{"id":7945,"date":"2016-03-03T11:53:29","date_gmt":"2016-03-03T11:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=7945"},"modified":"2016-03-03T15:45:03","modified_gmt":"2016-03-03T15:45:03","slug":"fight-to-save-youth-workers-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=7945","title":{"rendered":"Fight to save youth workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 future"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hundreds of youth workers are today (March 3) lobbying the Local Government Association in an effort to save the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098pink book\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 which protects their pay terms and conditions.<\/p>\n

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Unite \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which represents thousands of youth, community and play workers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is taking part in the joint demonstration along with other unions at the LGA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s headquarters this lunchtime a stone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s throw from Parliament.<\/p>\n

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The action is a result of underhand proposals by LGA employers to tear up the JNC – Joint Negotiating Committee for youth and community workers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c terms and conditions for local government workers, without the consent of the staff side unions.<\/p>\n

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Unite fears that abolishing the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098pink book\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 agreement will undermine the pay, terms and conditions \u00e2\u20ac\u201c as well as the professional standing of youth workers, effectively de-skilling youth and community workers.<\/p>\n

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Unite national officer Colenzo Jarrett-Thorpe said \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe long standing \u00e2\u20ac\u0098pink book\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 recognises the professional qualifications of youth and community workers and ensures that workers are paid fairly for the job they are professionally trained to do.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf it goes, youth work as a profession disappears with it.\u00c2\u00a0Serious questions need to be asked over the employers’ motives for tearing up the ‘pink book’.<\/p>\n

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Spiral of decline <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe fear that it will lead to a spiral of decline in services for young people and is a step towards the de-professionalisation of youth and community workers.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bYouth services are seen as a soft target for budget cuts. Abolishing the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098pink book\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 will in no way be in the best interests of vulnerable young people and the highly skilled professionals trained to protect them.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bNow we need youth and community workers to stand up and defend their profession. Youth work has a proud tradition in this country, stretching back many decades.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur youth worker members provide very necessary, cost-effective services for young people living in poverty, fighting addiction or struggling with housing problems or finding work.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBy helping young people early, these services protect them from more costly interventions like mental health services and social services. In the long run it saves the tax payer money.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Jarrett-Thorpe\u00c2\u00a0 explained what Unite and others hope to achieve by taking their fight directly to the LGA, saying: \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe are lobbying the employers to drive home the importance of protecting JNC pay, terms and conditions.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe have been urging youth and community workers to come along and make their voice heard\u00e2\u20ac\u0165, he added.<\/p>\n

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The JNC is a unique collective bargaining body that has been central to the growth of youth services and the development of youth work since 1961. It includes extra annual leave entitlement in recognition of the stressful and unsocial hours associated with youth work.<\/p>\n

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Around 75 per cent of local authority and voluntary sector employers still apply JNC terms and conditions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Hundreds of youth workers are today (March 3) lobbying the Local Government Association in an effort to save the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098pink book\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 which protects their pay terms and conditions.   Unite \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which represents thousands of youth, community and play workers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is taking part in the joint demonstration along with other unions at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[84,241],"wps_subtitle":"Youth workers defend profession\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0098pink book\u00e2\u20ac\u2122","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7945"}],"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=7945"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7951,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7945\/revisions\/7951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}