The government’s plan to tackle polluting water companies is wide of the mark

Commenting on the government’s plan to tackle polluting water companies announced today (Tuesday), UNISON head of environment Donna Rowe-Merriman said:

“It’s encouraging to see the government recognise the challenges Environment Agency staff face, but ministers’ plan is still well wide of the mark.

“Despite the best efforts of the workforce, spills have caused irreversible harm to coasts and rivers. Adding a handful of inspectors will make little difference.

“The government’s failure to fund the Agency properly has put staff under mounting pressure. Many have quit their jobs, leaving those still in post overburdened, having to take on extra shifts to tackle the many storms, floods and pollution incidents.

“Ministers sat back and watched this escalating crisis unfold and have come up with an inadequate response that falls far short of what’s needed.”

Notes to editors:
– UNISON is the UK’s largest union with more than 1.3 million members providing public services in education, local government, the NHS, police service and energy. They are employed in the public, voluntary and private sectors.

Media contacts:
Fatima Ayad M: 07508 377215 E: f.ayad@unison.co.uk
Liz Chinchen M: 07778 158175 E: press@unison.co.uk

The article The government’s plan to tackle polluting water companies is wide of the mark first appeared on the UNISON National site.

The government’s plan to tackle polluting water companies is wide of the mark

Commenting on the government’s plan to tackle polluting water companies announced today (Tuesday), UNISON head of environment Donna Rowe-Merriman said:

“It’s encouraging to see the government recognise the challenges Environment Agency staff face, but ministers’ plan is still well wide of the mark.

“Despite the best efforts of the workforce, spills have caused irreversible harm to coasts and rivers. Adding a handful of inspectors will make little difference.

“The government’s failure to fund the Agency properly has put staff under mounting pressure. Many have quit their jobs, leaving those still in post overburdened, having to take on extra shifts to tackle the many storms, floods and pollution incidents.

“Ministers sat back and watched this escalating crisis unfold and have come up with an inadequate response that falls far short of what’s needed.”

Notes to editors:
– UNISON is the UK’s largest union with more than 1.3 million members providing public services in education, local government, the NHS, police service and energy. They are employed in the public, voluntary and private sectors.

Media contacts:
Fatima Ayad M: 07508 377215 E: f.ayad@unison.co.uk
Liz Chinchen M: 07778 158175 E: press@unison.co.uk

The article The government’s plan to tackle polluting water companies is wide of the mark first appeared on the UNISON National site.

New Environment Agency offer means strike suspension and pay talks

The four-day strike that had been due to take place from Friday 3 November involving hundreds of Environment Agency workers represented by UNISON has been suspended to allow pay talks to happen.

Staff working to protect communities from the aftermath of Storm Babet and the onslaught of Storm Ciarán were reluctantly due to walk out from 7am on Friday until 7am on Monday as part of their long-standing dispute over pay, says UNISON.

The decision to call off the strike was taken after the Environment Agency confirmed ministers had given it permission to negotiate a new offer* to give employees a long-overdue wage rise and help the agency with recruitment and retention.

UNISON head of environment Donna Rowe-Merriman said: “Persistent low pay at the Environment Agency has resulted in chronic staffing shortages. Many employees have left for better-paid jobs and haven’t been replaced.

“That’s put the staff that remain in post under incredible pressure, never more so than in the last two weeks. Climate change is threatening ever more extreme weather, like the terrible storm much of the country is currently experiencing. But the agency simply doesn’t have enough staff to go around.

“None of them wanted to take action this week. They are dedicated to their jobs.

“Staff have been working round the clock to keep communities safe the best they can, but there’s only so much they can do when there are so few of them. Poverty wages have caused the staffing crisis at the agency and the government has sat by and let this happen.

“Ministers could have intervened ages ago and helped end the dispute. But they chose not to. At last, someone in government has seen sense and allowed the agency to do something managers there have wanted to do for months. That’s use a budgetary staffing underspend to boost the wages of its long-suffering workforce.

“Hopefully, there’s now a light at the end of the tunnel, for both Environment Agency workers and the communities so dependent upon their support.

“Talks over the coming days will decide what happens next. But there must be a long-term solution to improve pay across the agency or it will be unable to rise to the challenges posed by our increasingly worsening weather.”

Notes to editors:
*– By allowing Environment Agency managers to make use of a budgetary underspend, the government is effectively giving it permission to breach the Cabinet Office pay remit. This guidance provides a framework within which all departments will set pay for 2023/24 and for departmental pay strategies and pay reporting.
– Environment Agency staff were given a pay increase of 2% plus £345 last autumn.
– The lowest paid workers at the Environment Agency receive the national minimum wage of £10.42 an hour.
– Environment Agency staff belonging to UNISON have been taking some form of industrial action since last December. As well as working to rule, staff have walked out on four previous occasions – 18 January, 7-8 February, 31 March-3 April, and 14-17 April. In addition, they have withdrawn from incident response rosters. Agency employees belonging to Prospect have also been taking action.
– UNISON is the UK’s largest union with more than 1.3 million members providing public services in education, local government, the NHS, police service and energy. They are employed in the public, voluntary and private sectors.

Media contacts:
Fatima Ayad M: 07508 080383 E: f.ayad@unison.co.uk
Liz Chinchen M: 07778 158175 E: l.chinchen@unison.co.uk

The article New Environment Agency offer means strike suspension and pay talks first appeared on the UNISON National site.

New Environment Agency offer means strike suspension and pay talks

The four-day strike that had been due to take place from Friday 3 November involving hundreds of Environment Agency workers represented by UNISON has been suspended to allow pay talks to happen.

Staff working to protect communities from the aftermath of Storm Babet and the onslaught of Storm Ciarán were reluctantly due to walk out from 7am on Friday until 7am on Monday as part of their long-standing dispute over pay, says UNISON.

The decision to call off the strike was taken after the Environment Agency confirmed ministers had given it permission to negotiate a new offer* to give employees a long-overdue wage rise and help the agency with recruitment and retention.

UNISON head of environment Donna Rowe-Merriman said: “Persistent low pay at the Environment Agency has resulted in chronic staffing shortages. Many employees have left for better-paid jobs and haven’t been replaced.

“That’s put the staff that remain in post under incredible pressure, never more so than in the last two weeks. Climate change is threatening ever more extreme weather, like the terrible storm much of the country is currently experiencing. But the agency simply doesn’t have enough staff to go around.

“None of them wanted to take action this week. They are dedicated to their jobs.

“Staff have been working round the clock to keep communities safe the best they can, but there’s only so much they can do when there are so few of them. Poverty wages have caused the staffing crisis at the agency and the government has sat by and let this happen.

“Ministers could have intervened ages ago and helped end the dispute. But they chose not to. At last, someone in government has seen sense and allowed the agency to do something managers there have wanted to do for months. That’s use a budgetary staffing underspend to boost the wages of its long-suffering workforce.

“Hopefully, there’s now a light at the end of the tunnel, for both Environment Agency workers and the communities so dependent upon their support.

“Talks over the coming days will decide what happens next. But there must be a long-term solution to improve pay across the agency or it will be unable to rise to the challenges posed by our increasingly worsening weather.”

Notes to editors:
*– By allowing Environment Agency managers to make use of a budgetary underspend, the government is effectively giving it permission to breach the Cabinet Office pay remit. This guidance provides a framework within which all departments will set pay for 2023/24 and for departmental pay strategies and pay reporting.
– Environment Agency staff were given a pay increase of 2% plus £345 last autumn.
– The lowest paid workers at the Environment Agency receive the national minimum wage of £10.42 an hour.
– Environment Agency staff belonging to UNISON have been taking some form of industrial action since last December. As well as working to rule, staff have walked out on four previous occasions – 18 January, 7-8 February, 31 March-3 April, and 14-17 April. In addition, they have withdrawn from incident response rosters. Agency employees belonging to Prospect have also been taking action.
– UNISON is the UK’s largest union with more than 1.3 million members providing public services in education, local government, the NHS, police service and energy. They are employed in the public, voluntary and private sectors.

Media contacts:
Fatima Ayad M: 07508 080383 E: f.ayad@unison.co.uk
Liz Chinchen M: 07778 158175 E: l.chinchen@unison.co.uk

The article New Environment Agency offer means strike suspension and pay talks first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Pay claim submitted on behalf of Environment Agency staff

UNISON and the joint trade unions have submitted a pay claim for 2023/24 seeking an increase of at least 13.2% for Environment Agency (EA) staff.

The unions’ fully-evidenced claim reflects how union members who remain in dispute over the 2022/23 pay award of 2% plus £345 have made it clear that the previous year’s uplift was not acceptable during the height of the cost of living crisis, with inflation running in double digits and with the wages of the lowest paid falling below the National Living Wage in April.

The lack of a significant uplift has created a ‘grade drift’ across all roles in comparison to pay rates a decade ago. This is continuing to grow.

The Cabinet Office published the 2023/24 civil service pay remit guidance earlier this year, which sets out the Treasury’s pay policy for the coming year and binds the hands of a number of government departments and agencies on pay.

It has instructed departments – including the EA – that they can make average pay awards of up to 4.5% this year plus 0.5% for the lowest paid.

UNISON national secretary for business, community and environment Donna Rowe-Merriman said: “Over 10 years of pay restraint and a insulting offer that our members rejected, we look to the EA to make amends and reverse the trend of below inflation offers that make our hard working members worse off.

“We urge the agency to come to the negotiating table with an offer that seeks to deliver a real uplift for members that reverses the trend of recent years.

“A 13.2% increase would meet current inflation rates, and at the same time, begin to address over a decade of pay erosion in the Environment Agency and make staff feel valued.”

Hard-working members who protect our environment

Ms Rowe-Merriman continued: “These are hard-working members who protect our environment and who protect our communities from flooding and pollution. They are feeling the impacts and are demanding a pay rise that doesn’t leave staff facing hardship.

“The lowest paid, many of whom work in field operations, are yet again being hardest hit. The 2022/23 pay award demonstrated to be insufficient as the lowest paid staff EA staff salary was so low if fell below the legal minimum National Living Wage in April 2023.

“UNISON’s member survey showed quite clearly how dependent field ops workers rely on standby and overtime payments – and in some cases, in-work benefits and food banks. This reflects just how hard it is to maintain a reasonable standard of living on their basic agency pay.”

Average pay settlements across the economy have been running far ahead of those received by Environment Agency staff over recent years. This has increased the likelihood of recruitment and retention problems in the long term.

The response from UNISON’s annual pay survey indicates that, yet again, 30% of respondents are seriously considering leaving the agency in the next 12 months – often to water companies, other agencies or the Environment Agency’s supply chain. They state that salary is the main reason for doing so.

The joint trade unions, UNISON Prospect, GMB and Unite, have urged pay talks to commence as soon as possible.

The article Pay claim submitted on behalf of Environment Agency staff first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Pay claim submitted on behalf of Environment Agency staff

UNISON and the joint trade unions have submitted a pay claim for 2023/24 seeking an increase of at least 13.2% for Environment Agency (EA) staff.

The unions’ fully-evidenced claim reflects how union members who remain in dispute over the 2022/23 pay award of 2% plus £345 have made it clear that the previous year’s uplift was not acceptable during the height of the cost of living crisis, with inflation running in double digits and with the wages of the lowest paid falling below the National Living Wage in April.

The lack of a significant uplift has created a ‘grade drift’ across all roles in comparison to pay rates a decade ago. This is continuing to grow.

The Cabinet Office published the 2023/24 civil service pay remit guidance earlier this year, which sets out the Treasury’s pay policy for the coming year and binds the hands of a number of government departments and agencies on pay.

It has instructed departments – including the EA – that they can make average pay awards of up to 4.5% this year plus 0.5% for the lowest paid.

UNISON national secretary for business, community and environment Donna Rowe-Merriman said: “Over 10 years of pay restraint and a insulting offer that our members rejected, we look to the EA to make amends and reverse the trend of below inflation offers that make our hard working members worse off.

“We urge the agency to come to the negotiating table with an offer that seeks to deliver a real uplift for members that reverses the trend of recent years.

“A 13.2% increase would meet current inflation rates, and at the same time, begin to address over a decade of pay erosion in the Environment Agency and make staff feel valued.”

Hard-working members who protect our environment

Ms Rowe-Merriman continued: “These are hard-working members who protect our environment and who protect our communities from flooding and pollution. They are feeling the impacts and are demanding a pay rise that doesn’t leave staff facing hardship.

“The lowest paid, many of whom work in field operations, are yet again being hardest hit. The 2022/23 pay award demonstrated to be insufficient as the lowest paid staff EA staff salary was so low if fell below the legal minimum National Living Wage in April 2023.

“UNISON’s member survey showed quite clearly how dependent field ops workers rely on standby and overtime payments – and in some cases, in-work benefits and food banks. This reflects just how hard it is to maintain a reasonable standard of living on their basic agency pay.”

Average pay settlements across the economy have been running far ahead of those received by Environment Agency staff over recent years. This has increased the likelihood of recruitment and retention problems in the long term.

The response from UNISON’s annual pay survey indicates that, yet again, 30% of respondents are seriously considering leaving the agency in the next 12 months – often to water companies, other agencies or the Environment Agency’s supply chain. They state that salary is the main reason for doing so.

The joint trade unions, UNISON Prospect, GMB and Unite, have urged pay talks to commence as soon as possible.

The article Pay claim submitted on behalf of Environment Agency staff first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Environment Agency staff set for out-of-hours ban

Thousands of Environment Agency (EA) workers in England will stop out-of-hours attendance at incidents such as floods, water pollution, spills, waste fires and fly-tipping this weekend, in their ongoing pay dispute.

The industrial action, which starts at 9am tomorrow (Saturday), is set to continue for a month, with workers refusing to volunteer for on-call cover outside of contracted hours until 19 September.

Officers will step in where there is a threat to life, from incidents such as a major flood, as emergency life and limb cover has been agreed by the union.

This new wave of industrial action follows months of industrial action seeking an improved pay offer from the agency.

Members have been taking last resort industrial action since December 2022, after the organisation failed to offer a fair pay rise in the face of soaring household bills and inflation.

Staff have seen pay fall below inflation and incomes squeezed since 2011, meaning that staff effectively work one day a week for free.

The 2% plus £345 pay award for 2022/23 was so low that some colleagues saw their pay dip below the national living wage in April and had to receive a salary ‘top-up’ to comply with minimum wage legislation.

Staff are due to receive an unconsolidated cost of living payment of £1,500 this month, but this does not address the gulf between the 2022/23 pay award and the rising living costs members have experienced.

UNISON members working for the EA are seeing their roles being paid well below the market rate for their skills, and experienced colleagues continue to leave the agency in search of better pay for skilled work.

Donna Rowe-Merriman, UNISON national secretary for business, community and environment, said today: “Staff are proud to play a vital role in keeping communities safe, but feel constantly taken for granted and ignored by a government that has failed understand the unique, vital role Environment Agency staff have in delivering the environment we all want to feel safe in.

“The unconsolidated payment does not offer agency staff a real pay uplift in this cost of living crisis. They have struggled to get by for over a year on a measly pay offer, and see this as too little, too late. It does not address over a decade of pay austerity.

“The Environment Agency is underfunded, and its staff are undervalued and underpaid. UNISON has maintained that pay in the agency has fallen behind – and this has serious consequences as skilled staff leave in search of better pay.

“We call on the government to enable the Environment Agency to look at innovative ways to resolve the dispute quickly to prevent further disruption.”

Ms Rowe-Merriman said that the blame for any disruption in the coming month “must be laid solely at the Westminster government’s door. This action could be prevented if the agency had the freedom to negotiate with the trade unions.

“The action taken by members is a direct result of government pay policy that does not address the specific issues experienced by the Environment Agency.”

And she concluded: “The solution remains a wage rise that’s a better match for inflation and addresses the rising living costs.

“Otherwise, staff will continue to resign, leaving even fewer to be called upon in emergencies. The consequences for people living in areas prone to flooding are unthinkable.”

Read more about UNISON’s Environment Agency pay campaign

The article Environment Agency staff set for out-of-hours ban first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Environment Agency staff set for out-of-hours ban

Thousands of Environment Agency (EA) workers in England will stop out-of-hours attendance at incidents such as floods, water pollution, spills, waste fires and fly-tipping this weekend, in their ongoing pay dispute.

The industrial action, which starts at 9am tomorrow (Saturday), is set to continue for a month, with workers refusing to volunteer for on-call cover outside of contracted hours until 19 September.

Officers will step in where there is a threat to life, from incidents such as a major flood, as emergency life and limb cover has been agreed by the union.

This new wave of industrial action follows months of industrial action seeking an improved pay offer from the agency.

Members have been taking last resort industrial action since December 2022, after the organisation failed to offer a fair pay rise in the face of soaring household bills and inflation.

Staff have seen pay fall below inflation and incomes squeezed since 2011, meaning that staff effectively work one day a week for free.

The 2% plus £345 pay award for 2022/23 was so low that some colleagues saw their pay dip below the national living wage in April and had to receive a salary ‘top-up’ to comply with minimum wage legislation.

Staff are due to receive an unconsolidated cost of living payment of £1,500 this month, but this does not address the gulf between the 2022/23 pay award and the rising living costs members have experienced.

UNISON members working for the EA are seeing their roles being paid well below the market rate for their skills, and experienced colleagues continue to leave the agency in search of better pay for skilled work.

Donna Rowe-Merriman, UNISON national secretary for business, community and environment, said today: “Staff are proud to play a vital role in keeping communities safe, but feel constantly taken for granted and ignored by a government that has failed understand the unique, vital role Environment Agency staff have in delivering the environment we all want to feel safe in.

“The unconsolidated payment does not offer agency staff a real pay uplift in this cost of living crisis. They have struggled to get by for over a year on a measly pay offer, and see this as too little, too late. It does not address over a decade of pay austerity.

“The Environment Agency is underfunded, and its staff are undervalued and underpaid. UNISON has maintained that pay in the agency has fallen behind – and this has serious consequences as skilled staff leave in search of better pay.

“We call on the government to enable the Environment Agency to look at innovative ways to resolve the dispute quickly to prevent further disruption.”

Ms Rowe-Merriman said that the blame for any disruption in the coming month “must be laid solely at the Westminster government’s door. This action could be prevented if the agency had the freedom to negotiate with the trade unions.

“The action taken by members is a direct result of government pay policy that does not address the specific issues experienced by the Environment Agency.”

And she concluded: “The solution remains a wage rise that’s a better match for inflation and addresses the rising living costs.

“Otherwise, staff will continue to resign, leaving even fewer to be called upon in emergencies. The consequences for people living in areas prone to flooding are unthinkable.”

Read more about UNISON’s Environment Agency pay campaign

The article Environment Agency staff set for out-of-hours ban first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Water, energy and transport conference held in Liverpool

UNISON’s annual water, environment and transport (WET) conference met yesterday in Liverpool and opened with a speech from UNISON assistant general secretary Jon Richards (pictured above).

Environment agency pay

He opened by highlighting the situation that the country faced when conference last convened a year ago: “Inflation was ramping up and by the end of the year was at levels we haven’t seen for 40 years. Government borrowing soared and interest rates have climbed since.

“More people pushed into poverty, more hardworking people faced with the choice between eating, paying their mortgages, buying school uniforms for their children or keeping their homes warm.

“And the government’s response? Hold down pay where they were in charge and call for wage restraint across the UK – no mention of holding down excess profits though.

“So, for the first time, members of the Environment Agency went out on strike over pay in January 2023, followed by another day of action in February and action short of strike action since.

“Despite this action and our parliamentary pressure, the government would not engage with us to find a resolution to the dispute. But our members did not back down, they again voted for a second time for industrial action.

Mr Richards went on to note that this action has led to a breakthrough, referencing the recent news of an offer of a £1,500 one off payment for last year.

He continued: “Our EA sector committee has rightly said it will put the offer to members, but has also, understandably, the committee has said it can’t recommend what is a below inflation pay offer.

“But conference, only through action did we and other unions achieve an increase and this sets us up for the forthcoming pay round.”

The topic of Environment Agency pay was also discussed in conference business in a motion that condemned the 2% plus £345 pay offer made by the employer to staff in 2022 and called on the service group executive to intensify the current pay campaign.

Moving the motion, Greg Marshall said agency workers were “hailed as heroes one year, but literally forced to use food banks the next.”

He continued, highlighting that the government’s response to the cost of living crisis was to, in the words of the last EA chief executive to the treasury select committee, “toss workers the crumbs of an unfair, unwise, and unjust pay offer.

“Here he was confirming what we’ve known for ages, that pay in the EA was a ticking time bomb.”

He asked delegates: “who else is going to hold the water industry to account as they dump millions of tons of untreated sewage into our streams, our rivers and our seas? Who else is going to hold big agriculture to account as they dose phosphates over swathes of farmland?

“And who else is going to get up in the middle of the night as the river Severn tops it’s banks and homes and businesses are threatened with inundation?”

“We know who it will be – our members. Our experts, our commitment – that’s why we campaign.”

Water

Elsewhere in his speech, Mr Richards highlighted issues in the water industry, quoting the Guardian’s reporting that, “in 2022, water companies paid shareholders dividends of £1.4bn; up from £540m the previous year”.

He added: “While shareholders celebrated, our workers struggled and services suffered. Lack of investment saw increasing anger by the public at continuing sewage outflows polluting our rivers and seas.”

Sewage being pumped into the UK’s waterways was a key topic for debate, with one motion bemoaning the “ongoing mismanagement of water companies’ finances.”

Adding that the finances of such companies need to be more transparent, it called on the SGE to produce a report to better clarify the financial makeup of water companies which could be used in “lifting the lid on the drain of profits that are disappearing out the back door.”

Another motion called on the SGE to work jointly with the water industry select committee and other stakeholders to pursue a re-nationalisation agenda and bring water back into public ownership, among other things.

One delegate said: “More than ever, water quality is at the forefront of public consciousness.” They noted that Ofwat’s regulatory approach, which prioritises value for money for the consumer, and the water companies adopting risk-based strategies to deliver maximum profits, mean that little money is spent on maintaining infrastructure.

They continued: “Southern Water pleaded guilty to 6,971 illegal sewage discharges between 2010 and 2015 at 17 treatment works in Hampshire, Kent and West Sussex and was fined £90m. These treatment works are obsolete and need replacing”.

Martin Bentley of Cymru/Wales added: “The costs of fines, the costs of infrastructure improvements, get passed on to customers, while the profits get passed on to the shareholder – the shareholder never pays in the privatised model.

“We need to talk about who pays for this work – once again the customer, the workers, the staff are going to be paying for this, and I don’t think that’s right.”

Transport

Mr Richards noted that the Passenger Transport Forum, “who have always mirrored the NJC pay settlements, are seeking to withdraw from pay negotiation, which we continue to resist.”

Further to this, conference debated a motion about the funding of local bus services, which noted the recent government scheme to cap bus fares at £2 in England as part of its support scheme during the cost-of-living crisis, and argued that this incentive doesn’t go far enough to address the challenges working people face.

It called on the executive to actively campaign for government funding of buses in local communities, to work with labour link to lobby for more sustainable bus services to protect members’ jobs and to work with elected mayors to promote efficient transport networks.

The article Water, energy and transport conference held in Liverpool first appeared on the UNISON National site.

UNISON writes to civil service boss for clarity over pay offer

UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea has written to cabinet secretary Simon Case, the head of the home civil service, to raise the question of pay.

The union has members working for the civil service itself and for various agencies and regulatory bodies, including Ofsted, the Environment Agency and the Probation Service.

The letter makes reference to a recent offer of an unconsolidated payment of £1,500 in recognition of how the cost of living crisis is affecting employees.

This, says UNISON, is welcome, but it seeks clarity on a number of points, including:

  • that the offer is in respect of the 2022/23 pay year;
  • how the payment would be implemented for part-time and term-time only staff; and
  • how it would affect those employees who are members of the local government pension scheme (LGPS), which “treats all pay – including unconsolidated payments – as pensionable pay”.

Ms McAnea’s letter stresses that UNISON “strongly believes that this payment should be consolidated” – not least given the recruitment and retention issues facing the organisations involved – and also expresses disappointment that the union has not been consulted on the pay remit guidance for the coming year, nor on the one-off payment.

The general secretary has said that she would welcome a meeting with Mr Case, concluding: “I believe that addressing low pay will bring benefits not just for them, but for civil service recruitment and retention, and morale and motivation.

“A well-rewarded and stable workforce will deliver significant improvements in services.”

The union has also heard that the Cabinet Office is going to issue an FAQ to all staff affected by the proposed one-off payment. UNISON has asked for sight of this before publication, as there are local pay factors that need to be taken into account.

The article UNISON writes to civil service boss for clarity over pay offer first appeared on the UNISON National site.