Members of PCS union working for Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS) in Liverpool are taking strike action over pay and conditions. Can you support their campaign? The Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) helps employers make safer recruitment decisions by processing and issuing record checks for people working with children and adults in vulnerable or sensitive situations. HGS deliver a contract for DBS running the contact centre and back-office functions. Highly rated, poorly paid HGS staff provide an essential service, dealing with around a million calls from the public, and 6 million DBS certificates every year. As key workers they worked throughout the COVID lockdowns, helping other key services keep running safely. But now their employer is offering only a meagre pay award, taking wages just above the minimum wage. HGS are also refusing to improve on other minimum legal terms and conditions. It's not like they can't afford to. Internationally, HGS are a hugely profitable firm, and their owner tops the rich list with a personal wealth of £24.5bn. When prices are rising so quickly, HGS' refusal to agree a fair pay rise will cause real hardship for their staff. One of our members said “We don’t want to disrupt the service we provide to the public but we want to be paid a fair wage to get by on. With double digit inflation I’m finding it really difficult to pay for food and pay the bills. While the company are making record profits and the owner is the richest person in the country, this is not right.” Can you help raise the pressure on HGS to come back to the table and do right by our members? Please send an email to the company's UK CEO now.

The practice of ghost clinics or double-booking patient clinics for commercial gain risks both patients and clinicians in their prospective roles. Patients can be put at risk from a rushed eye examination that may miss vital signs of an eye condition or overall eye health. Practitioners are put in a compromising position between carrying out their employer's request and/or breaching GOC standards which could lead to them losing their registration and be unable to practice. The application of ghost clinics is often aimed at those with less employment rights like new starters, newly qualified or locums (self-employed), who feel pressurised to accept the practice. Many practitioners are left feeling stressed, missing their rest breaks and working additional hours just to cover the double appointments booked whilst feeling they are letting patients down. This also affects everyone who rely on companies within the optical sector to look after their eye health, so help support those in the sector trying to eradicate this practice and also for the benefit of your own wider health by signing this petition.

The Problem - The public paid millions to keep buses going during COVID. - That funding ends October 5th: 1 in 3 services could be cut! - Cuts could leave just 4 buses across the whole of South Yorkshire after 10pm and no buses in Barnsley after 7pm! The Cause - For decades, private bus companies have been putting short-term profits over the needs of people and planet. - Now our bus network is unsustainable without massive public support. The pandemic has made this even worse. - But even when the public offer to pay private companies to run services, they're now refusing to play their part! The Solution How do they get away with it? The public has almost no say over the network, leaving big business free to call the shots. 1) We need the Government to extend its funding to keep our buses on the road. 2) We need to speed up plans to bring buses into public control, so routes & timetables are set in the public interest. 3) We need a publicly owned operator to make sure essential services get run, even if private operators refuse!

Local people have not been able to access aquatic physiotherapy services to manage long-term conditions and access rehabilitation following surgery or injury for the last two and a half years. Musculoskeletal out-patients have only recently been moved to the Lewisham and Greenwich pool which is operating at maximum capacity and is approximately one hour away from Orpington via public transport. No aquatic physiotherapy provision has been made for neuro in-patients or patients from external groups who hired the pool before it closed. Aquatic physiotherapy allows people to develop skills to self-manage conditions, maintain a good quality of life and reduce dependence on long-term medication. When a patient is able to effectively self-manage by having access to aquatic physiotherapy this reduces their attendance at GP and secondary care services, which is beneficial to both the patient and the local healthcare system. This short video will help you understand the value of aquatic physiotherapy. https://youtu.be/Y8hYIqGEkLQ Aquatic physiotherapy is beneficial for people with a range of long-term conditions including: · Parkinson’s · Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) · Rheumatoid arthritis · Hypermobility · Multiple sclerosis · Fibromyalgia · Cerebral palsy It is also used to optimise rehabilitation of people who have had joint replacements, strokes, brain injury, deconditioning due to periods in ITU/illness and many common musculoskeletal conditions. Furthermore, it can be used to enrich people’s quality of life, health and wellbeing in life limiting or palliative conditions. Mr Lofthouse, patients who rely on aquatic physiotherapy, whose symptoms and conditions are worsening all the time that the hydrotherapy pool is closed, need the pool to reopen. Please begin a meaningful consultation with your staff and service users in the community to reopen the hydrotherapy pool and explore the business model of other aquatic physiotherapy services across the country who operate a successfully by hiring their pools to other users.

Earlier this year, the Government rushed through changes to its guidance on how it deals with ticket office cuts and closures. RMT believes that this was done in order to make it easier to close ticket offices. Despite the massive implications for passengers, the Government says it will not consult publicly on changes to the guidance. It has now been widely reported that the Government and rail industry are looking to close nearly one thousand ticket offices across the country. The Government and rail industry say that staff will be ‘repurposed’, yet they have failed to give any commitment that staffing levels will be maintained. We believe these plans are not about improving the passenger experience, but rather cutting jobs and protecting the profits of the train companies. In a recent survey of RMT members, nearly 90% of station and ticket office staff said plans to close ticket offices and make all staff ‘multi-functional’ would have a detrimental impact on the passenger experience and on passenger accessibility. We know that closing ticket offices will worsen the passenger experience and safety, security and accessibility. The impacts may be particularly severe for disabled and elderly passengers and those requiring additional support. Elderly and disabled people, and people on low incomes are less likely to have access to the internet and are excluded by the push to online and electronic ticketing. These plans ignore the much wider role that ticket office staff provide in addition to sales, including providing a wide range of advice and expertise and navigating the complex ticketing system to ensure passengers are not overcharged. The ticket office provides a point of safety and security, and at many stations access to facilities such as toilets and waiting rooms relies on the presence of staff. The planned closure of ticket offices are part of a wider industry attack on jobs and services. Yet at the same time, the private rail companies take in excess of £500m in profits annually and many rail bosses take home pay £1 million+ pay packets. Closing ticket offices is about protecting private profit, not passengers.

Most people using the service are terminally ill. They deserve a specialist, knowledgeable team to manage their claims. The closure risks long delays and a lack of specialist knowledge to support claims. • 40+ jobs are at risk leaving staff in fear of redundancy with little chance of redeployment in the local area. • Over 1000 combined years of experience helping the growing number of victims of asbestos-related lung diseases and other industrial disease will be lost. • Excellent working relationships with asbestos support groups, unions and charities will end. • Sufferers of terminal illnesses and their families will have to wait longer to receive payment and peace of mind at the most difficult of times. Industrial disease continues to have a devastating effect on workers and families across the country. Britain has the highest rates of asbestos cancer in the world, and Barrow has the highest rates in Britain. The thousands of people suffering work-related illnesses every year deserve a dedicated service. Save Phoenix House! This campaign is just one concerning 50 DWP sites facing closure, for more information see www.pcs.org.uk/campaigns/campaign-dwp-jobs-services-communities

We need a new deal for all workers. We demand stronger collective bargaining rights and an end to exploitative employment practices like fire and rehire.

Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA) provides a vital transport and logistics hub. It's loss would be highly detrimental to the local economy and result in the loss of good unionised jobs. In the middle of a cost-of-living crisis the last thing our members and neighbouring communities in Doncaster and the surrounding areas need is uncertainty about their jobs and futures. Peel Group's decision will likely see a slow winding down of the airport over the next few months until its final closure date in October.

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Firefighters’ BA is crucial for tackling fires safely in buildings, providing them with protection from death, injury and disease when working in oxygen-deficient, toxic and hazardous atmospheres. Firefighters attending high-rise fires must wear their BA and be under air before moving beyond the bridgehead - a safe-air environment – to tackle the fire and rescue anyone inside the building safely. New policy guidance issued by the NFCC would permit firefighters to be sent beyond the bridgehead without being supplied with safe air. If firefighters are not using their BA to supply safe air when they pass beyond the bridgehead, it provides them with no protection at all. This new procedure would: - Expose firefighters to toxic smoke and other harmful substances that can cause death, injury, cancer & other diseases. - Make dealing with any equipment faults extremely difficult. - Make calculating how much air a firefighter needs to get out safely impossible. If a firefighter runs out of air or gets in distress, they could be beyond the point of rescue. Firefighters’ lives, and public safety, are at risk if this policy is put in place. Dead and injured firefighters can’t rescue anybody.

The Mitie strikers are fighting for themselves, their kids, the NHS and the future of secure and stable work. They want to all be on NHS contracts and have fair and equal terms and conditions. And they want an NHS that prioritises the care of patients, not the profits of corporations like Mitie. Workers at the hospital have had enough of being singled out in meetings and being intimidated by Mitie managers who are using every tactic in the book to try to stop them fighting for their basic rights. The St George’s Hospital senior management team have the power to bring this contract back in-house and to resolve this, but are instead burying their heads in the sand. Sign the petition and tell the NHS Trust: Mitie Out!

Workers at Thomas Swan in Consett have faced attacks on their wages including term's and conditions for a number of years. Thomas Swan employees worked throughout the pandemic placing their loved ones at risk in order to maintain the success of the company. This year with inflation at an all time high and workers struggling to support their families, Thomas Swan have turned their backs! This not only places strain on the workers and their families but the local economy and the future of decent paid jobs in Consett.