm, Monday to Friday.

When pay rises by less than our bills, we’re all getting poorer.

When pay rises by less than our bills, we’re all getting poorer. 

But rising prices don’t have to push people into poverty. It’s the government's choice. 

To end the pay crisis we need pay rises. 

Together we rise because together we can win. Join our fight.

Update from 2023 AGM

 

Following our AGM the updated list of stewards and officers for 2023/24 can be found by clicking the link on the right-hand side.

If you have any questions please do email us at office@oxfordcityunison.com

The Oxford Living Wage increases to £11.35 per hour

 

The Oxford Living Wage increases to £11.35 per hour!! 

This is great news for the employees of the 100+ Living Wage employers in the city.

www.oxford.gov.uk/info/20027/welfare_reform/1011/the_oxford_living_wage

AI could replace equivalent of 300 million jobs

 Artificial intelligence (AI) could replace the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobs, a report by investment bank Goldman Sachs says.

It could replace a quarter of work tasks in the US and Europe but may also mean new jobs and a productivity boom.

And it could eventually increase the total annual value of goods and services produced globally by 7%.

Generative AI, able to create content indistinguishable from human work, is "a major advancement", the report says.

For the full story go to https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-65102150

When we Stand united this is what happens

 

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Why the country can afford your pay rise

 

As UNISON members prepare for a fifth day of strikes in England on 8 March – with thousands more health workers preparing to join the action – the government stubbornly refuses to engage in talks with all the health unions or to consider improving its miserly pay award.

And all the while, Rishi Sunak and his ministers peddle the same lies and misinformation, to distract from their simple failure to do the right thing. UNISON policy officer Guy Collis applies a scalpel to some of their worst fictions.

Myth: Increasing NHS pay will fuel inflation

Fact: Economic organizations such as the International Monetary Fund have found little evidence that raising pay will lead to the “wage price spiral” that conservative commentators fear. The real crisis is in pay and living standards, which not only directly affects health workers but, by reducing workers’ purchasing power, also damages local economies and the UK’s wider growth prospects.

Myth: The government does not have the money for bigger pay rises

Fact: Figures show that the government recorded a budget surplus of more than £5bn in the month of January 2023. In addition, government borrowing is currently £30bn less than predicted by the Office for Budget Responsibility. So the money is there; it just needs government to make health workers its priority.

Myth: All parts of the economy are having to accept cutbacks in the current crisis

Fact: Recent weeks have seen huge profits reported by banks and energy and oil companies. For example, British Gas owner Centrica reported record profits of £3.3bn, while BP and Shell combined to make an eye-watering £55bn in the past year. So while some firms are making money from the spike in energy costs, NHS staff and other workers are left to pay the price. In addition, bankers’ bonuses are once again set to run into billions, regardless of performance.

Myth: No government could afford to increase pay for NHS staff  

Fact: Rishi Sunak does not need to look far for a different approach to disputes over NHS pay. Governments in Wales and Scotland have shown that there is an alternative to the intransigence of the Westminster government. In both nations more money has been found for health staff as a way of attempting to bring disputes to an end.

Myth: The Pay Review Body decides what staff should be paid, so the government’s hands are tied

Fact: As it always does, the NHS Pay Review Body (PRB) made a recommendation to the government for an NHS pay award for 2022/23. Ministers can and have responded differently, in different years, to the PRB, on issues such as whether to implement recommendations in full or in part, or whether to delay or stage recommended pay awards. For example, in 2008-10 and again in 2018-2020 the government settled NHS pay outside of the PRB process.

Governments have also previously chosen to top up PRB recommendations when necessary. So, NHS pay remains the responsibility of the government, however much it might seek to hide behind the pay review body process.

Myth: Health staff have already received a generous pay rise for 2022/23

Fact: At the start of 2022 UNISON and the other health unions asked ministers to short-cut the lengthy PRB process and make a swift inflation-proof pay rise to all NHS staff, to be implemented from April that year. Instead, the government waited until late July to announce the award of £1,400 that the PRB had recommended in May – and health workers did not receive the increase until September. Not only had the government failed to match the unions’ pay claim, but what was offered at this late date was quickly swallowed up by rocketing energy bills.

Myth: The government has started meaningful pay talks with the trade unions

Fact: Health workers in five unions, including UNISON, are involved in industrial action over NHS pay. But last week it emerged that the government had invited the RCN for pay talks, but not the other unions. Choosing to speak to just one of the unions will not be sufficient to stop the strikes taking place and such divisive action risks making a bad situation even worse.

Myth: The unions are responsible for escalating the NHS pay dispute

Fact: Rather than entering early talks with the unions or engaging with all trade unions in the current dispute, the government has embarked on draconian new anti-strike legislation which it is seeking to rush through Parliament with minimal scrutiny. The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill has been attacked by politicians from across the political spectrum, with the government’s own impact assessment admitting that it could make disruption worse by forcing staff to opt for other forms of industrial action, such as overtime bans. Regrettably, the government continues to favour provocation over negotiation.

Myth: The public does not support health staff taking action to improve their pay

Fact: Opinion polls continue to show resounding levels of support for striking health workers. This is in stark contrast to public attitudes to the government’s handling of the NHS: a recent report suggests that just 8% of people in England think the UK government has the right policies for the NHS.

Myth: NHS staff have been protected from the worst of austerity in the past decade

Fact: Recent analysis from the TUC shows that hundreds of thousands of NHS workers have lost at least “a year’s worth of salary” because their pay has not kept pace with inflation since 2010. In addition to deteriorating living standards, health workers have worked through the worst pandemic for a century, and the most recent NHS staff survey found that nearly half the workforce had felt unwell as a result of work-related stress at some point in the past year.

Little surprise, then, that the NHS in England is currently struggling with unprecedented staff vacancies of 133,000.

Please Note Oxford City are note part of national pay negations at this time and have a local pay agreement in place