Unite NHSBT Branch

New Unite NHSBT Branch Blog

2010-07-16T10:54:00.002+01:00

This is the link to a new branch blog: unitenhsbt.posterous.com/

In theory, all branch members should be able to post to it once their email addresses are authorised.

The old blog will continue to run in parallel.

Pay Cuts Continue

2010-07-16T10:42:00.000+01:00

With the announcement of a two-year pay freeze for NHS staff earning over £21,000 and only a £250 yearly pay rise for those earning less than that, The pattern of real term pay losses is set to continue. The last three our of four years have seen real-term pay losses. The latest inflation figures show an increase in the Consumer Price Index of 3.2% and the Retail Price Index (the figure used in all pay negotiations) is now 5%. Even for the very lowest paid NHS staff, the £250 pay rise equates to a 2.5% rise, still below both measures of inflation.

With increases coming soon for pension contributions (and remember, pensions are just deferred pay) NHSBT staff will be even worse off.

This blog has moved

2010-04-09T16:18:00.001+01:00

This blog is now located at http://nhsbtunite.blogspot.com/.
You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds or you may click here.

For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to
http://nhsbtunite.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default.

Myths About Public Sector Pay

2009-10-15T11:53:00.000+01:00

A good article by Polly Toynbee in yesterday's Guardian debunking the myths being spread by the right-wing press about our terms and conditions.

Margaret Haywood Re-instated

2009-10-14T16:56:00.000+01:00

Margaret Haywood, the nurse who was struck off the register (on the grounds of breaching patient confidentiality) for taking part in a Panorama programme that highlighted poor patient care has been re-instated and instead given a one-year caution. All credit to her union, the RCN, for supporting her. Unite also issued a statement of support (see previous blog post). It is unfortunate that one of the other major health unions actually supported her original punishment.

Cycle to Work Scheme Approved

2009-06-26T08:07:00.005+01:00

After months of persistent campaigning by Barry Maguire and David Linsey, the NHSBT has now signed up to the 'Cycle to Work' scheme. This is the arrangement that allows you to get a loan of up to £1000 for a new bicycle and accessories and pay this loan back through salary sacrifice. This means that you pay the loan back from your gross salary and you save on income tax, national insurance and pension contributions. For a standard rate taxpayer, you can save nearly 40% of the cost of the new bicycle and accessories. This compares very favourably with the current loan scheme which will save you around 0.5% over the period of the loan.

Due to the length of the tendering process, the scheme won't be up and running until April 2010. This is a positive step by the NHSBT but it is only a start. To wean staff off their cars, the facilities offered to cyclists and walkers need to be improved with proper changing rooms and showers at all bases and centres. While we often say that donors expect higher standards at our venues, it is equally right that staff should expect higher standards at our workplaces. It is not right that staff are forced to wash and change in the toilets after they cycle to base.

Petition for Margaret Haywood

2009-04-29T08:54:00.002+01:00

The Royal College of Nursing is hosting an online petition in support of Margaret Haywood who was struck off the nursing register for breaching the rules on patient confidentiality. 25,000 signatures have been added so far. As more details emerge about this case, the action of the NMC seems even more unjustified. Ms Haywood has had the support of her own union (the RCN) and Unite.

Unite Statement on Margaret Haywood

2009-04-18T12:08:00.003+01:00

Unite has released the following statement concerning Margaret Haywood, the nurse who was struck of the register by the NMC after she exposed poor care at her hospital in Brighton. Of course, the NMC claim it was for breaching confidentiality (the same charge levelled against Graham Pink twenty years ago) and not for highlighting the poor care the elderly were receiving at her hospital.

There is also a letter of support from Professor PJ Barker, a fellow of the Royal College of Nursing.

Whistle Blowing Nurse Struck Off

2009-04-17T11:16:00.002+01:00

Despite being applauded by advocacy groups for improved care of the elderly, Margaret Haywood, the nurse who filmed the awful conditions in a Brighton hospital for the BBC Panorama programme, has been struck off the register by the Nursing and Midwifery Council. You can read the full decision of the NMC here. As in the case of Karen Reissman, it appears that despite the Public Interest Disclosure Act, it is still the whistle blower who will suffer rather than those exposed for wrong-doing. Up to now, none of the main health union websites have any mention of this case though that may change in the next day or so. An RCN spokesperson supported whistle blowing in general but refused to support Margaret Haywood.

Management Accepts HSE Report on Seating in Full

2009-04-02T13:34:00.004+01:00

In a letter written on 30th March 2009 by Jane Pearson and countersigned by Bev Easton (Unison Rep), management have accepted the recommendations made by the Health and Safety Executive in full. We appreciate the rapidity with which this letter was released as there was at least one middle manager who was still insisting that the status quo was to be maintained a day after the letter was written.

It is just a pity that even though the illegality of the removal of the chairs was pointed out to management in August 2008, it took eight months for this to finally be accepted. It will take time for the damage this has caused to management credibility to be repaired.

HSE Report on Seating at Donor Sessions

2009-03-27T13:12:00.002+01:00

The Health and Safety Executive has released the written report about the removal of chairs from donor sessions and especially from the pods. The report fully vindicates the union position and we would especially like to thank Phil Bishop for all of the work he did on this.

March 2009 Newsletter

2009-03-27T13:07:00.001+01:00

The March 2009 newsletter is now available on the branch website. It includes an article about the HSE report on seating at session.

Local Government Association Calls for Jargon Ban

2009-03-18T12:34:00.002+01:00

The Local Government Association has published a list of 200 jargon terms they think should be banned from government communications and meetings. This includes some NHSBT favourites such as 'cascade' and 'going forward'. If this were implemented in the NHSBT, our meetings would be an hour or so shorter. The complete list is published here.

OTP Review

2009-03-08T17:45:00.004+01:00

The unions are taking part in a review of the Operational Transformation Programme (OTP). If you have any comments of any sort, please send them to Paul Selby at paulselby01 at btinternet dot com. Replace 'at' with '@' and 'dot' with '.' and remove the spaces. This is to prevent spamming.

The vast majority of comments received so far have been negative, including back problems, lack of donor care and over-running sessions. The change agents are telling every team with complaints that all of the other teams are happy with the process. This does not sound like the teams are being treated with respect, which is a clear code of conduct violation.

RCN Admits No Hope of Improvement on Three-Year Deal

2008-12-09T15:22:00.002+01:00

In a statement released this week, Josie Irwin, the chief Royal College of Nursing negotiator admitted that the so-called re-opener clause was almost useless.

She said:'We are in recession and are expecting strong evidence from the employers and government saying that salaries in the NHS look healthy compared with those of workers in other sectors.

'The economic situation makes the process more challenging and we have to be realistic.'

This is not what NHS staff were told by the RCN or Unison when they urged staff to accept the three-year deal. In their 'Pay Matters' newsletter from 14th April 2008, Unison attacked Unite for claiming that the re-opener clause was weak.

Even though inflation has dropped, it is still 2% above our pay settlement for last year.

Don't Forget to Vote

2008-11-09T17:05:00.002+01:00

You still have two days to vote in our industrial action ballet. The envelopes have to be posted by Tuesday, 11th November 2008 in order to reach the Electoral Reform Society by Wednesday, 12th November 2008. Unite is recommending a 'Yes' vote on both questions. This ballot was the result of the refusal by management to budge from the below-inflation pay rises offered in the three-year deal.

The so-called re-opener clause is proving to be toothless as it is now the decision of the pay review body rather than a contractual right. With the government worried about extra spending to cope with the banking crisis, it is very unlikely that they will change the original amounts, meaning we will get a 2.4% pay rise while inflation is running at 5%.

A successful 'Yes' vote will send a strong message to the government that we will not be held responsible for the mistakes of the banks, who continue to pay large bonuses to their executives while taking our tax money to bail them out.

Stand All Day; No Way!!

2008-10-16T09:11:00.002+01:00

An official complaint has been sent the the Health and Safety Executive over the continuing refusal of the NHSBT to allow chairs in the pods under OTP. Though they have backed down on the issue of disabled staff, they are still insisting that you make yourself ill before you are allowed a chair.

There are numerous reports of staff suffering from backaches since the introduction of OTP. The so-called corrective action of frequent rotation from the pods does not work in practice as it is based on having the proper skill mix (still not achieved on many teams) and the ability to rotate to another task that does not require standing. It also causes delays as the job you are moving to may not be vacant for several minutes.

Added to the delays caused by the post-donation care of donors and the re-enforcement of the arm cleaning guidelines, many sessions are now finishing an hour or so later than normal. If OTP was meant to reduce queueing and help with donor retention, it is not working with the number of staff the teams have available to them.

September Newsletter

2008-09-14T10:39:00.003+01:00

The latest newsletter is now available for downloading. It is also available to read on the branch website.

Stand Up or Leave

2008-09-05T09:49:00.002+01:00

A memo from Victoria Thornton (HR Lead for the Operational Transformation Project) states that all bedside staff will have to stand up the whole time they are in the pod or they will be referred to the occupational health department.

This is clearly illegal under the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 which state in section 11, paragraph 3: A suitable seat shall be provided for each person at work in the workplace whose work includes operations of a kind that the work (or a substantial part of it) can or must be done sitting.

There are numerous health risks as illustrated in this article in Hazards Magazine.

Sound Familiar

2008-08-27T09:25:00.002+01:00

A recent article from the Nursing Times:

Sterile services shake-up will damage environment, say unions

Published: 16 July 2008

Sterile services shake-up will damage environment, say unions

Proposals to transport surgical instruments across the south west of England to decontamination supercentres have been described as 'environmental madness' by unions.

Unison, Unite and the RCN have condemned the proposals to close on-site decontamination centres at hospitals and replace them with privatised remote facilities.

They have estimated that the centres will create an extra 10m road miles because of the trucks ferrying the equipment backwards and forwards between hospitals in Somerset, Dorset and North Devon.

Unison regional organiser Graham Parish said: 'We have calculated from the business case that there will be an extra 66 van journeys every day to transport equipment all over this large rural area.

'This would lead to an extra 10 million miles travelled over the 20 years of the contract, using over 300,000 gallons of diesel.

'We believe this is totally irresponsible. Not only because of the environmental impact of carbon emission on all these extra journeys – it will also increase the risk of accidents and traffic congestion.'

Article ends.

When you consider that this is about surgical supplies which have a long shelf-life and the supercentres are still relatively local, all of the problems stated will be multiplied many times, if the blood service processing and testing centres are closed.

Inflation 4.6%; Next Year's Pay Rise 2.4%

2008-07-16T10:29:00.002+01:00

With inflation continuing to rise at record speed, there is yet no sign of the so-called 're opener' clause being invoked. There is almost no mention of the latest inflation figures on the RCN or Unison websites. The RCN does claim that the increase in mileage allowances will help staff travelling to and from work, but they fail to mention that you are not normally allowed to claim for travel to your normal workplace.

The increase in mileage allowances will mostly benefit those already on higher pay. In the NHSBT it is only nurses that can claim mileage allowances for travelling to sessions, whilst donor carers not only can't claim for this but are sometimes forced to claim fewer hours than the normal team times if they make their own way to session.

If staff need to use cars for work, they should be provided by the employer. Increasing allowances only encourages people to drive more and does nothing to help reduce carbon emissions. Whilst most of the car allowances are above the levels recommended by the inland revenue (which is 40 pence a mile) the cycling allowance is only half the recommended level with the latest increase to ten pence a mile.

New Mileage Allowances

2008-07-08T21:14:00.002+01:00

The new mileage allowances have been agreed. The full figures are available on the NHS Employers website.

Day of Action

2008-07-08T19:29:00.003+01:00

Unite has called for a day of action to oppose the poor pay deal that Unison and the RCN negotiated with the NHS management. With worsening inflation, the 2.75% pay increase in the first year looks even worse than it did when the original proposals came out. If the pay deal is accepted, it would be the second year running that we have had a greater than 2% pay cut and with very low pay increases proposed for the second and third years of the contract, that looks set to run even further.

There is meant to be a so-called 're-opener' clause to re-negotiate the pay rates if inflation worsens but if that is the case, why has it not been invoked already?

The voting turnout was not very high for any of the unions though the Unison turnout has not been publicised. One Unison official has put it at 17% which certainly shows a marked lack of enthusiasm for the new deal. If the total number of votes cast by all of the unions is added up, the pay deal was probably defeated as the anti vote in some of the smaller unions was as high as 96% whilst the pro vote in Unison was 64%.

Perhaps the ballot should be rerun as a single ballot for all NHS employees so that all of these arguments over who voted for what and what the turnouts were could be settled.

Inflation 4.3%; Pay rise 2.75%

2008-06-19T09:12:00.002+01:00

The latest inflation figures make sad reading for anyone in the NHS who will probably only receive a 2.75% pay rise this year (and even lower pay rises for the next two years) after the RCN and Unison voted to accept the three-year deal. After last year's sub-inflation pay rise, most staff will have had a 4% pay cut in real terms. This does not reflect the real damage to our income as many staff in the NHS are low paid and the rises in food and fuel affect them even more.

Unite, the GMB, the RCM and several other NHS unions have voted against the three-year deal but it is not clear what action will be taken.

Dave Prentis of Unison is already talking about trying to get the deal improved in light of the latest inflation figures but it is unclear what will be done as the ink is barely dry on the ballot papers. Unison members voted 64% in favour of the deal though they have not publicised the turnout.

GMB Members Reject Three-year Pay Deal

2008-05-30T17:44:00.001+01:00

The 25,000 members of the GMB union in the health service have voted by 96% to reject the three-year pay deal agreed with the RCN and Unison. This is the report from the Nursing Times website:

Union rejects pay offer

* Published: 30 May 2008 12:40
* Author: Richard Staines

Health workers from the GMB union have almost unanimously rejected the 8% three-year pay award for NHS workers in a postal ballot.

Voting papers went out to 25,000 individual members, and of the valid forms returned, 96% rejected the deal.

The ballot included nursing assistants as well as support staff such as caterers, ancillary staff and administrators.

The union is now calling an immediate meeting with health secretary Alan Johnson to call for a rethink. A spokesperson for the GMB said: 'I have never seen a pay offer turned down by this amount. The three year deal is dead in the water.'

Sharon Holder, GMB National Officer added: 'The ballot result is a resounding no. This result vindicates the position of the GMB negotiators who knew instinctively that GMB members would not tolerate this unacceptable, long term pay offer. The Department of Health must be instructed to put a one year deal on the table that GMB members can accept.'

Richard Staines. Deputy news editor Nursing Times

Vote 'No' to the Three Year Deal

2008-04-29T21:17:00.004+01:00

Both sections of Unite have come out firmly against the three-year pay deal. There is a poster you can download and print to display at your workplace.

Statement from Tooting Unite (Amicus Section)

2008-04-23T21:51:00.003+01:00

This statement was issued after being agreed at a Unite (Amicus Section) meeting held at Tooting on 18th April 2008. The Unite (T&G Section) Branch Chair (David Linsey) was present at the meeting and offered the support of the members in donor services.

We do not believe that the case for the closure of Tooting NBS Processing & Testing departments has been sufficiently proven.

After examining the little data that has been shown to us, there is insufficient evidence to conclude that the revised plans ensure that the patients we serve in this most densely populated region of the country, will continue to receive a quality and timely service, neither can the board meet the rigorous timescales proposed. Furthermore, we have no confidence in the entire basis upon which the case for closure has been made.

Although we are appalled that technical workers will lose their jobs as a result of these plans and that their expertise will be lost to the nation, our principal concern is for the health of the patients we serve. We call on MPs locally and nationally, to question the process the NHSBT board wants to undertake before work begins on the closures, and to ensure beyond doubt on our behalf that their constituents will not suffer as a result.

Unison Narrowly Votes in Favour of Pay Offer

2008-04-23T12:41:00.002+01:00

A motion to reject the three year pay deal was narrowly defeated at the Unison Healthcare Conference by 214,059 to 201,001 after a card vote was taken. This illustrates the strength of feeling against the deal which offers sub-inflation pay rises for the second and possible third and fourth year in a row.

Unite has already rejected the offer as well as some of the smaller unions including the Royal College of Midwives.

Threats have been made by the NHS Chief Executive, David Nicholson, to impose an even worse pay deal if the three year deal is rejected when it goes to a ballot of the full membership.

The pay situation since the first three year pay deal in 2004 is as follows:
For every pound you earned in 2004, you now earn £1.16 if the current deal is accepted, if your pay had kept up with inflation, you would be earning £1.18 and if your pay had kept up with earnings, you would be earning £1.22. This is just a repeat of what happened twenty years ago when our pay was steadily eroded until nurses were forced to take industrial action.

April Newsletter

2008-04-08T09:41:00.001+01:00

The April newsletter is now available on the branch website. Hard copies will also be made available to members.

Joint Union Statement

2008-03-03T15:47:00.001+01:00

The following is the statement agreed at the Staff Side meeting of all
NHSBT unions held on 25th February 2008:

The NBS Trade Unions receive with great caution the outcomes of the
review and revision of the announced National Strategy. At this point
we cannot accept the proposed wholesale closures of laboratories and
with regard to the 240 job losses in SD, the staff side will not
support any further reductions in frontline staff. We were given the
assurance that supporting evidence by McKinseys would be made
available following the review in support of the new and revised
strategy. We believe that evidence should be made available as we
still have grave reservations as to the ability of the proposals to
deliver a high-quality service nationally.

We therefore continue to OPPOSE the NBS intention to withdraw some
specialist service provision to the NHS, ensuing lab closures and
reduction of staff numbers on the frontline of donor collection teams.
We will support our local groups and branches who mount local
campaigns in defence of service provision to patients and donors alike
and in defence of their jobs.

Colin Anderson

Staff Side Secretary Organisational Change Sub Group

Unite (T&G Section) NHSBT Branch Election Results

2008-02-25T10:20:00.001+01:00

In the branch election held last month the results are as follows:

Paul Selby - Branch Secretary
David Linsey - Branch Chair
Pauline Watson - Branch Vice-chair
Lauren Goff - Branch Equalities Officer

The turnout was around 35%.

Further Redundancies Announced

2008-02-04T14:21:00.000+01:00

The NHSBT has announced another 600 redundancies over the next three years on top of the several hundred redundancies that have already taken place. This includes 240 more redundancies amongst front-line collections staff.

This was announced at the long awaited, much delayed, selective release of the McKinsey's report. Management is not willing to share the full report with their staff even though it cost hundreds of thousands of public money and the conclusions that were reached were not much different than what staff had been saying all along.

Management are still intent on closing the Tooting centre with 70 redundancies, leaving the whole of the South East with only one processing and testing centre. There are no plans to make any major expansions to the Colindale site, so it will have to cope with nearly tripling its work in an already over-crowded lab area.

We were told that we don't have enough donors to meet the current demand, yet the equivalent of four or five area teams are to be taken out by further redundancies. In answer to a question about how can we collect more blood with even fewer staff, especially with complaints about waiting times now the biggest single complaint from our donors, we were told to "Work smarter, not harder". Difficult to see how much smarter you can work when faced with 160 donors and ten staff as has happened several times recently in our area (and no doubt in the rest of the country as well).

The ACE project seems all but dead, certainly, the name will no longer be used as it stands for alternative collection environment and we have now been told that we will be moving completely in the opposite direction, i.e. fewer, larger sessions rather than more frequent, smaller sessions. This may be the reason that Richard Fry has been relieved of his duties in Donor Services and moved to a project dealing with workforce issues and solutions ('scoping' which probably isn't really a word but might mean 'looking at').

What Have the Unions Ever Done for Us

2008-01-29T16:06:00.000+01:00

This Australian video is based on 'The Life of Brian'

Donor Appointments System

2008-01-22T20:31:00.000+01:00

This is a letter in the Manchester Evening News complaining about our appointments system. I'm sure the situation described will be familiar to many of us on the teams.
mepappoint.pdf

Pension Changes

2008-01-22T12:55:00.000+01:00

The NHS pension system is changing. For some staff this may be a good thing but for others there could be disadvantages. For full details, go the the NHS Pensions website.

Broadly speaking, if you intend to work until you are 65, the new scheme will probably be better, but if you intend to retire before that you are better off under the old scheme. All current members will have the option to stay with the old scheme (but with slightly higher contributions) or transfer to the new scheme.

NHSBT Given Award for Increased Pollution

2007-11-19T11:10:00.000+01:00

The fleet of the National Blood Service was given a 'green' award for using more bio-diesel in its vehicles. Bio-Diesel's role in reducing carbon emissions is dubious at best and there is no disputing that it causes more particulate pollution and smog than conventional Diesel. The increase in cropland being used to grow grains for bio-Diesel is also contributing to increased inflation in Europe and the sharp increases in the price of basic food in developing countries.

Rather than gimmicks, the NBS should seriously consider the road miles travelled by staff. The current management proposals for ACE and closure of centres is set to increase road miles by more than a million.

NHS Together Demo

2007-11-05T16:32:00.001+01:00

A spirited demo took place in central London on Saturday, 3rd November 2007 to oppose cuts and privatisation in the NHS. A large contingent of Blood Service workers showed up, some travelling from Hull, Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham.

NHS Together Demo 03-11-07

More photos can be seen on the TUC website.

Latest Pay Deal

2007-10-31T11:57:00.000+01:00

You can find all of the details of the latest sub-inflation pay deal on the NHS Employers website.

Risks of Blood Donation

2007-10-05T14:33:00.000+01:00

Whilst giving blood is normally incident-free, there are risks. These are shown in the latest issue of Blood Matters. For those who think there is no need to have qualified nurses on sessions, the article makes interesting reading.

Bill Campbell Calls for Industrial Action

2007-10-01T18:15:00.000+01:00

In an article in the Nursing Times, Bill Campbell has apparently called for industrial action over the offensive letters written by Richard Fry. The article is reproduced below.

£177,275 for New Chief Executive

2007-09-06T10:10:00.000+01:00

The NHSBT has placed adverts for a new chief executive at around 50% more than Martin Gorham was earning (and he had above inflation pay rises all the time he was in post). It now means that the NHSBT is paying its chief executive 14 times more than its lowest paid workers.

NHSBT Management Supports David Cameron

2007-09-03T17:59:00.000+01:00

You could easily conclude this from the DVD that has been sent to all donor services staff. The following two screen shots illustrate this:

Of course, you might think that both these statements are fantasies but then that would make the rest of the DVD a fantasy as well.

I'm sure it is not a good use of our money to give support, implied or otherwise to any political candidate.

NHSBT Announces 467 More Redundancies

2007-07-30T08:51:00.000+01:00

In the latest NHSBT business plan at least 467 more posts are being made redundant. In fact, 284 of these post have already been made redundant in the 2006/07 business year. Does this mean we are saving money? Not really as there are so-called non-recurring costs of at least £9 million to cover plans for the new strategy. These 'non-recurring' costs are set to be a 'significant' in the coming years which is an interesting use of the term 'non-recurring'.

The plan also mentions having the 'appropriate' management capacity in place to carry out the strategy. So far, this seems to be employing more managers at the expense of front-line staff.

Apologies for the lateness of this article. The plan was published on 17th May 2007.

TUC welcomes long awaited corporate killing law

2007-07-25T10:53:00.001+01:00

Welcoming the news today (Monday) that the UK is to get a law on corporate killing, thanks to a last-minute compromise between the two Houses of Parliament, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

'We are pleased that a sensible decision has been taken and the bill will now become law. Even though unions wanted the bill to make individual directors personally liable for safety breaches and penalties against employers committing safety crimes to be tougher, we hope it will mean the start of a change in the safety culture at the top of the UK's companies and organisations.

'The catalogue of avoidable workplace deaths in recent years has highlighted in stark terms the need for a change of attitude over safety in UK boardrooms. To make a real difference, we now need to ensure that this law is accompanied by a new legal health and safety duty on directors and a requirement on companies to report annually on their workplace safety culture."

Unions Welcome Rethink of Blood Service Cuts

2007-07-15T21:44:00.000+01:00

Unions representing NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) workers have today welcomed the board's decision to think again proposals to cut 600 jobs and close seven* sites. The NHSBT board is asking interim MD, Clive Ronaldson, to carry out an overarching review of the proposed reconfiguration strategy.

Bill Campbell, Staff Side Secretary and UNISON's senior national officer for the NHSBT, said:

"The unions have put forward well researched and robust arguments why the current proposals to cut jobs and close centres should not go ahead,
This review makes good sense and will give stakeholders, including the
regulator, Department of Health, Trusts, staff and unions a fresh
opportunity to make their views known and influence the eventual outcome.

"Our prime concern is to ensure that any changes deliver a high quality
blood service and will not put lives at risk."

Staff Side Chair Owen Granfield from Unite Amicus said:

"The Board needs to look again at the impact of their proposals on the
service, environment and problems surrounding economies of scale.

"Building at Filton will still go ahead, but this new over arching review
is a positive step towards finding or long-term strategic solutions.

"We will be working jointly with the management team to find and implement
best practice at Filton to enable it to become a beacon of excellence."

Ends

Latest Newsletter

2007-07-11T18:27:00.000+01:00

The July newsletter has now been published and is available on the branch website. Feel free to print and distribute this to your members.

New NHSBT Staff Blog

2007-07-09T11:09:00.000+01:00

A new blog has been started, to fight against redundancies and closures in the NHSBT. The address is: http://nbs-sos.blogspot.com/.

The views represented on the blog are not necessarily those of the Unite (T&G Section) NHSBT Branch or those of Unite nationally.

Blood Service Petition

2007-06-27T18:48:00.001+01:00

There is a petition on the Downing Street website, opposing the
restructuring of the NHSBT. To sign a copy, go to this address:
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/nbs-sos/

Blood workers see red over job cuts

2007-06-18T18:21:00.001+01:00

Another press release from Unite (Amicus section)

Friday, 15th June 2007

Hundreds of Unite and Unison members working in the NHS Blood and
Transplant (NHSBT) service will today (Friday, 15 June) hold lunch
time protests at Blood Centres across England, to protest against
swingeing job cuts and closures.

Workers fear that plans to cut more than 600 jobs and axe seven out of
ten processing sites will put lives at risk and place enormous strain
on the workers at the three remaining site, who will have to cope with
the demand from hospitals across England and Wales.

Owen Granfield, Unite (Amicus section) Regional Officer and Staff Side
Chair, said:

"These proposals mean compulsory redundancy for many of the National
Blood Service's skilled scientists and technicians. As well as the
cuts in the testing and processing of donated blood there are also
cuts and redundancies for staff dealing with rare platelet antibodies,
red cell investigations and reagent production. We cannot stand by and
see the service cut to meet financial targets.

"The NHS and the nation has invested millions in training these
hundreds of technical and scientific staff and now proposes to just
dispose of them."

Staff Side Secretary, Bill Campbell, said:

"The time for talking is rapidly coming to an end. Despite putting
forward robust arguments and making constructive counter proposals,
management has not budged an inch on the plan. Unless we see some
serious proposals from management, we will be left with no alternative
but to consider a ballot for strike action.

"Today's lunchtime demonstrations reflect the deep anger among staff
who are already stretched to the limit. The National Blood Service
should look again at these proposals and make their decisions on what
will help to save the most lives – not what will save the most money."

As a result of the closures the service will lose the flexibility and
responsiveness to short-term fluctuations in demand that local
processing centres provide. In addition the closures will mean blood
products with a very short shelf life will have to be moved long
distances from collection sites to processing centres and back again
to issuing centres, leaving supply dependent on highly congested and
unreliable road networks.

The cuts will leave massive holes in the coverage of processing
centres, particularly in the Midlands and North East. Depending on
just three centres will also put patients in jeopardy in the event of
an emergency situation such as a terrorist attack or in case of flood,
fire or pandemic in any one of these huge urban centres.

-Ends-

For further information please contact Owen Granfield on 07768 693942
or Ashraf Choudhury in the Unite Press Office on 020 740 8914 or 07980
224761 or Anne Mitchell Unison Press Officer on 020 7383 0717.

‘National Blood Service changes place public at risk’ claims Unite

2007-06-18T18:20:00.001+01:00

Press release from Unite (Amicus section)

Thursday, 14th June 2007

Unite, the UK's largest trade union, will protest tomorrow (Friday 15
June) against the proposed changes in the National Blood Service which
the union claims will place the welfare of the public at risk.

Consultation began today (14 June) on the closure of the
Histocompatibility & Immunogenetics (H&I) function at the Cambridge
site and will be the first of a number of laboratory closures at the
Cambridge centre in Hills Road

Unite (Amicus section) Regional Officer, Ian Maidlow, said:

"It is tragically ironic that, on World Blood Donor Day, the National
Blood Service has chosen to begin formal consultation with us on the
closure of a key laboratory in Cambridge. This initial plan will mean
five highly-skilled people will probably lose their jobs and their
skills will be lost to serving the public. There are undoubtedly more
job losses planned.

"The H&I function provides an excellent service. For example, it
includes the Platelet Immunology Reference Laboratory that
investigates antibodies to platelets in a number of patient groups,
including new mothers and mothers-to-be, and families who are
genetically pre-disposed to faulty platelets.

"They have established a network of donors to support these groups
that is unparalleled in Europe, and it continues to be assessed as one
of only three top-performing laboratories in the world. How does the
Blood Service reward such a superb performance? It shuts the place
down."

A protest against the planned changes will take place at the Hills
Road site on Friday 15 June at midday.

-ENDS-

For further information please contact: Ian Maidlow on 07768 931310 or
Clare Cheetham-Wilkinson on 07857 735642 or Ashraf Choudhury in the
Unite Press Office on 020 7420 8914 or 07980 224761.

Notes to Editors:

Hundreds of Unite members working in the NHS Blood and Transplant
(NHSBT) service will hold lunch time protests on Friday 15 June at
Blood Centres across England, to protest against swingeing job cuts
and closures.

The seven centres are in Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham,
Southampton, Brentwood, and Tooting. There are also cuts at Cambridge
and Manchester.

Government Knew Risk Of AIDS

2007-05-29T16:57:00.000+01:00

This story is from the Guardian. The main culprit appears to be the Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM).

Unions set the limit on work temperature

2007-05-29T07:54:00.001+01:00

This is from the latest issue (Risks 307) of Risks. We will make this
one of the priorities at the next Health and Safety meeting.

As the Met Office continues to promise scorching summer temperatures,
unions are getting in early with some cool advice. Train drivers union
ASLEF is advising its members to refuse on safety grounds to work in
train cabs where the heat levels rise above 27 C. The executive
committee decision came in the wake of reports indicating that there
'were very few agreed arrangements in place to mitigate the risks from
heat exhaustion.' The union says work last year in sweltering cabs was
linked to an increase in potentially serious safety incidents (Risks
299). ASLEF general secretary Keith Norman said the union will inform
all train operating companies of the decision. 'We will also send out
the appropriate legal and health and safety advice to all branches and
reps - so that they have irrefutable justification for any action,' he
said. Teaching union NUT is calling for a lower temperature ceiling, a
new guide advising 'that 26 C should be the absolute maximum
temperature in which teachers should be expected to work, other than
for very short periods. It is important that all schools have in place
contingency plans to help staff and pupils cope with the heat. There
is little that can be done to alleviate particular problems if schools
do not plan in advance and also take note of the weather forecast for
the week ahead.' The guide adds: 'The NUT expects schools to implement
planned measures to reduce temperatures as soon as staff complain that
working conditions are beginning to become uncomfortable or as soon as
it is known that temperatures are going to become uncomfortable,
according to the weather forecast. If in doubt, 26 C should be used as
the trigger for these measures.' The union warns 'that, in schools,
other steps may need to be considered such as closing classrooms which
are unacceptably hot and teaching classes elsewhere, or even sending
pupils home, provided reasonable notice has been given to parents.' It
says NUT safety reps should raise temperature related concerns 'as a
matter of urgency' with school management.

£8 Billion for Waiting List Operations

2007-05-24T14:08:00.000+01:00

It was announced last week that an extra 390,000 operations would be funded. This is bound to have an impact on blood stocks as many waiting list operations require transfusions. The full article is in the Online Guardian.

Support From the Wobblies

2007-05-16T16:21:00.000+01:00

There is an article on the website of the Industrial Workers of the World (also known as the Wobblies) in support of the NHSBT staff. It claims to have some members in the NHSBT which may be true but, unfortunately, the IWW is not recognised in the union recognition agreement. Nice to have more support though.

Dismissed Unite (T&G Section) Member Re-instated

2007-05-16T16:01:00.001+01:00

At an appeal hearing held today in Central London, a Unite (T&G
Section) member was re-instated (after initially being dismissed) with
full back-pay. The member's union rep was fully involved and supported
her at all stages of the process. This just shows the advantage of
belonging to a union (especially Unite).

Petition for Index-linked Pay Rise

2007-05-15T10:17:00.000+01:00

There is a petition on the Downing Street website (http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/NHS-Pay/) calling for NHS pay to be linked with inflation. I don't know if these petitions accomplish anything but it is no effort to sign it.

Unite calls for action on enforcement

2007-05-12T08:37:00.001+01:00

This is from the latest issue of 'Risks'

A dramatic increase in workplace deaths shows the need for more
resources for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and a reversal in
the downward trend in enforcement, Britain's biggest union has said.
Unite, the union formed this month from the merger of TGWU and Amicus,
made the call after latest provisional figures showed workplace
fatalities in the construction industry increased last year by over 30
per cent (Risks 301). Unite is concerned that this and enforcement
trends - a new report for construction union UCATT has claimed that
the proportion of deaths in the sector that were followed by a
prosecution had fallen by nearly three quarters in the period from
1998 to 2004 (Risks 304) - show the safety watchdog is increasingly
reluctant to take the necessary enforcement action after criminal
safety breaches. HSE challenged the findings of the UCATT report when
the story was picked up the BBC Radio 4's flagship Today programme,
saying in a comment released to the press there was only a 'possible
10-15 per cent rise in fatal accidents', later defending this figure
when challenged by Hazards magazine. However, HSE later conceded its
own estimate was wrong and amended the press release online to say
there was a 'possible 20-25 per cent risk in fatal accidents' in the
construction sector, although the revised figures were not distributed
to HSE's press list. Amicus and the Centre for Corporate
Accountability, which prepared the report for UCATT, criticised HSE
chief executive Geoffrey Podger's defence of his organisation's
enforcement record, which included a statement that 'this is not a
police state'. They point out that his own memo last year commenting
on the findings of an internal HSE audit conceded enforcement rates
should be 'considerably greater' and warned that 'the implications of
this need to concern us all.' Rob Miguel, health and safety officer
with Unite's Amicus section, said: 'It seems though that HSE has
written off over half those devastated families within these figures.
For many years we have campaigned for increased enforcement for health
and safety breaches, and despite HSE worries about a police state,
they are more than concerned over the lack of enforcement themselves.'

Unite

2007-05-08T15:09:00.001+01:00

It is now official. The name of the new union is Unite. Amicus and
the T&G will continue to operate as separate organisations for the
next 18 months but we will work more closely with Amicus especially as
we are one of the few organisations with both Amicus and T&G members.
I will start to update all stationery and websites over the next few
weeks.

Average Earnings up 4.6%

2007-04-28T07:51:00.001+01:00

Average earnings rose 4.6% in the year to February 2007. This is
roughly in line with inflation and 2.7% higher than our proposed pay
rise. it is also 2.1% higher than the pay rise that the unions
accepted before the government decided to reduce it to 1.9% by staging
it. If you would like to see the full report go to:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/lmsuk0407.pdf.

Myth of the Month

2007-04-28T06:22:00.001+01:00

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has a website that deals with
popular misconceptions the public has about health and safety rules.
The address is:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/myth/index.htm

Unison Rejects Staged Pay Rise

2007-04-24T09:49:00.001+01:00

The Unison healthcare conference has voted unanimously to reject the
staged pay rise which at 2.5% was already well below the current
retail price index of 4.8%. The full story is at:
http://www.unison.org.uk/news/news_view.asp?did=3219

The Pay Rise Has Become Even Smaller

2007-04-23T23:07:00.001+01:00

Inflation is now at 4.8% making our pay rise nearly 3% less than
inflation. For someone earning £20,000, this is a loss of £600 over
the next year.

No Compulsory Boxing Day Working in 2007

2007-04-18T19:25:00.000+01:00

In the donor carers terms and conditions agreement of April 2003, it states specifically that staff will have to work up to three bank holiday weekends (four for component donation staff). As Christmas and Boxing Day are not part the weekend this year, staff are not required to work on Boxing Day unless they volunteer to do so.

Management may argue that this was not their intention when they made the agreement, but contracts are only based on the words actually in them and not the intentions of the parties involved. If they want you to work Boxing Day, they may have to offer an extra incentive or they may decide that since we are working normally on the Monday and Thursday of that week, there is no urgent need for Boxing Day collections.

The relevant paragraph in the agreement is 21.7.2 which reads as follows:

"In order to improve the availability of critical short shelf life products all staff may be rostered to work on up to a total of 3 days pa during Public Holiday weekends (Static Site staff - up to 4 days pa)."

Converting Blood Groups

2007-04-02T18:31:00.000+01:00

There is an article in today's Times about a new procedure to convert all blood groups to 'O'. There is at least one major error in the article and it also claims that we waste 10% of the blood we collect and credits the NHSBT as the source of this information.

Branch Meeting

2007-04-01T16:47:00.000+01:00

The TGWU branch of the NHSBT held its annual general meeting at Transport House in central London on 26th March 2007. Amongst the areas of discussion were the high votes in favour of the merger with Amicus by both unions and the selection or reconfirmation of branch officers.

Paul Selby was reconfirmed as the branch secretary and David Linsey was selected as branch chair.

Maximum Temperatures

2007-04-01T16:15:00.000+01:00

As the weather warms up, the problem of venues overheating will recur. Whilst there is no legal maximum temperature in the UK, the World Health Organisation recommends that indoor temperatures should be between 18^o and 24^o C. The NHSBT is already committed to exceeding legal minimums so the lack of a specific upper temperature should not be a problem. An article in the Observer on Sunday, 1st April 2007 highlights a threat by teachers to leave classrooms if the temperature exceeds 27^o C. With strong anecdotal evidence of increased donor reactions, we should make sure that this issue is high on the health and safety agenda. If we are actually moving to more static sites, we should have guarantees that they will be maintained at a comfortable working temperature throughout the year.

The Pay Cut Just Got Bigger

2007-03-27T23:11:00.000+01:00

In the last posting, I wrote that the pay cut was 2.2%. With the latest announcement that inflation is now 4.6%, the pay cut has gone up to 2.6%.

Pay Cut Proposed

2007-03-13T22:32:00.000+01:00

The government has proposed a sub-inflation pay rise of 1.9% for the 2007/08 financial year. They have also proposed that this be staged over the year with 1.5% being rewarded in April 2007 and 1% being rewarded in November 2007. The current rate of inflation is 4.2% so this is in effect a 2.2% pay cut. As nearly one third of NHSBT staff were put on protection after AfC assimilation, this is a further insult on top of threatened redundancies.

Branch AGM

2007-02-15T15:56:00.000+01:00

The annual general meeting of the TGWU NHSBT Branch will be held at the T&G central offices in Holborn, London on Monday, 26th March 2007 at 13:00. This is your chance to have a say in the future of the branch and elect branch officers. It has always been the custom to release one non-officer from each team to attends AGMs in the past and there is no reason that this should change.

Anti-Cuts Demo

2007-02-15T13:40:00.000+01:00

A lively demonstration was organised by Amicus rep Colin Anderson to protest against the proposals to close many of the labs with a loss of 600 jobs (65 at Tooting). Between 40 to 60 staff attended the demo during their lunch break.

More photos

Amicus Leads Protests at Job Cuts

2007-01-07T23:12:00.000+01:00

Last month Amicus staff staged a protest at the Colindale centre over the proposal to make 600 posts redundant. The article is on the Amicus website.

Constant Change

2007-01-06T10:12:00.000+01:00

The TUC has published a document that is highly critical of constant and untested changes in public services. Very similar to the situation we are facing in the NHSBT. You may not want to read all 31 pages but you can get the general idea.

TGWU Steward Recognition

2007-01-05T09:31:00.000+01:00

The NHSBT has finally recognised the credentials of all of the TGWU stewards. This means that full facilities are now granted to these stewards and puts an end to the ludicrous situation of stewards attending meetings but not being allowed to speak. Anyone who was hesitating to join the T&G due to worries about representation can put those concerns aside and join if they think the T&G is the right union to be in.

600 Redundancies Announced

2006-12-02T13:30:00.000+01:00

Martin Gorham, the chief executive of the NHSBT, has announced that there will be at least 600 redundancies as a result of the proposed restructuring of the laboratory services. At least some of these redundancies will be compulsory. The management are proposing to move all testing to three centres. They have provided no details of the huge amount of carbon that will be produced by the millions of extra road miles. Blood collected in Penzance will have to be transported to Bristol for testing and then back to Plymouth for issue. This will be repeated hundreds of times every day for all sessions.

This comes on top of other redundancy announcements in the donor services department (except for managers where they are proposing sixteen new senior management posts).

Management Cuts?

2006-11-04T16:02:00.000+01:00

At the clinical nurses' conference, Richard Fry announced that many of the staff cuts in the restructuring would affect managers. If you look more closely at the proposals for the Regional Collection Manager and below, there is actually a large increase in the number of managers and in their pay. I have not included session planning or marketing staff in these calculations. Under the proposals, the total pay bill for mangers will rise by £800,000. This increase in pay for managers is being funded by cutting front-line staff even further as it is proposed to lose 27 nursing posts. The savings made by the cuts in nursing come to £837,000. Any one who has worked on a session recently knows that there are not enough nurses as it is, especially with the proliferation of mini teams and mini mobile sessions.

In the end, it is donors and team staff who will have to pay for the increased number of managers.

Government Proposes NHS Pay Cut

2006-10-20T17:14:00.000+01:00

In their late submission to the pay review board, the government has proposed a 1.5% pay rise for all NHS staff. As inflation is now around 3.5%, this amounts to a 2% pay cut. No doubt this is to soften up the unions so that they accept a slightly smaller pay cut.

More Stewards Elected

2006-10-15T17:47:00.000+01:00

Two further elections have taken place in accordance with TGWU rules. Pauline Watson has been elected steward for the Brighton team and Anne O'Malley has been elected steward for collection teams in North London. As with all T&G stewards, their jurisdiction extends beyond their own teams so that staff always have support when needed such as during steward's annual leave.

Election of Local Branch Officers

2006-10-06T21:34:00.000+01:00

The election took place at a quorate meeting of Mitcham team for steward and union learning rep on Friday, 6th October 2006 as stated on the election announcement posted at the Mitcham base. The vote was by show-of-hands as allowed by the T&G rules and there was an unanimous vote for David Linsey as steward and Lauren Goff as union learning rep. Whilst David Linsey was appointed a steward in July 2006, this further confirms his status.

Amicus to Ballot Lab Staff

2006-10-03T08:33:00.000+01:00

Amicus will be balloting staff for possible strike action following management proposals to close most of the 14 processing centres and replace them with three new centres. There is no evidence that this will lead to a more efficient service. In fact, what evidence is available points to this being a backward step. The full news is on the BBC website.

Crew Cabs

2006-09-15T09:43:00.000+01:00

Many T&G and UNISON members will have received a letter from Michael Walker about an agreement that has been reached about passenger numbers in the crew cabs. The letter left unanswered several questions about how this would be implemented so I will try to fill these in.

A long journey would be any journey that is scheduled to take over half an hour though even for a short journey, four staff and all of their bags would still be a very crowded back seat and should be avoided.

If the team has over twelve staff wanting transport, it will be the responsibility of the team management to provide an alternative form of transport that does not involve staff using their own cars. In most cases this will mean that a taxi will need to be provided. No one should be pressured to use their own car and there is also the issue of the proper insurance as it is necessary to have business insurance if you are claiming work mileage. Most insurance companies do not charge for this but some might and unless the blood service is willing to cover the possible extra cost, you are not obliged to use your own car. You are not obliged to use your car anyway even if you do have business use insurance.

Staff have also been told that they cannot store their safety shoes on the crew cabs as there is not enough space. This goes against the legislation about the provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) which is very clear about the storage and cleaning of PPE. Page 34 of the USDAW guide goes into much more detail about the regulations.

Please make sure that your team manager is aware of the agreement before the need arises (if you are lucky enough to go out with more than twelve staff).

Team Restructuring Proposals

2006-08-31T18:15:00.000+01:00

On Wednesday, 30th August, 2006 the management of the NHS Blood and Transplant Authority proposed a major restructuring of the way blood collection teams are organised.

One of the main proposals is to cut the number of collection teams from over 100 to 38. This will be brought about by merging teams that are geographically close together. For example, it is proposed that the Mitcham team, the Epsom team and the Tooting clinic will form a new team called the South London team. This may offer more flexibility to staff who may be able to move from one part of the team to another if the session times or locations are more convenient to them, but it is not clear how they will get to these sessions or if their journey will be fully paid for.

It is proposed that several posts will disappear including the deputy regional collection manager and the regional nurse posts. These will be replaced in part by a new area team manager post at band 7 and a senior team nurse post also at band 7. There will also be a reduction in the number of band 6 team managers as only one band 6 session manager will be required for each area team.

It is also proposed that 27 nursing posts (out of a total of 76 redundancies) will be lost but in an answer to a question I put to Jackie Morgan, the nursing establishment will be based as much on the number of sessions a team does as the collection target. If a team does numerous small sessions with mini mobiles and small hall sessions, they will need a larger establishment than a team that does mainly large hall sessions.

There are no proposals at the moment to change the role of the donor care supervisors or the donor carers I and II. There will probably be further expansion in the area of donor deferral.

The marketing and session planning functions will be merged and they will be more closely attached to a specific area team.

Some questions have been raised about the slotting in process. It is not clear that it is always appropriate and also brings up the issue of equal opportunities.

The full proposals will be on the NHSBT Intranet (which should be available at all team bases) and a helpline is opening on Monday, 4th September 2006 on feature net 0515.

It was announced that the thirty day consultation period began on 30th August 2006 (this is the legal minimum when less than 100 redundancies are proposed) but the proposals have not been officially presented to the NJSC so the consultation period cannot be considered to have started yet. In practical terms, it is likely to take several months before the proposals are fully debated, revised, accepted (or rejected) and implemented.

If you have any questions or comments about these proposals, either post them on this blog or phone (or text) me on 07974 176 031.

Welcome to the TGWU in the NHS Blood and Transplant Authority

2006-08-23T06:38:00.000+01:00

Welcome to the weblog (blog) of the national TGWU NHS Blood and Transplant branch. The TGWU has a single branch structure for the whole of the NHS Blood and Transplant Authority. This promotes proper communications and cuts across the false demarcation lines of the National Blood Service regions. This way, the best representative for the job can accompany members facing disciplinary action or submitting grievances anywhere in the country. As the management have just announced that the regions will no longer exist in the proposed new structure, we are clearly ahead of the game. We have members in the transport department, stores and collection teams.

The T&G is the fastest growing union in the blood service. Our membership has increased by 50% over the last few weeks. Our branch secretary is Paul Selby who is a donor carer in the Bristol area.

The main purpose of this blog is to keep members (and anyone else) up-to-date with the latest news about what is happening in the NHSBT. At some point, it is our intention to also have a website with more detailed information about the branch and the blood service. Watch for an announcement on this blog.