{"id":21832,"date":"2020-06-01T14:07:46","date_gmt":"2020-06-01T13:07:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=21832"},"modified":"2020-06-02T15:20:02","modified_gmt":"2020-06-02T14:20:02","slug":"disgraceful-actions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=21832","title":{"rendered":"\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Disgraceful\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 actions"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no doubt that local authority workers are finding life tough right now \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with little or no recognition for putting their safety at risk in the war against the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Unite Scotland over the past weekend (May 30) has strongly criticised the Scottish government over the continued delay in releasing the additional Covid-19 emergency finance to local authorities, stating that \u00e2\u20ac\u0098lives are being put at risk\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

The\u00c2\u00a0finance secretary\u00c2\u00a0Kate Forbes told the Scottish parliament on May 5 that costed plans must be submitted in advance before the funds are released, unlike in\u00c2\u00a0England where the finance has been non ring-fenced.<\/p>\n

In response, the\u00c2\u00a0Convention of Scottish Local Authorities\u00c2\u00a0(COSLA) issued a statement placing the estimated impact at \u00c2\u0141250m. But to date Scottish local authorities have still not received the cash despite this cost estimate.<\/p>\n

The UK government made \u00c2\u01411.6bn of funding available to councils in England\u00c2\u00a0on April 18, which\u00c2\u00a0amounted to an additional \u00c2\u0141155m flowing from Barnett formula consequentials.<\/p>\n

This was an extra \u00c2\u01411.6bn taking the total given to local authorities in England to over \u00c2\u01413.2bn \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the equivalent to \u00c2\u0141310m for Scotland.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Scottish government are behaving disgracefully in their refusal to release the emergency Covid-19 funds\u00c2\u00a0that have been allocated by Westminster,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 commented Unite regional officer, Wendy Dunsmore.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s absolutely staggering that instead of the sums being passed on immediately as in England, local authorities in Scotland\u00c2\u00a0are continuing to face obstacles six weeks down the line.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s absolutely no excuses for this unacceptable situation when lives are at risk and this money could be immediately assisting vulnerable people, and communities,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165\u00c2\u00a0she added.<\/p>\n

Extra-payment ditched<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile in England, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not all plain sailing for our hard working members either \u00e2\u20ac\u201c especially when it comes to well-earned bonus payments.<\/p>\n

MJ magazine<\/a> reports that the Local Government Association (LGA) is split on party lines over bonuses for workers.<\/p>\n

According to The MJ<\/em>, a cross-party agreement that the Local Government Association (LGA) would lobby for a coronavirus payment to local authority staff was ditched after senior councillors blocked the move.<\/p>\n

Members of the LGA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cross-party resources board had previously agreed to lobby the government for more cash to provide \u00e2\u20ac\u0098special payments to staff as a result of Covid-19\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

Despite the recommendation, Conservative and Lib Dem members of the executive advisory board are understood to have spoken out against the LGA calling for a one-off consolidated payment of up to \u00c2\u0141500, which would cost more than \u00c2\u0141320m.<\/p>\n

In Wales, first minister Mark Drakeford has already announced that care workers will receive a \u00c2\u0141500 payment in recognition of their work during the pandemic. In Scotland social care staff recently received a 3.3 per cent pay increase \u00e2\u20ac\u201c above the current 2.75 per cent pay offer in England.<\/p>\n

Unite was deeply concerned following the decision \u00e2\u20ac\u201c calling the move \u00e2\u20ac\u0098a disgrace\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and adding that the undervalued essential workforce \u00e2\u20ac\u201c battling in the Covid-19 front line \u00e2\u20ac\u201c had been dealt a further blow.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe collateral damage of another horrendous blue and yellow coalition is the low paid, continually undervalued essential workforce,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 commented Jim Kennedy, Unite national officer for local authorities.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bEven now while local government workers are in the front line battling against Covid-19 these pitiful excuses for local government representation, no doubt from their comfortable offices or homes, decide to inflict another blow on a workforce that the public properly recognise are supporting our communities and sustaining our society.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe recent pay offer, that equates to \u00c2\u01411.83 a day for the lowest paid was already insulting enough, but the actions of the Conservatives and Lib Dems in local government to block an additional payment is a disgrace. Shame on them,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Kennedy added.<\/p>\n

Compiled by Amanda Campbell @amanda_unite\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no doubt that local authority workers are finding life tough right now \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with little or no recognition for putting their safety at risk in the war against the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1666,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1308,1],"tags":[1295,1333,999,90],"wps_subtitle":"Unite outrage as local authorities\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 key workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u0098lives are at risk\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c as funding wars continue in England and Scotland","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21832"}],"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=21832"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21836,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21832\/revisions\/21836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}