  Unite the union July 2020  Issue 14 Keeping you safe Test, Track and Trace Our AGS Gail Cartmail has met with Baroness Dido Harding, who leads the national Test, Track and Trace team, to press home the union’s evidence that focus on the workplace is critical. Employers must comply with government requirements and have in place a ‘risk assessment’ developed in consultation with our union reps. Where there are 50 plus employees the risk assessment should be published. Unite argues that all workers absent for Covid related reasons, crucially including self-isolation, must receive contractual pay not Statutory Sick Pay. Workers must not be forced to choose between safety and poverty. Unite has thousands of trained health and safety reps willing and able to join forces in the campaign to make every workplace safe. Our challenge to government is take up this offer of ‘roving health and safety reps’ to ensure safer workplaces. Unite’s test and trace advice is on our dedicated Covid-19 workplace health and safety pages here Unite face coverings Our new Unite branded face coverings last up to 50 washes and can now be ordered individually, or in bulk by branches. For individual orders click here For bulk orders click here We have a wide range of #StaySafe products designed to help you stay safe at work. Click here for more information.  Fighting for jobs Save hospitality jobs Our members working in hospitality staged socially distant demonstrations in London, Belfast and Cardiff, as well as online, calling for action by government to do more to save jobs in the sector.Protestors outside the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in Westminster called on tourism minister Nigel Huddleston to meet them to hear first-hand about the impact of the pandemic on their lives and demand action to end the use of ‘fire and rehire’ tactics by employers to impose drastically worse terms and conditions. Outside Stormont, members called on economy minister Diane Dobbs to meet hospitality and tourism workers about their growing concerns around the furlough scheme, safe working conditions and the need for a retention and skills development scheme. And demonstrators at the Senedd called on the Westminster government to give a new deal to hospitality workers and investigate employers using JRS while making redundancies.    BA Betrayal takes campaign to Spain Meanwhile, our crisis leverage campaign to stop British Airways attacking its workforce landed in Madrid this week to take the fight to BA’s parent company IAG and demand its president intervenes and negotiates a reasonable agreement.  Unite poll finds most people oppose chancellor’s latest job protection measures Most voters consider the new job retention bonus (JRB) should be targeted at the industries in most need, and that the chancellor’s £10 meal deal is a waste of taxpayers’ money, according to a poll commissioned by Unite.Rishi Sunak has so far refused to extend the job retention scheme beyond October, and instead is giving a bonus payment to all employers for each worker they bring back from furlough. Read more about our poll’s findings. Winning wages Unite wins wages for former Jamie’s Italian workers Former employees of celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s Italian chain of restaurants have been awarded eight weeks of lost wages after an employment tribunal ruled that it had failed to consult with them over their redundancies following the collapse of his restaurant group last year. The 70 Unite members formerly employed in restaurants in Glasgow and Edinburgh will receive an average pay out of £2,000 each. More than 1,000 jobs were lost when the group fell into administration in May 2019, which led to the closure of 22 restaurants. Read more Fair tips, four years on? Four years since the government first promised action to stop restaurants stealing card tips from workers, and business secretary Alok Sharma has again promised to change the law, after being pressed in parliament to do so. Thanks to Darren Jones MP who asked the minister, on behalf of Unite’s hospitality members, when the draft legislation would finally be introduced.  We are #WorthMore We’ve called again on the chancellor Rishi Sunak to stop ignoring low paid local authority workers, who are being offered a pay rise that amounts to just £1.83 a day.While his 3.1% rise for 900,000 public sector workers is welcome, not only are the council staff who’ve kept our communities moving throughout the pandemic losing out, but care workers who have risked their own health and lives looking after our loved ones have no pay award in sight. Unite is holding a consultative ballot of its 100,000 council workers on whether they wish to reject or accept a pay and conditions offer by their employer. The ballot closes on 14 August. Read more about how you can help support our council workers get the pay rise they deserve. Supporting our members and reps Unite education now bigger and better Our MC2 education programme is now live. For just £4 a month every Unite member can have access to the new platform, which provides hundreds of online courses, job vacancies, career support and more for you and up to six members of your family or friends. Unite has long provided the biggest adult education programme in the UK, and now it’s even bigger. Find out more, and register for your FREE 30-day trial here  To catch up with all Unite’s statements, stories and actions on #coronavirus go to our News and Events page HEREAnd to UNITELive HERE Please do not reply to this email as the address is not monitored if you need advice or have a query please contact your regional office through the Unite website or visit the Unite coronavirus information page.     Published by Unite the Union 128 Theobald’s RoadHolborn London, Greater London WC1X 8TN United Kingdom |