What Did The Romans The Greeks The Victorians The EU UNISON Oxfordshire County Ever Do For Us?

As well as being one of the largest unions in the UK, campaigning for worker’s rights and improvements in terms and conditions your local UNISON branch offers day to day support for members with workplace issues and questions. It is understandable that people on low pay need to be especially careful with their financial outlay but when you consider that the average hourly rate of an Employment Law solicitor is at least £250 which is more than 2 years subs of £9.70/month if you earn between £14k-£17k/year and more than 1 years subs of £17.25/month if you earn £25k-£30k/year you need to ask whether in fact you can afford not to join a union.  For the full list of subs rates per annual income see here.

93% of members who answered our survey felt that the UNISON Oxfordshire rep had influenced their case positively.  83% were ‘Very Satisfied’ with the UNISON Oxfordshire branch overall with a further 10% being ‘Satisfied.’

Amongst the hundreds of member’s cases we deal with each year here are some of the tangible examples of the ways UNISON Oxfordshire County branch has helped our members showing our experience in all the areas that may affect our members in their workplaces:

Safeguarding & Criminal Issues

When several of our members have been accused of safeguarding and other potentially criminal issues and have been questioned by the Police UNISON have provided approved solicitors for the criminal investigations who have had the members released in as little as 45 minutes whilst UNISON Oxfordshire have worked alongside to represent the member in the employer’s proceedings and with the Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) if necessary. – 2016

Bullying & Harassment Issues

On several occasions when a group of our members have raised serious concerns with safeguarding, bullying and harassment and other issues UNISON Oxfordshire have supported these members raise collective grievances or in serious cases Whistleblowing to take the case to the top levels of management. – 2016

When a group of our members had issues with mismanagement in their workplace UNISON Oxfordshire helped convince the employer to move the manager to a different workplace with supervision put in place. – 2015

Disciplinary Issues

When our member was dismissed for Gross Misconduct UNISON Oxfordshire had the dismissal overturned and commuted to a Final Written Warning keeping the member in their job. – 2015

When our member was accused of an offence that could have had them sacked UNISON Oxfordshire had the principle witness statement dismissed for inconsistencies and the case was dropped. – 2016

Performance Issues

When our member was given a Final Written Warning for performance issues UNISON Oxfordshire pointed out that the member had not received appropriate training and the performance process was reset with the promise of the requisite training and a clear plan for development in place. – 2015

Sickness Absence

When our member was being disciplined for what was deemed by the employer as excessive absence UNISON Oxfordshire helped the member to get an Occupational Health assessment and have certain absences removed from calculation due to a condition classed as a disability. – 2016

When our member was dismissed on the grounds of capability without reasonable adjustments having been made for a disability UNISON Oxfordshire assisted the member in taking the case to Employment Tribunal. – 2016

Redundancy

When several members were being made redundant UNISON Oxfordshire negotiated a settlement so that they could receive payment in lieu of notice as well as their redundancy payments. – 2016

When our member was threatened with redundancy UNISON Oxfordshire helped identify other positions that the member could do and the member was redeployed. – 2015

TUPE Transfers

When our member was transferred to a new company involving travelling more UNISON Oxfordshire were able to negotiate for them to receive a relocation supplement per mile. – 2016

When a group of members were being transferred to a new firm and the transferring firm claimed that policies and procedures from them were non-transferable UNISON Oxfordshire negotiated with the transferee firm to ensure that, in line with case law, the policies were seen by default as transferred across. – 2016 

Termination Of Employment & Settlements

In the worst case scenario in the event of irreconcilable differences between employee and employer UNISON Oxfordshire have assisted member in obtaining settlements for mutual termination of their contract.   These agreements have typically been a monetary settlement (often 3-6 months salary) and an agreed reference for future employment. – 2016 

UNISON Oxfordshire is proud of the work we have done in representing our members and we value their feedback accordingly, we are pleased that some have taken the time to fill in our feedback survey to help us continue what we do well and improve on the areas members feel we can.  Examples of things our members have said about us following representation can be found on our What Our Members Say About Us page.

In addition to this UNISON Oxfordshire and UNISON nationally have assisted members to file Personal Injury claims through UNISON’s dedicated service as well as saving members money through benefits such as the free will service – described by one Oxfordshire County member as having saving them over 1 year’s union subscriptions alone!