UNISON today reiterated its call for safe nurse patient ratios on hospital wards, as new research shows that death rates increase where there are not enough nurses. The report, Safe and Sound for the Safe Staffing Alliance, is launched to coincide with International Nurses Day and is based on research by Southampton University. The report shows that hospitals with more than 8 patients per registered nurse would expect to see around 20 extra deaths a year more than hospitals that were ...
EDWIN Poots reaffirmed to the Assembly today that he is pressing ahead with his ‘Transforming Your Care’ plan to close and privatise all NHS care homes despite the distress caused last week and the negative health impacts this will have. His plan is 100% withdrawal from NHS homes, even though there is a projected population rise in older people of 40% by 2020. No evidence based reason for the closure have ever been produced despite that fact that in the future the ...
UNISON Northern Ireland along with all other regions were in attendance at the 2013 Health Care Service Group Conference from Monday 22nd to Wednesday 24th at the SECC Glasgow. The following UNISON NI delegates spoke to the conference: Marion Ritchie, proposing Motion 13, said: “For 30 years our members across the NHS have resisted. UNISON members in Northern Ireland have been at the front of that resistance.” “We have confronted and reversed market testing. As a consequence every single support service worker has ...
On May Day Saturday 4th May the trade union movement will once again take to the streets of Belfast for the annual May Day march and rally which will see us pledge to continue to campaign for a better, fairer alternative to the devastating effects of austerity and cuts. ICTU have released their programme of events which you can view here:http://www.unison.org.uk/northernireland/pages_view.asp?did=15572
Issue 2 of the Independent Care Homes newsletter is now online, click here to view this.
UNEMPLOYMENT in Northern Ireland has risen by 1.5% and now stands at 8.4%. As well as this, nearly 300 people were made redundant in March and 68,000 people signed onto unemployment benefit. Dave Prentis, UNISON's General Secretary, said: "This rise in unemployment is further proof that the Chancellor has lost his grip on the economy. Every job lost is a personal tragedy and yet compared to pre-crisis levels, there are a million more people facing the misery of unemployment in the UK. ...
FROM October 2012 the very largest employers will be required to start automatically enrolling eligible staff into qualifying pension schemes. UNISON supports auto-enrolment in principle as extending pensions coverage is a positive step towards all workers having access to a decent pension in retirement. We recognise our members have questions about auto-enrolment so we have designed a Q&A that we believe will make things clearer. What is this all about? Nearly all workers are being automatically put into a pension scheme – ...
Please find enclosed UNISON's submission to "Who cares - the future of adult care and support". "The principles espoused by the Good Friday Agreement and original Programme for Government made a range of commitments to the citizens of Northern Ireland which should have resulted in a fairer, healthier, more prosperous and peaceful society with decision makers and citizens acting together to create the better society we all hoped for. This has not happened."
The Community / voluntary branch of UNISON NI is holding a discussion in Galway House , York Street, Belfast, on 17th April at 7PM, refreshments will be provided. Community activist Agnes Fraser will talk about the welfare cuts and how they are going to affect you & your family. Members of UNISON are invited and all those who want to know more about what the union can do for you.
THIS June it is expected that the Northern Ireland Public Service Pensions Bill currently being studied by the Finance and Personnel Committee at Stormont will be introduced. This bill is designed to facilitate the public sector Career Average Earnings Pension Schemes which will replace the existing Final Salary Pension schemes and to automatically link the public sector pension age to the State Pension Age. By 2020, the State Pension Age will have risen to 66. By 2026, it will be 67. The ...
