{"id":9949,"date":"2016-09-22T12:34:04","date_gmt":"2016-09-22T11:34:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=9949"},"modified":"2016-09-22T12:34:04","modified_gmt":"2016-09-22T11:34:04","slug":"workers-are-not-machines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=9949","title":{"rendered":"Workers are not machines"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

More than 60 Hackney traffic wardens will be striking for 24 hours starting today (September 22) in a victimisation and pay dispute, which will mean the number of parking tickets issued in the borough will slump dramatically.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The traffic wardens, also known as civil enforcement officers (CEOs), started their strike just past midnight today in their dispute with the international parking services company Apcoa, after talks at the conciliation service Acas broke down yesterday (September 21).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The CEOs are members of Unite and the union pinpointed the local hardline Apcoa management for the bad industrial relations record in Hackney.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite said an example of this was the fact that a union rep was currently facing disciplinary action for allegedly failing to fill in a holiday request form.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite had waged successful battles with the Hackney Apcoa bosses to ensure that the CEOs were paid the London \u00e2\u20ac\u0098living wage\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 of \u00c2\u01419.40 an hour and that they also received company sick pay.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bApcoa bosses in Hackney have form when it comes to poor industrial relations \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and yet again we are having to take strike action to achieve justice in the workplace with this company,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Unite regional officer Onay Kasab said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe 24-hour strike will mean that the number of parking tickets issued will slump dramatically \u00e2\u20ac\u201c an important revenue stream for Hackney council that awarded the contract to Apcoa.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe call on the management to negotiate in a constructive manner, otherwise more strikes will be on the cards,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe disciplinary action against our rep needs to be withdrawn.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Besides the victimisation issue, the strike is about the failure to resolve pay and conditions relating to unsocial hours working. Currently, there are no overtime rates \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the CEOs only get paid the normal hourly rate for working weekends and evenings.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

On the night shift \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the firm will not agree to make this voluntary only and is offering a bonus of only \u00c2\u014110 per night. When it comes to long service, Unite wants such service to be recognised, for example, by an extra day\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s holiday.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe employer seems to think that our members are machines without families, home life or the need for some leisure time,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Kasab argued.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf our members are to work weekends and evenings then they must be rewarded properly. We will not stand by while our trade union representative faces victimisation through the use of spurious disciplinary allegations.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than 60 Hackney traffic wardens will be striking for 24 hours starting today (September 22) in a victimisation and pay dispute, which will mean the number of parking tickets issued in the borough will slump dramatically.   The traffic wardens, also known as civil enforcement officers (CEOs), started their strike just past midnight today […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4979,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[192,132,416],"wps_subtitle":"Parking tickets slump as traffic wardens strike","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9949"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9949"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9950,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9949\/revisions\/9950"}],"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=9949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}