{"id":18349,"date":"2019-06-28T15:27:20","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T14:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=18349"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:56:03","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:56:03","slug":"health-visitors-strike-licolnshire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=18349","title":{"rendered":"‘Unprecedented’ health visitor strike action"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Health visitors employed by Lincolnshire county council will strike initially for six days over not getting paid the rate for the job and the erosion of their professional responsibilities which could adversely impact vulnerable families.<\/p>\n

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Unite said today (June 28) that the 58 health visitors voted by an 84 per cent majority to strike.<\/p>\n

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A 48-hour stoppage will start on July 15, with 24-hour strikes on\u00c2\u00a0 July 19 and 22. This will be followed by a 48-hour strike on July 25 . All the strikes will start at\u00c2\u00a0just past midnight.<\/p>\n

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It is believed to be the first time that the county\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s health visitors will have taken strike action in defence of their pay and professional standards.<\/p>\n

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The strike comes as controversy continues to swirl over the \u00c2\u0141292,000 pay off to the council chief executive Keith Ireland for less than six months\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 work.<\/p>\n

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Unite calculates that its Lincolnshire health visitor members have lost more than \u00c2\u01412,000 a year since they were transferred from the NHS to the county council in October 2017.<\/p>\n

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Unite, which embraces the Community Practitioners\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and Health Visitors\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Association (CPHVA), is also seriously concerned about the downgrading of the health visitors\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 professional status, resulting in fewer staff doing the specialist health visitor role.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is unprecedented for the health visitors in Lincolnshire to vote for strike action \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the reasons being the council\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s refusal to give them a pay rise since 2017 and concerns that their professional standards are being seriously eroded by a penny pinching employer,” said Unite regional officer Steve Syson.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe demise in numbers means that those left have excessive caseloads and more serious safeguarding cases to deal with.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAt a time when there is the lowest number of heath visitors in England since September 2012, it is outrageous that the council seems determined to freeze the incomes of the health visitors and undermine their professional standards,” he added.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur members are very reluctant to strike as they know the impact it will have on Lincolnshire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s families, many of them in vulnerable circumstances.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut they are faced with a county council more concerned with giving its former chief executive Keith Ireland a scandalous \u00c2\u0141292,000 pay off for a mere six months work than paying its own health visitors the rate for the job \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we have a local authority with a skewed sense of priorities.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI wrote to the council in a bid to settle this dispute, but, as yet, I have not had the courtesy of a reply. However, Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s door remains open for constructive talks 24\/7 for the benefit of Lincolnshire families.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Health visitors employed by Lincolnshire county council will strike initially for six days over not getting paid the rate for the job and the erosion of their professional responsibilities which could adversely impact vulnerable families.   Unite said today (June 28) that the 58 health visitors voted by an 84 per cent majority to strike. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11528,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[77],"wps_subtitle":"Lincolnshire health visitors to strike for six days","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18349"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18349"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25172,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18349\/revisions\/25172"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}