Calling Notice NUJ August Branch Meeting
Tuesday 6th August 2013
Kahawa Cafe
163 New Union Street
Coventry
CV1 2PL
6:00 pm for 6:30 start
Any apologies to branch chair: alan.weaver1@ntlworld.com
Agenda
1) Introduction by chair/those attending
2) Minutes of July meeting
3) Secretary/Treasurers reports
4) Branch reports
5) Up date on disputes
6) Any other business
Topics in this message:
Zero-Hour Contracts
Latvian Authorities Failed To Protect Journalistic Sources
NUJ Pushes for Urgent Talks on BBC Pay Deal
Ballot for action at the Independent Commences Wednesday 24th July
Special Conference To Approve Labour-Trade Union Reforms
Delegate Meeting (DM) 2014 - Eastbourne 11th - 13th April 2014
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Coming your way if not already here, you are employed but have no guaranteed work, no guaranteed pay, what you have is a . . . . .
Zero-Hour Contract
A zero-hour contract is an employment arrangement where an employee has agreed to be available for work as and when required, so that no particular number of hours of times of work are specified. The employee is expected to be on-call and receive compensation only for hours worked. Zero-hour contracts may suit some people who want occasional earnings and are able to be entirely flexible about when they work, but they do run the risk of employees facing uncertain income streams, and the possibility of use by management as a tool to reward or reprimand raises issues about how workers can adequately assert their employment rights or maintain decent employment relations.
In the United Kingdom, under the National Minimum Wage Act 1998, workers operating under a zero-hour contract on stand-by time, on-call time and downtime must be paid the national minimum wage, provided they are worked for. Prior to the introduction of the Working Time Regulations 1998 and the National Minimum Wage Regulations 1999, the flexibility zero-hours contracts provided was often used to "clock-off" staff during quiet periods while retaining them on-site so that they could be returned to "paid" work should the need arise.[6]
In the fourth quarter of 2012, 200,000 workers in the United Kingdom reported that they were on zero-hours contacts. In 2011, such contracts were prevalent in many parts of the UK economy:
in the hotels and restaurants sector, 19% of all workplaces (up from 4% in 2004)
in the health sector, 13% (up from 7%)
in the education sector, 10% (up from 1%)
For domiciliary care workers, the incidence was reported to be as high as 55.7% of all workers during 2008-2012.
Some commentators have observed that the number of such contracts may be under-reported, as many people may be confusing them with casual employment, and may not be reporting them as temporary.
Source Wickipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-hour_contract
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Latvian Authorities Failed To Protect Journalistic Sources
In Chamber judgment in the case of Nagla v. Latvia (application no. 73469/10), which is not final, the European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had been: A violation of Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention onHuman Rights.
The case concerned the search by the police of a well-known broadcast journalist's home, and their seizure of data storage devices. Her home was searched following a broadcast she had aired in February 2010 informing the public of an information leak from the State Revenue Service database.
The Court emphasised that the right of journalist's not to disclose their sources could not be considered a privilege, dependent on the lawfulness or unlawfulness of their sources, but rather as an intrinsic part of the right to information that should be treated with the utmost caution. In this case the investigating authorities had failed to properly balance the interest of the investigation in securing evidence against the public interest in protecting the journalist's freedom of expression.
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NUJ Pushes for Urgent Talks on BBC Pay Deal
Following a meeting of BBC M/FoC's , Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary, will be seeking fresh talks with Tony Hall, BBC director general, for further discussions on the corporation's pay deal. As the union was balloting for strike action over the original offer made by the BBC, the management came back with revised terms. The union has now consulted on these terms. The membership has decided that the new terms are still not acceptable and has asked the management to come back to the table. Reps said views on the deal had been coloured by the figures of vast pay-offs to departing executives, revealed by the Public Account Committee's examination of the BBC's finances, and the loss of £100m by the disastrous Digital Media Initiative.
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Ballot for Action at the Independent Commences Wednesday 24th July
Laura Davison, NUJ official, said: it had been forced to move to a ballot because of the management's refusal to engage in proper consultation. "Members recognise the financial issues at play, but are simply calling for a fair and meaningful consultation process to deal with them, not the intransigent approach currently being adopted. At present the company seems fixed on sacking people in early August despite members having summer holidays already booked with their families, which means they will be away and can't be genuinely consulted.
Read more <> here . . . .
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Special Conference To Approve Labour-Trade Union Reforms
In an echo of Blair's revision of Clause IV, the Labour leader Edward Miliband, announces that a Special Conference will be held next spring to approve this "historic reform of Labour’s constitution".
One criticism made of Edward Miliband's recent speech on the Labour-union link was that he failed to provide enough detail on how and when the proposed changes, most notably the introduction of an opt-in system for affiliated members (which will cost Labour millions in funding), would be introduced. Would the reforms be in place before the next election?
Read more: George Eaton, <> New Statesman, Published 22 July
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Delegate Meeting (DM) 2014 - Eastbourne 11th - 13th April 2014
All DM packs containing NEC, Industrial Councils and DM nominations plus information about motions will be sent out early September. The following dates are important deadlines that branches and tabling bodies must adhere to for DM 2014:
Close of motions and nominations (DM bodies) 1:00 pm 25th November. Close of amendments and confirmation of motions and DM nominations 2013 1:00pm 10th February 2014. All deadlines will be strictly enforced.
Information on how to register delegates for conference will be issued in January 2014. Please note branches may wish to consider potential delegate / observer nominations prior to their January branch meeting.
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This is the official blog for the NUJ Birmingham and Coventry branch.
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