Wednesday 17 October 2012

A home for life..... or a lifetime of being ‘home’ less


                                                              

A home for life..... or a lifetime of being ‘home’ less


Public debate hosted by
Oxford International Womens Festival

October 25th 2012 at Oxford Town Hall
630pm – 8.30pm

Lack of social housing, high rent in the private sector, landlord won’t take benefit payment, badly maintained properties, having to live in shared accommodation, overcrowded, can’t access deposit scheme, experiencing discrimination because of your lifestyle or circumstances????
Come and share your experiences of ‘housing’ with Oxford City Council, local councillors and other interested parties.
We also welcome ideas on positive change for the future

Organsior: Debbie Hollingsworth
Contact: oxfordwomen@gmail

Thursday 11 October 2012

demonstrate the strength of feeling that there is on the coalitions austerity measures.


Dear All,
 
Some of you may not be aware that the TUC has organised a March and Rally in London on the 20th October 2012  to demonstrate the strength of feeling that there is on the coalitions austerity measures. 
 
We need to make them hear us loud and clear, when we tell them that their cruel thoughtless tactics and lies are simply not working! we need to let them know that we don't believe them when they say we all in this together, when it's plain to see that to-date all they have achieved is allow the rich to get richer and its plain to see that more and more people are falling below the poverty line, the longer we allow them to plough on, the worse things will become for people like you and I.
 
We hear stories of children going to school not having had any breakfast, wearing ill fitting shoes because their parents can't afford new ones, we hear stories of disabled people who clearly are unable to work,  being forced on to job seekers allowance, reducing their benefit to such a level that they barely survive, the housing problems are getting worse for people, Housing benefit cuts are pushing people out of their cities because rents are too expensive. What ever they can attack to make life even more unbearable for those who already struggle, they will!!
 
We see reductions in government grants to our local authorities putting pressure on not only our service users but also those individuals that deliver those services, threats of job losses. We also face a fifth year without a pay rise, on a daily basis I see people frightened, stressed out worrying about when is it their time to be made redundant, what's going to happen next year, or the year after that, employment laws are changing to make it easier for employees to be sacked, terms and conditions are being slashed to save our services, jobs etc.
 
 
If you agree with any of the above we would love you to join us in London on the 20th, we have two coaches booked for us and the county, The

Departure Points
Beaumont Street / Ashmolean Museum 8:00 am
Headington Shops / London Road Bus Stop 8:15 am
Thornhill Park & Ride 8:25 am
 
If you would like to go then please can you email me asap.
 
In Solidarity 
 
Caroline Glendinning, Branch Secretary
Oxford City Branch, The Old Police Cells, Oxford Town Hall, St. Aldates
Oxford, OX1 1BX
 
01865 252522
07795 332563

Tuesday 25 September 2012

AUTO-ENROLMENT into your pension schemes


From October 2012, employers will start to automatically enrol all staff into a “qualifying workplace pension scheme”.  This is being done incrementally, with the biggest employers affected first.  UNISON has produced a briefing at www.unison.org.uk/acrobat/14625.docx which explains what this involves, so please read it.  Publicity material and bargaining and organising guidance will be produced shortly, and the government has also started a publicity campaign.

Pensions auto-enrolment provides branches with a massive opportunity for recruitment and organising, especially in sectors where many workers are not in a scheme.  
                                         
The “at a glance” key points are as follows:

·         All employees paying income tax and aged between 22 and State Pension Age are affected.
·         From the 1 October 2012 the very largest employers will have to ensure that eligible staff are automatically enrolled into a qualifying workplace pension scheme
·         By February 2018 all employers should be operating pensions auto-enrolment  
·         Most forms of defined benefit pension schemes are qualifying schemes – as long as they are open to new recruits.  This includes the LGPS and NHSPS
·         Employers using a defined contribution pension scheme must pay “minimum contributions” - 1% for employers rising to 3% from October 2018.  Employees initially pay 1%, rising to least 5% (effectively 4% with tax relief applied) from October 2018
·         Staff will still be able to opt-out of the pension scheme should they wish to
·         Employers will have to automatically re-enrol eligible staff into a qualifying pension scheme at 3 yearly intervals
·         The Local Government and NHS Pension Schemes will remain the default qualifying schemes for staff potentially eligible to join them
·         Employers must register their qualifying schemes with the Pensions Regulator and inform staff of pensions auto-enrolment.  They must not encourage staff to opt-out or discriminate against staff who join a scheme (or those who decide not to).

Friday 14 September 2012

SERTUC "Ending the Low Pay Culture" seminar


SERTUC "Ending the Low Pay Culture" seminar Congress House Saturday 3 November 10am to 1pm. Register on sertucevents@tuc.org.uk
  • Chair Tony Lennon BECTU & SERTUC Vice-President
  • Speakers
o   Duncan Weldon TUC Senior Economist
o   Helen Kersley New Economics Foundation
o   Heather Wakefield Unison Head of Local Government
o   Enrico Tortolano PCS Research Officer
o   Andrew Murray Unite Chief of Staff
  • Closing Remarks Megan Dobney SERTUC Regional Secretary
SERTUC Regional Council at Congress House speaker Frances O'Grady TUC general secretary designate10am Saturday 27 October. All trade unionists welcome but registration essential: Darren Lewis dlewis@tuc.org.uk

Tuesday 28 August 2012

UNISON members vote to accept changes


UNISON members vote to accept changes to Local Government Pension Scheme

I am writing to you because UNISON members across England and Wales have voted 90.2% in favour of accepting the proposed changes to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).

We led the negotiations, which resulted in proposals to maintain the current contribution levels for 90% of LGPS members, introduce a 50/50 'low cost' scheme for the low paid, and move from a final salary to a career average scheme.

I want to thank you for the hard work you have put in throughout the negotiations. Together we've managed to ensure that current LGPS members can afford to stay in the scheme and those who could not afford to join it can now do so via the 50/50 option.

This is vital for many of our members whose earnings have gone down as a result of the coalition's pay freeze policies. Contributions are now on a fairer progressive basis.

We will continue to campaign with all of the union, through the TUC, against the proposals to increase the state retirement age.

UNISON will now move into the next stage of discussions on improving the governance of the new scheme which is due to come into effect in 2014.


Yours sincerely




Tuesday 10 July 2012

New UNISON discount shopping service

UNISON membership services has introduced two new discount shopping services. 

The new UNISON Rewards programme offers online shopping discounts and cashback and the new Prepaid Plus card offers in -store discounts and cashback

Link to a document on this siteUNISON Rewards leaflet (Acrobat pdf)

Link to a document on this siteUNISON Prepaid Plus leaflet (Acrobat pdf)

Friday 1 June 2012

LGPS 2014 - Negotiations completed: time to have your say


UNISON are pleased to tell you that after months of tough negotiations, the proposals for the LGPS from 2014 have been signed off by ministers for consultation.
UNISON will now start briefing regions, branches and members to let you know exactly what is being proposed from 2014, so that you can have your say.
The other LGPS unions and the Local Government Association will do the same.
You can find a UNISON leaflet and detailed factsheets about every aspect of LGPS 2014 proposals on the pensions section of the UNISON website here.
You will see that there is no change until 2014, 90% of members will pay the same contributions as now and some will pay less.
  • Part-time workers' contributions will be based on actual pay, not full-time equivalent earnings.
  • The scheme is a career average (revalued earnings), or Care, scheme with a 1/49 accrual rate and revaluations indexed to CPI inflation.
  • The normal pension age will be 65 as now, linked to the state pension age.
  • Anyone transferred to an outside contractor under TUPE will have the right to join the LGPS.
  • There is also robust protection for existing members. Find out more in the factsheets.
  • We will be holding meeting soon, please visit this web site regular to find when and where
UNISON will be consulting you about the proposals in a postal ballot. 

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