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September 27, 2008
ECU AND CAR PARKING
The results of the consultation exercise on Staff Travel and Parking were reported on in a recent chief officer briefing. HPA has at least 600 permanent staff. We are told there were 80 responses – that’s 13% of the workforce. The Unions made their objections known about the consultation as we maintain that when it comes to terms and conditions of employment, literally bread ‘n’ butter issues – there should be negotiations with the recognised trade unions. Consultation can be an empty process, a going through the motions. HPA should be seeking to reach agreement with the unions. It is noted that there is a willingness to consult on some things and not others. It would have been interesting to have consulted on some recent spending – like the £100,000 spent on management consultants. A consultation exercise on the payment of increments would also have been welcomed by the unions.
A 13% response rate has no statistical significance and does not give HPA a mandate on which to make decisions and inform the development and implementation of HR strategies.
Napo is currently consulting with members about travel and car parking through workplace meetings and if you cannot attend those please pass on your views to Napo representatives.
Napo has not seen the 80 responses so we don’t know what else may have been said about ECU and car parking. Some members may have even favoured retention of a 500 miles threshold, may have argued for free parking, may have mentioned disabled car parking as a reasonable adjustment. With consultation exercises there is always the risk that those who control it will look for responses that are congruent with their own assumptions and ambitions.
There is even a kite being flown about charging for office parking. This chimes with what many hospital trusts have been doing for some years. In Scotland they recently outlawed charging NHS staff and visitors for parking – effectively it has been renationalized. Charging for parking sounds very business-focused, very market-oriented – though the less said about the sad free market model at the present time the better. We want to keep office parking in public ownership! If need be on a first come first served basis rather than reserved parking places,
We know ECU and parking are very significant issues, in terms of operational flexibility for staff, and in terms of economic significance. Staff are already seeing their pay being degraded through inflation and through the refusal of the employers to make a reasonable pay offer following their refusal to pay increments that staff were entitled to receive last April. Your money in someone else’s pockets.
It is important that we seek to build a united position on this issue. A collective agreement would be in the interests of all members. But consultation is not enough – this subject demands negotiations, not the imposition of arrangements that will further impoverish members.
Napo and Unison are the recognised trade unions within HPA. There is a Union Recognition Agreement and there is a JNCC constitution for regulating collective bargaining. HPA did not like the previous ECU agreement so want to walk away from it. Lately we hear much about the desire to consult widely with the entire workforce. Individuals cannot be prevented from striking individual deals with HPA, but the strongest agreements, the ones in the best interests of members, are collective agreements, because management know they represent the will of the membership. On matters as important as ECU and parking, HPA may consult with individual members, but when it comes to the unions, 'consultation' is a euphemism for marginalizing the unions, in other words marginalizing the membership. Just like the banks we need regulated activities, and not one party seeking to make up different rules to further its own interests. This is why we have free collective bargaining to reach negotiated agreements. And we ask all members to pass this message on…
Posted by Hampshire at September 27, 2008 03:54 PM