On-Line Training Session for Campaigners for Cleaners and Better Sick Pay

I also got this from the Centre for Progressive Change, which is currently campaigning for better sick pay, particularly for cleaning staff. They’re running an on-line training session on Saturday, 3rd December.

Winning Change Through People Power

Cómo conseguir cambio a través del poder colectivo

Saturday 3rd Dec, 15:00-17:00 

Sábado 3 de diciembre, 15:00-17:00

Do you want to improve things at work or in your community but not sure where to start?

Do you find yourself feeling powerless or hopeless?

Are you ready to do something about it?

Come to a tailored training session for cleaners and sick pay campaign supporters run by Centre for Progressive Change to learn all about the tools we use to build people power and how you can get started using them yourself!  https://www.centreforprogressivechange.org/winning-change-training

 ¿Quiere mejorar las cosas en el trabajo o en su comunidad pero no sabe por dónde empezar?

¿Te encuentras sintiéndote impotente o sin esperanza?

¿Estás listo para hacer algo al respecto?

¡Venga a una sesión de aprendizaje personalizado para limpiadores y aliados dirigido por Center for Progressive Change para aprender todo sobre las herramientas que usamos para desarrollar el poder popular y cómo puede comenzar a usarlas usted

mismo! https://www.centreforprogressivechange.org/winning-change-training  Aims for SessionThink about how we can win change Learn tools and skills to build people power Get involved with tackling the issue of Safe Sick Pay Register here: https://www.centreforprogressivechange.org/winning-change-training  Objetivos de la sesiónPiense en cómo podemos conseguir el cambioAprenda herramientas y habilidades para desarrollar el poder colectivoParticipe para abordar el problema de pago por enfermedadRegístrate aquí: https://www.centreforprogressivechange.org/winning-change-training   Unsubscribe | Sent by The Centre for Progressive Change10 Chelsea Park • Bristol, Gloucestershire • BS5 6AG’

This doesn’t interest me, but I’m putting it up for anyone who is.

Wednesday’s Online Meeting about Statutory Sick Pay

Wednesday evening, I went to a Zoom meeting organised by the Centre for Progressive Change about campaigning for much needed reforms to Statutory Sick Pay. The Centre for Progressive Change is a new organisation, and this is their first campaign, so they want to make a mark. As far as I could make out, the campaign is being led by the cleaners and their union, although other unions are also involved. At the moment there are a large number of workers, who aren’t getting statutory sick pay. I’ve forgotten the precise figures, but it’s something like a third or above. If they do qualify for it, they have to wait three days to receive it from the day they sign off sick, and the amount paid, £99 a week, isn’t sufficient to cover people’s needs. They are therefore campaigning for the amount to be raised, and for it to be paid from the first day of ill health.

They also mentioned cases where workers were denied time off work and SSP by their employers, even though they were perfectly entitled to it. This included one young man who came down with cancer a year or so ago. An operation was scheduled, but he was told he would have to isolate for a week or so before the operation to make sure he didn’t catch Covid and would need two weeks off work to recover. When he told this to his HR manager, who had previously been kind and supportive, he was told that the manager couldn’t run a place like this and so couldn’t take the time off work for isolation. Nor was he going to receive sick pay when he took time off work to recuperate. The boss told him instead that he’d have to take unpaid holiday.

This clearly isn’t acceptable.

The meeting itself was bilingual in English and Spanish. There was a button for simultaneous translation, so if you didn’t speak whatever language was being spoken at that moment, you could press a button and get the translation. It felt rather like being at the UN when the various ambassadors and officials there get the translations of speeches through their headphones. I was puzzled why it was in English and Spanish when we’re no longer in the EU, but it may just be that so many of the cleaning staff and other low wage workers involved in this campaign are Spanish.

They’ve got a petition to persuade the government to pay increased SSP and are also trying to get people to organise to see their local MPs about it. I’ve signed it because of the cost of living crisis and Truss’ renewed assault on working class wellbeing.

For more information, go to their website athttps://www.centreforprogressivechange.org/

Online Meeting for Campaign to Increase Sick Pay at 6 O’Clock Tonight.

I realise that this is very last minute, but I got the news about it only yesterday evening. The Megaphone sent me the email below that the Centre for Progressive Change are holding an online meeting at 6 this evening about their campaign to raise sick pay.

‘The below is a message from a new campaign to win sick pay for every worker. Can you support this important cause by joining their campaign? See below. 

Dear David,

Whether you’re going through treatment for a long-term illness or you catch a virus, being ill shouldn’t mean not being able to pay the bills.

But a third of us only get statutory sick pay. That is just £99.35 a week, which is nowhere near enough to pay the bills.

Tomorrow, Wednesday 21st September at 6pm, the Centre for Progressive Change are launching a new campaign for better sick pay.

They are organising to extend sick pay to all workers and to bring sick pay in line with the living wage. Will you join the campaign?

Can you join the call at 6pm tomorrow (Wednesday) to hear the plan? Register here.

Will you write to your MP to see where they stand on sick pay, and invite them to a meeting to discuss it?

We demand better. Join us to win these changes to support workers during the cost of living crisis and keep working people healthy.

In solidarity,

Beth

Centre for Progressive Change

Via Megaphone UK

I’ve registered to go to the meeting but haven’t committed myself to the letter just yet. I’ll let you know what’s discussed.