Save Our Post on December 6th

The CWU will be holding a rally and lobby of MPs in a bid to garner support for a new Early Day Motion on Royal Mail privatisation.

Date: Thursday 6 December
Time: 13:00 (lobby starts, rally to follow)
Venue: Conference Room 14, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA.

Regional Secretaries will be co-ordinating attendance. Please consult the regions and branches section on the website for your regional secretary's contact details.

Apply to be a parliamentary candidate for Rotherham

Following the resignation of Denis MacShane, a by-election will be held in Rotherham. 

The Labour Party will therefore need to select a candidate to contest this election, and the Labour Party National Executive Committee is today inviting applications from all interested members. 

Any member with more than 12 months current continuous membership may apply to be considered for this selection. 

Application may be made on a standard CV which is available from the membersnet area of the web site at http://members.labour.org.uk/parliamentary-selections - you will need to be logged on to the members area to access this page.

Applications must be sent to rotherham@labour.org.uk

The closing date for applications is 10.00am on Friday 9th November.

The National Executive Committee by-election panel will consider the applications received and any persons long-listed will be required to attend an interview in London on Monday 12th November.

From those people interviewed a short-list of candidates will be selected. Short-listed candidates will be expected to attend a hustings meeting in the constituency on Tuesday 13th November.

Regards

Emilie Oldknow 

Virgin Media members. Vote yes for recognition.

| Media | News Archive | Virgin Media move to de-recognise trade unions

1

Virgin Media move to de-recognise trade unions

7th November 2012

CWU has been informed by Virgin Media that the company intends to de-recognise its trade unions - by far the biggest of which is CWU.

All members of Virgin Media staff who are part of the Access Division workforce - mostly engineers -will be balloted in a self-proclaimed 'referendum' which opens today (Wednesday November 7) and closes on November 16. CWU was informed in a shock phone call on Friday afternoon and all staff received letters to their homes on Saturday explaining the company's intentions, with just days until the referendum opened.

Virgin Media is effectively (but not directly) asking employees to vote to deny themselves the right to be represented by trade union. Implicitly, employees have been asked to accept that Virgin Media's internal 'Voice Forum' is the best defender of their interests, despite the fact that it's self-evident that a company's own 'employee forum' cannot possibly be as independent as a democratically accountable trade union.

Classic 'union-busting' tactics - including the fact that many of those being balloted are not even in the recognised parts of the company - mean Virgin Media is virtually certain to get the result it wants. If so, the company will likely serve a three-month notice period on all current recognition agreements.

CWU deputy general secretary Andy Kerr said: "The CWU is nothing short of astonished at Virgin Media's decision to effectively declare war on the UK trade union movement in general, and its own employees' democratically elected representatives in particular.

"This derecognition move is not just entirely unprovoked but flies in the face of the public image that the entire Virgin Group has spent years cultivating for itself as an ethical and socially responsible entity.

"Virgin is always talking about the importance of 'trust' - indeed it specifically lists 'trust' as its core corporate value - yet the union-busting activity it has apparently embarked upon begs the question as to how much this company can actually be trusted.

"In the CWU we thought we were working in partnership with Virgin Media - but now discover the company has been working behind the scenes to stab us in the back."

Early indications show the company's actions are generating a sense of outrage amongst staff - reflected in a sudden surge in new CWU membership applications.

Andy's message to Virgin Media and members alike is unequivocal: "Rest assured, the CWU is not in the business of walking away and abandoning its members. We intend to continue the fight for better working conditions in Virgin Media - and we intend to continue to grow our membership. We're not going anywhere!"

CWU is encouraging people to vote to retain union recognition in the ballot.

CWU has members in engineering and call centre roles but only has recognition for collective bargaining for parts of the engineering workforce.

CWU immediately sent a letter to members on Monday setting out the union's position in response to this news and is in constant contact with reps and concerned staff at the company. Read the letter >here<.

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Do you work for Virgin Media? If so, join CWU today. Contact us on freephone 0800 731 7434, email Joinunion@cwu.org or simply download and complete the application form to join now.

Gender pay gap latest.

A report published by the Fawcett Society indicates tha the gender pay gap in the UK is still wide. Find out more here http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/16/gender-pay-gap-audits

CWU Disabilty conference report

Can be found here http://www.cwu.org/news/archive/government-cuts-target-the-disabled.html

Definition of disability. EAT ruling.

This is an interesting ruling. The summary follows. The full transcript can be read here http://www.employmentappeals.gov.uk/Public/Upload/12_0031rjfhSBSM.doc

SUMMARY

DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION – Disability

The effect of an impairment may be direct or indirect. However, the majority of the Employment Tribunal erred in holding that the deduced effect of the Claimant’s impairment for the purpose of Equality Act 2010 Schedule 1 Part 1 paragraph 5 was substantial and adverse toher ability to carry out day- to- day activities when the evidence established that the impairment, Selective IgA, caused an increase in susceptibility to infection but did not support a conclusion that increased rate of infection had such an effect. Further the evidence did not support the conclusion of the majority of the ET that substantial adverse effects caused by the impairment in the past were likely to recur.

Swift v Chief Constable of Wiltshire Constabulary [2004] IRLR 540 considered.

Appeal allowed. Decision of the Employment Tribunal that the Claimant was a disabled person at the material time, October 2010, set aside. The issue of whether the Claimant was a disabled person at the material time, remitted for re-hearing before a differently constituted Employment Tribunal.

Betrayal of O2 workers

Absolutely disgraceful way to treat a loyal and dedicated group of workers. http://www.cwu.org/news/archive/pre-christmas-betrayal-of-o2-store-staff.html