An advice surgery for branch members will be held 1pm Thursday 24 May in the meeting rooms on the 1st floor of Portcullis House.
We will do them by short appointment so if you’d like to drop by and discuss an employment issue or just get general advice just email lauren.edwards@unitepsbranch.org before Wednesday 23 May.
Telephone surgeries will be arranged for any branch members who work in constituency offices.
It’s that time of the year again, when we can put in for volunteer places at various festivals through the Workers Beer Company. As a volunteer behind the bars you get free entry to the festival, a couple of drinks when your shift is over, and when you are not working (shifts are usually six hours long) you can enjoy the music and the atmosphere of the festival. The money from members working at these events goes to the branch and members decide how it gets spent. Below are the events available for this year.
If you are interested in taking part please email lauren.edwards@unitepsbranch.org with your name, contact details, Unite membership number and which festival/s you want to go to by Friday 27 April . First priority is given to branch members but if you have partners or friends who would be interested in going too please let me know. Please be sure you can go to the festival, as last minute cancellations can’t be replaced with other volunteers and it will count against your participation in future years:
At our April meeting, the branch voted in favour of making a donation to Unite members at Mayr-Melnhof Packaging, who have been locked out by the company for almost 2 months.
Unite is to take legal action against the Austrian owned company over the unlawful dismissal of its workforce and closure of the site in Bootle, Liverpool. The latest update on the dispute from the union is available for branch members to read here.
The donation has now been sent off and a message of support for the workers sent on behalf of the branch. Sogat Process Chapel replied, saying “thanks for your support, its great to know people haven’t forgotten about us.”
If any members wish to send individual donations to support the workers, they can send cheques to Sogat Process Chapel c/o Phil Morgan, 2 Chantry Court, Forge Street, Crewe, Cheshire CW1 2DL.
The union branch will be holding an interns social from 5:30pm this Tuesday 3 April in the back room of the Sports and Social on the Parliamentary Estate.
It will be branch members and interns only as we’ll be putting money towards drinks for people, so please RSVP to our Social Secretary at sarah.mcguire@unitepsbranch.org
Hope to see you there!
ParliOut AGM
March 22nd at 18:30 │ Conference Room E – 7 Millbank
Dear ParliOut Member,
You are invited to the AGM of ParliOut on 22nd March 2012.
The committee would like to hear your thoughts on the past 10 months (since the last AGM) and any ideas for future events. It would be great if you could answer these quick questions prior to the AGM or think about them for the meeting:
The AGM is also a chance to get involved with the ParliOut committee by becoming a committee member for the coming year. Please see the attached Terms of Reference for details of how to nominate yourself.
Daniel and Jean are current co-chairs so members who can’t attend but would like to be nominated as potential committee members can submit their requests to them.
The current responsibilities of Committee members include communication, event organisation, coordination of the Advice and Guidance Service and relationship management with external organisations and the ParliOut Advisory Board.
We would really value your feedback and ideas at the AGM and would like to thank members in advance for their constructive comments and for supporting the meeting in a positive way.
We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible on 22nd.
All the best,
The ParliOut Committee
TAKING ON THE MEDIA BARONS
How can we make the media fair for all?
TUC, NUJ and CPBF Conference
Saturday 17 March
Congress House, Great Russell Street London WC1B 3LS – contact Stuart Watkin on watkinsb@parliament.uk if you’d like to attend.
PROGRAMME
OPENING REMARKS AND WELCOME
10am – 10.10am
Frances O’Grady -TUC Deputy General Secretary
Session 1
10.10am – 11am Keynote address and Q&A
Rt Hon Harriet Harman QC MP – Labour Deputy Leader and Shadow Cabinet member for Culture, Media and Sport
Question and Answers
Session 2
11am – 12noon The state of the media today
Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary – journalism and the media barons
Luke Crawley BECTU Assistant General Secretary – the broadcasting dimension
Jim Broumelha International Federation of Journalists – an international perspective
Pete Lazenby NUJ – what’s happening to local news
Natalie Fenton – local media and democracy
Chair of session: Frances O’Grady
Session 3
12 noon – 1pm Why ownership matters
Granville Williams – Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom
Tony Burke – Assistant General Secretary Unite
Richard Bagley – Morning Star
Avaaz –- Michael Calderbank people against Murdoch
Chair: Joy Johnson
LUNCH BREAK 1pm – 1.45pm
Session 4
1.45pm – 2.45pm
Leveson – the story so far
Dan Sabbagh – The Guardian
David Sherborne – QC Leveson Inquiry (tbc)
Thais Portilho-Shrimpton – Hacked off
John Hendy QC – NUJ QC to the Leveson Inquiry
Chair: Kevin Maguire (tbc)
Session 5
2.45pm – 3.45pm
Regulatory reform what is to be done?
Tom O’Malley – The historical context
James Curran – CCMR proposals
Chris Frost – NUJ Ethics Council
Seamus Dooley – NUJ Ireland
Natalie Fenton – chair
Concluding remarks
Michelle Stanistreet NUJ
Yesterday IPSA published their review of the expenses scheme, with some very positive changes for staff that the union branch has been lobbying hard for over recent years. The full scheme is available here and IPSA’s summary of the changes is available here, but in terms of staff wins we are looking at:
In case some of you haven’t seen it on the intranet:
All Members and Members’ staff are invited to attend the launch of the new Diversity and Inclusion Scheme on Thursday 1 March at 1.30pm in the Attlee Suite, Portcullis House.
Equality, diversity and inclusion are very important. The House Service has made significant progress in these areas in the last three years, but there is more to do. The new Diversity and Inclusion Scheme, approved by the Commission in January, is part of a strategy to help everyone understand what a mature, responsible organisation can do to bring about the kind of equal treatment that is at the heart of its values.
The launch is on Thursday 1 March from 1.30-3.30pm in the Attlee Suite on the 1st floor of Portcullis House. The formal opening will take place at 2pm. The event will be introduced by Mr Speaker and by the Clerk of the House and Chief Executive.
Branch secretary Louise Haigh accused many MPs of flouting the law by not paying the minimum wage in a recent article on Parliamentary internships in the Daily Mirror. The article is available here and reproduced below:
MPs are discriminating against poorer students because it’s only rich kids who can afford to work for them for nothing.
Almost 800 youngsters were signed up as “interns” last year, says the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. Many put in a full working week carrying out research, handling constituents’ sensitive problems and even acting as office managers. Continue reading
Just a reminder about 2 surveys MPs’ staff have been asked to fill out recently.
House of Commons Survey of Services 2012
By now you should have received an email to your parliamentary email address asking you to express your views on the services provided to you by the House of Commons Service. The 3 February deadline is coming up, so we encourage you to take part if you haven’t already done so. It takes about 10 minutes and is a good way to give feedback on the services provided to MPs’ staff, particularly in the context of the budget cuts going through as part of the House of Commons Saving programme.
If you work for an MP but did not receive an email on 23 January, do not hold a parliament.uk email address, or if you would prefer to complete the survey by telephone interview, please call the external research agency SPA Future Thinking’s Survey Manager on 0207 219 2306. Continue reading