{"id":28437,"date":"2021-04-15T16:49:15","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T15:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=28437"},"modified":"2021-04-16T12:24:40","modified_gmt":"2021-04-16T11:24:40","slug":"leeching-the-public-purse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=28437","title":{"rendered":"\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Leeching the public purse\u00e2\u20ac\u2122"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Serco civil enforcement officers in Ealing have voted to strike over the targeting of union activists in the latest in a series of industrial disputes to hit the outsourcer, Unite said yesterday (Thursday April 15).<\/p>\n

After a near unanimous vote, more than 40 civil enforcement officers will strike over Serco\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s offer of severance to elected Unite representatives and activists in order to undermine trade union organisation.\u00c2\u00a0The dates for the strikes have yet to be announced.<\/p>\n

As well as targeting union reps and activists, Serco offered severance to individual employees in order to undermine collective consultation.<\/p>\n

Serco is also refusing\u00c2\u00a0to negotiate a new absence management policy for employees working on the Ealing contract.\u00c2\u00a0Unite believes the present\u00c2\u00a0policy\u00c2\u00a0is being used to unfairly dismiss employees and should be renegotiated.<\/p>\n

This\u00c2\u00a0dispute\u00c2\u00a0follows\u00c2\u00a0a botched and unjustified restructuring and redundancy programme that Serco\u00c2\u00a0tried to instigate\u00c2\u00a0in late 2019, with minimal consultation with Unite.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Serco catering workers at the Royal London hospital in Whitechapel are being balloted for strike action in a dispute over\u00c2\u00a0bullying and the imposition of new rotas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

About 40 tractor tug crew members employed by Serco Marine at the Devonport naval base in Plymouth are also in dispute with the company.<\/p>\n

The tug workers have already taken two days of strike action this month over the imposition of a new three weeks \u00e2\u20ac\u0098on\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and three weeks \u00e2\u20ac\u0098off\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 roster, which Unite says poses\u00c2\u00a0serious health and safety risks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Unite regional officer Clare Keogh said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bLast year our members defeated Serco\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attempts to carry out unnecessary job losses among Ealing\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s civil enforcement officers.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s severance offers to union\u00c2\u00a0reps, activists and others are a blatant attempt to weaken trade union organisation and force through more unacceptable plans.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe workforce will not stand for such behaviour and there will be parking chaos on Ealing\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s already over congested roads unless Serco tables plans our members can accept.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is no surprise that Serco\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s race to the bottom tactics of targeting staff and degrading services is the cause of three disputes with Unite members across three different sectors.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bLeeching the public purse for profit is the raison d\u00e2\u20ac\u2122etre<\/em> for outsourcers like Serco, which is why Unite believes that services paid for by the taxpayer should be brought back in house wherever they can.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

By Ryan Fletcher <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Serco civil enforcement officers in Ealing have voted to strike over the targeting of union activists in the latest in a series of industrial disputes to hit the outsourcer, Unite said today (Thursday April 15).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4979,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1214],"tags":[784,779,416,1532],"wps_subtitle":"Ealing parking strikes latest in series of industrial disputes to hit outsourcer Serco","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28437"}],"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=28437"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28451,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28437\/revisions\/28451"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}