How 'sick' is 'sick'?

Colleagues,

The article below has been written for the next edition the Thompsons Weekly Labour & European Law Report (LELR).

To see the back catalogue of Weekly LELR's go to: http://www.thompsons.law.co.uk/ltext/thompsons-weekly-lelr.htm

What do the new fitness note proposals mean for sick workers?

By Ian Manborde
Thompsons Tutor in Trade Union Studies, Northern College

‘Working for a Healthier Tomorrow’ - a review by Dame Carol Black of the health and well-being of Britain’s working age population - has resulted in a number of challenging, although not unexpected proposals.

One of the most controversial is that the current sick note issued by a GP to certify sickness absence should be phased out, and replaced by a ‘well note’ indicating what activity the worker could undertake particularly as part of a phased return to work.

In a submission during the consultation period, Thompsons Solicitors expressed its concerns:

“Unless the new rules oblige employers to make changes to the working conditions of employees who were injured or became sick because of their work — such as by altering their duties or making changes to workstations — then people will either be unable to return to work, or will do so only to go off sick again,” said Thompsons’ head of policy, Tom Jones.

In discussing the proposals with shop stewards and safety reps over the past few weeks a constant concern has emerged. When determining the fitness to work or not of a worker a GP may not know enough about their job, workplace, and working conditions to make a statement under one of the three proposed fit note headings: ‘fit for work’, ‘not fit for work’ or ‘maybe fit for some work now’.

Another concern repeatedly voiced is that the Black review seeks to actively promote dialogue between GPs and employers – something reps argue would essentially entail workers who are unfit for work being placed back into the workplace and possibly without a range of appropriate adjustments made.

The critically important feature of the new proposals is that even when a GP objectively identifies a suitable pattern of work for an ill worker to return to the workplace, the onus placed on the employer to abide by these – at this stage of the recommendations at least – are solely voluntary.

You can see the full Black report at:

http://www.workingforhealth.gov.uk/documents/working-for-a-healthier-tomorrow-tagged.pdf

University of the People

Colleagues,

Having set out on a personal path of working for some of the UK's most prestigious working class adult education institutions (WEA, Ruskin College, Northern College etc.) I was intrigued with the news of the launch of The University of the People: www.uopeople.org/Default.aspx

In a clip from the web-site the founder is quoted as:

"Education, just like democracy, should be a right, not a privilege,” said Shai Reshef, Founder and President, University of the People. “With a few keystrokes, UoPeople takes the concept of social networking and applies it to academia, providing a global chalkboard for all students.”

In an article earlier this week in The Guardian the University was pitched as the antidote to elite, high-cost higher education provision that is largely out of the reach of potential learners from developing countries. This ethos is also underpinned by the notion of education as a democratising and liberating tool.

The attraction of the University is that all courses are online - supported by social networking platforms and that, for the moment at least, there are no course fees.

As such the University is attracting critical political, pedagogic and educational acclaim:

"The concept is great, and one we'll see more and more," says Peter Scott, director of the Knowledge Media Institute at the Open University, which itself gives free access to course materials through the OpenLearn website. He says so much high-quality material now exists on the web that traditional university models can no longer be seen as the only arbiters of quality.

Daniel Greenwood, professor of law at the Hofstra University school of law, New York, has volunteered a day a week, as well as to serve on the advisory committee. He wanted to help make education more widely available and liked the idea of being in on something new and potentially huge: "the notion that you can create something that can be expanded to serve tens of thousands of students who otherwise wouldn't be able to access education".

All being well the University (or UoPeople as it's referred) isn't just a flash in the pan as it appears, even in its infancy, to combine features of an educational offer that is not combine a political raison d'etre but a practical method of addressing access to HE provision.

A key test however, will be the backlash (or not) from the 'old world' (my term) universities - particularly in the way that they acknowledge (or not) awards given by the UoPeople when their alumni attempt to move on to further study with them.

I'd be very interested in your views of the UoPeople's approach to offering higher education study and am asking that you visit the web-site, review the material and provide some feedback.

Cheers

Ian

The Response of Labour in the Economic Crisis

Colleagues,

I have just returned from a fantastic few days with students and teaching staff of the Global Labour University (GLU). The GLU held its annual summer school in Berlin which was billed as:

Former GLU students (alumni) are cordially invited to participate in the third GLU Alumni Summer School, organised jointly by the University of Kassel and the Berlin School of Economics and Law. The GLU summer school will bring together GLU alumni and current GLU students, as well as professors and trade union experts from the GLU network. The summer school is intended to strengthen the network links between GLU alumni and to explore possibilities for future research collaboration. The main theme of presentations & discussions will be about the Current Financial and Economic Crisis and Labour Responses.

The GLU is a highly innovative concept (students pictured above) offering masters level educational opportunity (just as at Ruskin College) at four partner institutions in South Africa, Brazil, India and Germany.

There is more info on the GLU at http://www.global-labour-university.org/5.html

You can view the GLU summer conference programme at:

http://www.global-labour-university.org/fileadmin/summer_school_2009/TIMETABLE_GLU_conference_21.__22.9..pdf

The summer conference offered a highly challenging, stimulating range of presentations all of which provided a perspective on labour and trade union responses to the financial and economic crises. Clearly the evidence to-date suggests a degree of both rationality, for example in the BALPA shares-for-pay deal with British Airways and innovation for example in the deal brokered by the Opel works council in Germany (part of the summer conference) to protect jobs by reducing hours.

A contentious point within all of the debate however, was the degree to which trade unions should be proposing significantly alternative economic models to capitalism or just defending their place within the current malaise. Naturally an issue here is the degree of trade union significance in proposing the former, but also the degree of bargaining influence potentially lost in accommodating the latter.

So, a question here is, to what degree should trade unions support, or not, attempts by the state, employers etc., to shore up their position within the global economic downturn or is now time to turn the screw?

Cheers

Ian

Responding to the 'C' Word

Colleagues,

Just back from a few days at the TUC in Liverpool, leaving only after I'd caught Gordon Brown's speech to Congress yesterday afternoon.

Surveying the press this morning it's clear that the movement is taking markedly different positions in response to the statements about cuts in public expenditure with, not surprisingly, those unions affiliated to the party, attempting to spin some degree of positivism out of his statement.

First of the block were PCS with a suggestion that they may go to court to challenge Brown's proposals to make it easy to dismiss civil servants and so cut down on the central government redundancy bill. In typical combative style Mark Serwotka stated that the union would "be taking legal action in the courts about the robbery of people's rights and we will be calling every single member in this country to take industrial action."

In the other corner though Paul Kenny, Dave Prentis and Derek Simpson all commented more positively on a speech that, they argued, ring-fenced frontline services and gave a commitment to increase jobs.

Overall Brown didn't reveal anyting that delegates weren't expecting and as such there wasn't the walkout from the usual suspects as soon as he started to mention the dreaded 'c' word.

In truth however, and certainly in the period in the run up to the general election, the relationship between the party and the trade union movemement will be tense as we rightly try and place a stake on clear commitments to, for example, further reform within financial services, jobs growth and protection for vulnerable groups within the economy if Brown's prescriptions yesterday are to become manifesto commitments.

This is of course against the backdrop of polling evidence in most of the major unions that a majority of members will not be voting labour. If this is indeed the case, is there time to turn their views around and to consolidate broad trade union support for a fourth term?

Your views, as ever are welcome.

Cheers

Ian

Building a Co-operative Economy

Colleagues,

I do hope you had a good break over August. I am just back from a fantastic family holiday in Egypt and here is a picture of me quad biking in the Sinai Desert. Extremely adventurous for me to be doing this, but my daughters Ruby and Isabella threw down the challenge and I am more scared of them than I am of falling such a piece of machinery!

As usual plenty to blog about and this weekend I am contributing to the annual event for the UK Society for Co-operative Studies - more info at:

http://www3.uwic.ac.uk/English/management/RandE/wirc/Documents/UKSCS%20Annual%20Conference%202009.pdf

The blurb for the event states:

This year's conference provides an opportunity to reflect on the impact of the unfolding global financial crisis and domestic economic recession on the Co-operative Movement. It will also be a chance to relate these debates to developments such as the launch of the Third Sector Research Centre in the UK and the work of the Commission for Co-operative and Mutual Housing. As our conference will be following the International Co-operative Alliance's research conference in Oxford earlier in the week, this year's research roundtable will have an international flavour.

You may remember that in May this year I blogged about an event I jointly organised between Ruskin College, Unions21 and Coops UK which sought to rejuvenate the historical links between the trade union and cooperative movements through an exploration of modern methods to support employee ownership options for running businesses and social enterprises.

The event this weekend also examines this potential through the session I will contribute to and which is called Public Policy – Towards a Co-operative Commonwealth?

The idea of employee ownership is still a highly contentious one for the labour movement and as the May event demonstrated there is little room for debate around this from, for example, some trade union's perspective in the context of privatisation and externalisation.

Still, as employers seek alternative options to engage employees in share ownership as an alternative to increased remuneration, as with the recent agreement with BA and BALPA, and others like GM transfer stock to the UAW, it is essential that these developments are explored and understood to better support the potential for change in the economic policy of trade unions.

It is not simply enough as trade unions, particularly in the UK, have done in the past to simply ignore economic, social and political trends and assume that to do nothing is an option.

Or am I wrong, and is it heresy to suggest that workers, like those of the John Lewis Partnership, should own shares, and/or control corporate policy, in the organisations they work for?

A good, controversial topic to kick off the new academic year!

Cheers

Ian

Building Global Unions

Colleagues,


Still recovering from incredibly challenging/rewarding few days.


Most important at a personal level was a reunion with comrades (last weekend) I was at Ruskin College with in the 1989-1991 year group - our first reunion in 20 years! Of course others looked old and knackered whilst I remain the picture of perfection!

Prior to this was an extremely rewarding few days in Istanbul working with the global staff association (GSA) for UNICEF. A real challenge here to enable a global union to work in practice and so much of our work was around leadership, the role of the local, regional and global representatives, campaigning skills etc. Approximately 170 staff association representatives in one place for the first, and probably last, time.

Pictured above are:

Paul Brown - WorldWideBrokers - specialist finance experts for expatriats

Alan Irwin - General Federation of Trade Unions

Indah Susanti - UN Staff Union for International War Crimes Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) providing facilitator support

Sophie Morishkina - UNICEF GSA - Regional Chair for CEE/CIS

Rita Ann Wallace - President of UNICEF GSA

Rick Cottam - President UN Staff Union for International War Crimes Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) providing facilitator support

Judith Jackson - General Federation of Trade Unions

Chris Land-Kazlauskas - President - Co-ordinating Committe for International Staff Unions and Associations of the United Nations System (CCISUA) providing facilitator support. One of the bodies to which the UN staff unions/associations affiliate.

Jo Cain - Ruskin College

With support from a number of colleagues I wrote the core course for the training element of the GSA's meeting and this was entitled Building Global Unions: Leadership and Renewal. The work with the UN staff unions provides a really new dimension to my traditional work with unions in the UK and Europe. In particular the challenge is working with unions with none of the legal protections we take for granted and whose major challenges, alongside conventional terms and conditions matters, includes the problems of working in the middle of wars, armed conflicts, environmental disasters etc.

In this context those who step up to become union represenatatives need as much education and support as possible and the event in Istanbul last week was a key starting point for the UNICEF GSA.

No question for you on this post just wanted to let you know what I have been up to since my last contribution.

I am now off until the start of the Autumn term so the last post for me for a few weeks.

I do hope you all have a good break from fighting for the rights of women, men and their families.

Cheers!

Ian

Can you Ban Blacklisting?

Colleagues,

Today the newly formed Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) launched the consultation exercise on drafting statutory protection for trade union activists and members from blacklisting by employers.

You may remember previous posts on this matter and the recent controversy when the Consulting Association Ltd were found to have been providing employers in the construction industry with details of those with an activist background.

At the time I was surprised not that the disgraceful activity was happening but that the company and employers were so inept that the were caught out.

The consultation seeks to gain views on:

The definition of a blacklist of trade unionists and the prohibition of the compilation, dissemination and use of such blacklists;
making it unlawful for organisations to refuse employment, to dismiss an employee or otherwise cause detriment to a worker for a reason related to a blacklist;
making it unlawful for an employment agency to refuse a service to a worker for a reason related to a blacklist;
providing for the employment tribunal to hear complaints about alleged breaches and award remedies based on existing trade union law; and
an alternative, to provide for the courts to hear complaints from any persons that they have suffered loss or potential loss because of a prohibited blacklisting activity

Naturally all unions are encouraged to provide a response and further details are at:
http://www.berr.gov.uk/consultations/page52145.html

My question here though is whether, despite new, welcome legislation, you will ever properly be able to squash a practice that has existed as long as trade unions have.

Comments welcome.

Cheers

Ian