UNISON Free Immigration advice for members; Non UK EU citizens have to apply by end of June 2021 for settled status

 

Immigration advice for UNISON members

If you’re a migrant worker from a country outside the UK and need advice on immigration issues related to your work situation and right to work in the UK then get in touch.

UNISON provides free immigration telephone advice to UNISON members who have come to work in the UK from a country outside the UK. We work with the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) to provide this support.

If you have been a member of UNISON for more than four weeks and need immigration advice and information, please call UNISON Direct at 0800 0 857 857. Your contact details will be passed on to a JCWI adviser who will call you on Tuesday, between 10am and 4pm.

When calling UNISON Direct, please be ready to give your full name, contact phone numbers and your UNISON membership number.

https://www.unison.org.uk/get-help/knowledge/vulnerable-workers/migrant-workers/

Time To Say Goodbye to EU

Bye, Bye EU (hopefully "au revoir")

UNISON Remain In the EU

Check out UNISON advice to its 1.3 million members here

"On 23 June the UK must make a decision. The referendum gives us all the chance to decide whether to remain part of the European Union (EU) or whether to leave.

It is an important decision for the UK and our future. UNISON knows the EU isn’t perfect – far from it – but we have looked in detail at all the evidence from both sides and have come to the view that our members’ interests are best served by remaining part of the European Union.

As your trade union, UNISON is here to protect your job, your standard of living, and the public services that we rely on every day. We believe that leaving the EU will make it harder for us to do that".

and "Another Europe is Possible" for the real Left progressive case to remain and reform Europe.

These Czechs "worked" in the UK for less than four years. No benefits for them?

Great tweet by Tomas Prouza the Czech State Secretary for European Affairs in response to our Tory Prime Minster latest pandering to racists

The vast majority of EU citizens who come to this country come to work and are not interested in claiming benefits. 

We don't mind when young Czechs come to this country to fight and die for our freedom but if they come to work and pay taxes then should they be treated as Totaleinsatz.?

The truth about UKIP (they're even worse than the Tories)

Great post on "Unions Together" on the truth about UKIP. What many workers fail to understand is that UKIP is not just a protest vote against Europe led by some loud mouth millionaire maverick who doesn't like his Brussels sprouts!   UKIP is an ultra right wing Tory extremist Party, who would cut our pay, get rid of TUPE protections, maternity rights, sell off the NHS, cut taxes for the rich and get rid of paid holidays. 

I think the wider Labour Movement has to take some responsibility for our failure to make it clear to our members that many of the employment rights that people take for granted in this country are actually only there because of the European Union and if right wing fanatics such as UKIP had their way, workers in this country would be completely stuffed.

Our relationship with Europe does need reform and we need to have grown up conversations about immigration and our national identity but for most folk voting UKIP is simply cutting your nose to spite your face.

The last thing we all need is a political Party even more right wing and reactionary than even this current Tory led coalition Government.  

Why does David Cameron HATE the Working Time Directive?

There is so much rubbish spread about EU Employment legislation.

Don't get me wrong, the EU is in many ways a basket case and needs radical reform.

But the reforms that David Cameron and his ilk usually bangs on about are  getting rid of decent EU employment protection measures such as the Working Time Directive.

Trying to persuade lowly paid staff who depend upon overtime to think again and not opt out of the working time directive can be one of the most frustrating tasks that union reps try to carry out. 

Yet, at least they have a choice (of sorts) about whether or not to work these hours and they would agree that they would like to keep that right. The same with having the right to have at least one day off per week, at least 20 minutes dinner break every shift, 4 weeks paid holiday and 11 hours rest a day. These are basic, decent rights of any civilised society.

We have got to win the argument at work that if the Tories get their way they will repeal all these essential measures and more. Ask your colleagues if they want the right to have a dinner break and the right to paid holidays? or should their employers be able to dictate that they work extra hours as they see fit with no day off?

I think I know this answer. But we now need to be making the case to all our members.

“Wreckers or Builders? A History of Labour MEPs 1979-1999”

I’ve just started reading this new book by fellow Newham Labour Party supporter and former MEP Anita Pollack. I met up with Anita and other Party members at conference this year and got this flyer which I meant to post months ago. It is amazing Politics that Labour used to be the Party fanatically opposed to a European Parliament (or practically anything to do with Europe) while it was the Tories who were its most enthusiastic supporters. How times change. Whatever you view of the role of Europe this should be a fascinating insider account.

Anita also use to work for Barbara Castle and was Chair of Manor Park ward when I gave them a talk here on the “Labour Movement and New Capitalism” in 2007. Here is a review of the book by David the Methodist Preacher blogger who was also a MEP colleague at the time. The ISBN number 978-0-9556202-9-4, and it is available for £20 from Turpin Distribution Services. (Free delivery in the EU) contact 01767 604 951 or email: custserv@turpin-distribution.com.

I have read a number of books recently that I haven’t quite got around to posting upon so I thought it was best to post this plug now.

European Jobs and British Workers

I was for my sins at the Labour Party conference in 2007 as the London delegate for London UNISON Labour Link. I posted here fairly positively on Brown conference speech at the time.

I agree with commentators since that his reference to “British Jobs for British Workers” has been taken completely out of context. While at the time I thought it was unwise since it did leave him open for attack by such issues as the wildcat strikes at the Lindsey oil refinery.

I actually think there are different issues going on with very different solutions.

The strikes at Lindsey and elsewhere are a local reaction to the increased threat of unemployment. Organised workers are using effective tactics to win access to paid work. I don’t think it is inherently driven by any real racist sentiment but this will have to be handled carefully, not least because the local BNP will be sticking their snouts into things and trying to stir.

The real political issue is that for years the EU had been broadly “worker friendly” and a great number of progressive policies have been brought in via Europe. Recently there have been setbacks and EU court rulings that potentially undermine national wage rates and terms and conditions. It is these rulings that need to be challenged by the government urgently.

Naked protectionism would be a disaster – I have close family and friends who work in Spain, Finland, Sweden, Ireland, France and Belgian. 2 million Brits work and live in Europe more than twice as many as EU workers over here.

I don’t personally know if the present disputes are down to exploitative European management who are bringing in cheap undercutting labour or is it due to greedy and/or incompetent British companies who badly mispriced a tender? The issue is clearly a dispute with management not the European workers themselves.

Hat-tip thingy to Ian about the campaign and petition against “social dumping”.

Eliminating Pensioner Poverty

This is a little bit teckie but it likely to be of even greater long term significance to real people, than the current fuss over the improvement to personal tax allowances for low and middle income Brits.

The EU has allowed the government to extend the scope of auto-enrolment into contract pension schemes as well as trust schemes. The government will amend the 2007 Pension bill to allow for auto-enrolment from 2012. It was previously thought that this compulsion was illegal under EU regulations. This alone will affect some 4.7 million employees.

Okay, what this means is that in 2012, the government can now introduce a nation wide auto-enrolment scheme for all employed workers. If someone works for a company that has its own pension scheme they will be automatically enrolled in that scheme. All other firms that do not offer a pension scheme will have to auto-enrol employees into a Government sponsored Pension Personal account. Employees can pull out of the scheme but every year they will be enrolled back into it again.

The above paragraph is possibly amongst the most boring I have ever written. Co-incidentally I was just distracted by a sketch on TV from the show “Smack the Pony” where 2 women fell asleep as soon as their accountant started talking about pensions and tax allowances.

Bear with me as I think this issue is important. For the first time potentially all workers will end up with a lifelong private and state pension scheme. As always there is lots to moan about for example: – it should be compulsory for all workers and self employed, the contributions paid by employers is too low, investment risk is not shared, carer pensions etc.

However, nowadays, even in companies with pucker Final Salary schemes, up to a third of employees are not members of the company pension scheme. Losing the equivalent of at least 10-15% of their wages each year.

A little while ago I helped a union member go through her pension options with a company which only offered a group personal pension plan. The company will pay into a pension if the employee also contributes. She was horrified how many £1,000’s she had lost out in company contributions by not taking out the pension sooner. She had never "got around" to setting it up. She would have far preferred being enrolled when she first joined the company. The industry has a saying that pensions are "sold not bought".

For the first time ever in the history of this country, with cross party support, we could be just about to introduce a sustainable arrangement for a national pension scheme that covers all workers. This could (fingers & toes crossed) eventually get rid of the rotten stench that poverty in old age, has for far too long, besmirched our country.