UNISON condemns ‘Swinney Tax’ on NHS workers

Thu 20 Dec 2012

 

UNISON Scotland condemned the “Swinney Tax” on NHS workers today, as the Scottish Government published consultation proposals to increase employee pensions contributions for the second year - with a further increase to come in 2014.

This Swinney tax means employee pension contributions would rise on average by 3.2 % of salary over that 3 year period.

Tom Waterson, chair of UNISON Scotland Health Committee said:

“The SNP government had a clear opportunity to avoid passing on this swingeing financial burden to workers in NHS Scotland. UNISON made constructive proposals to avoid this UK Treasury levy being passed on and keep Danny Alexander’s long fingers out of the pay packets of our members.

“Unfortunately, the Scottish Government has chosen to adopt this measure – it is now the ‘Swinney Tax.’”

The NHS Superannuation Scheme has historically operated in surplus and there is no ‘black hole’ to plug. Monies collected from this pensions levy will not go into the NHS pension pot, and members of the scheme will see no additional benefits to them of these added costs. Instead, the levy will go directly to the Treasury as part of austerity measures to address a financial crisis - one which was not caused by NHS workers, but by casino bankers.

Wille Duffy, lead UNISON official for Health said:

“All our Scottish health branches will meet early in the new year to discuss how we respond to this latest wave of pay cuts for health workers. UNISON Scotland ran industrial action in 2012 in response to the first year of these increased charges and we will discuss our 2013 response in February.”

ends

Notes for editors:

1. UNISON is Scotland’s largest trade union and represents around 50,000 members across all sections of the Scottish NHS workforce (except doctors).

2. The UK Treasury announced as part of the 2010 Spending Review to raise £6 billion by 2015 (£0.5 billion in Scotland) from increased contributions across ‘pay as you go’ public sector pensions schemes (NHS, civil service, teachers, etc). This equates to 3.2% average for individuals over period 2012-5.

3. 2011 saw agreement in England & Wales to a ’new’ pensions agreement in the NHS ,including increased contributions. Negotiations have taken place without success in Scotland throughout 2012 with the Scottish Government  to seek to find a Scottish solution. UNISON took industrial action across the UK in November 2011 on this issue and selective action in spring 2012 in NHS Scotland Boards (Greater Glasgow and Clyde; Lothian; Lanarkshire; Ayrshire and Arran).

.

UNISON's Better Way - some of the first 20,000 reasons to Mobilise

UNISON Scotland members and supporters formed a main part of the STUC's 20,000-strong There is a Better Way march and rally in Edinburgh on Saturday 23 October 2010.  Here are some of the reasons why they were demonstrating against the ConDem cuts and for a Better Way to fund our vital public services. And here are reasons for members to get involved in UNISON Scotland campaigns - Public Works: and the Mobilise 2010 campaigning event on 19-21 November in Glasgow.

(See UNISON Scotland site http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/ for more info)


.

Sunday Mail: 20,000 Scots take to streets of Edinburgh to protest against spending cuts

Oct 24 2010 Mark Aitken, Sunday Mail

THOUSANDS of Scots marched in protest at Government spending cuts yesterday as Treasury axeman Danny Alexander battled to justify them.

More than 20,000 joined a rally in Edinburgh to oppose the spending review announced by the Con Dem coalition on Wednesday.

Union leaders warned of strike action over the slashing of public services, which will see Scotland lose around £3billion over the next four years.

Up to 50,000 of the 500,000 public service jobs under threat will be lost in Scotland and the same number could go in the private sector.

The Scottish Trades Union Congress organised the rally and general secretary Grahame Smith said: "If members decide that the best way is to take industrial action then they will do that. I'm not saying that as a threat, but as a fact.

"We want to work constructively with employers but if they are not willing to do that then members will take action to protect their rights."


Full story at Sunday Mail website

More UNISON pics and story to follow here on this blog and on UNISON Scotland website.  


.

STV: 20,000 take part in Edinburgh cuts protest

23 October 2010 12:39 GMT

 
More than 20,000 people took to the streets of Edinburgh in a demonstration against cuts to public services.

The march and rally took in unions, political groups and concerned members of the public in a show of unity against the UK Government's spending review.

Organised by the Scottish Trades Union Congress, it aimed to highlight fears about the impact of Chancellor George Osborne's savings package.

Huge cuts amounting to about £81billion across the UK were unveiled on Wednesday - and Scotland is expected to lose about £3 billion over the next four years.

The colourful procession gathered outside City of Edinburgh Council headquarters and stretched at its peak along the entire route to Princes Street Gardens, exceeding organisers' expectations.


Full story at STV website

More UNISON pics and story to follow here on this blog and on UNISON Scotland website.  

BBC Scotland: Unions protest in Edinburgh over public sector cuts

23 October 2010 Last updated at 15:09 

 

A rally in Edinburgh to protest at public sector cuts was attended by more than 20,000 demonstrators.

Union group the STUC arranged the event to demonstrate against measures in the UK government's Spending Review.

STUC general secretary Grahame Smith said: "We launched this campaign to dispel the myth that there is no economic alternative to these cuts.

"There is an alternative. Get people back to work, get the economy growing again, and the public finances will largely take care of themselves.

"We also launched this campaign to expose the lie that it is those with the broadest shoulders that will bear the brunt of the cuts."

Union leaders said they had been "overwhelmed" by the response to the protest rally attended by people from across Scotland.

See full story at BBC Scotland News

More UNISON pics and story to follow here on this blog and on UNISON Scotland website. 


.

STUC predicts major turnout for There is a Better Way march and rally in Edinburgh

Thousands of trade unionists, community activists and members of general public will join the STUC-led 'There is a Better Way' march on Saturday 23 October.

STUC General Secretary, Grahame Smith said:
“Given that we called this event as a launch rather than an end point for our campaign, we are both surprised and delighted by the response we are receiving - not just from our members but from wider Scottish society.

“The intensity of the response will only increase when the implications of the Comprehensive Spending Review sink in over the next two days.

“You only have to look at the list of organisations attending and sending supportive messages to understand the depth of anger and growing level of support for the campaign.”

Notes:
On 23rd STUC will announce a range of future protest activities as well as committing to joint campaigning work with Scotland’s key civic and community organisations.

March details:
Arrangements
The march musters 11.00am at East Market Street Edinburgh at the south side of Waverly Station.
The march will set off at 11.30am. It will travel a route along Princes Street. At approximately 12.30am the march will assemble at the Ross Bandstand in Princes Gardens. The rally will begin at some stage between 12.30 and 1pm depending on the size of the march.



.

"We are all in this together" – pull the other one...

From UNISON (East Midlands) blog:

Tory Chancellor George Osborne keeps saying "we are all in this together" as if we are all sharing the pain of the deficit reduction. Less than a day after his ruinous Comprehensive Spending Review the independent Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) have shown this to be a lie.

The full IFS briefing materials can be found here. But the real story can be shown quite simply by looking at the graph above.

The key test is how the cuts affect people as a proportion of their income – the graph shows a number of things but the thing to look at it the white line. This shows the cuts per income decile as a proportion of income (the axis for this line is on the right). This shows that those on lower incomes suffer more that those on higher incomes.

Clearly we are not "all in this together."

What we have is a millionaire Tory Chancellor, in a Cabinet of millionaires, looking after the interests of millionaires.

(Thank East Mids colleagues!)

.