FSA strike to go ahead as pay scraps rejected

A strike by workers employed by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) will go ahead on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week after the FSA refused another offer by UNISON to try to settle the dispute through independent conciliation. UNISON is in dispute with the FSA following its decision not to pass on a 1% cost of living pay rise to its staff. Instead, a 0.75% rise was imposed, while the remainder was distributed to a selective part of the workforce, despite the concerns of trade unions.
http://www.unison.org.uk/news/food-standard-agency-strike-to-go-ahead-after-employer-refuses-offer-to-try-to-settle-dispute

Concerted union action required to reverse pay decline

This week’s figures from the Office of National Statistics confirming that real wages have fallen for the first time since 2009 will come as no surprise to public service workers. And the implications of the Bank of England’s prediction that real wages will not begin to rise until 2015 are clear.
   Wage growth requires a concerted push by trade unions. Planned local protest action next Wednesday aims to keep up momentum in the local government NJC dispute ahead of strike action on 14 October. If attempts to engage the Food Standards Agency in ACAS talks are unsuccessful, a high profile strike by UNISON meat inspectors could be imminent. Also, two important industrial action ballots are due to start in the near future.
    On 28 August ballot papers will be sent to 300,000 UNISON members in the NHS, followed on 9 September by the industrial action ballot of UNISON’s Scottish local government members in the SJC pay dispute. Effective co-ordination and prosecution of these important disputes is the only way that the decline in real wages in public services can be reversed. The solution is in our own hands.

Lies, damned lies and the ramblings of a North Wales shopkeeper

The attempt of Iceland food retailer CEO Malcolm Walker to deflect the market failings of the meat processing and retail industries onto local Council services would be laughable if it wasn't so serious. Walker, apparently the only person oblivious to mounting evidence of large scale organised crime in the European meat industry and systemic failings of regulation, points the finger at the public sector:

Cutting meat inspectors to the bone is a recipe for horsemeat

In 1906 the left wing American writer Upton Sinclair published his classic novel ‘The Jungle’ which exposed the rotten and unhygienic working conditions in the US meat packing industry. It caused a sensation and literally within a few months the Federal Meat Inspection Act was passed.

Deregulation serves up Trojan Horsemeat

In this Observer article UNISON National Officer Ian Adderley highlights the dangers of deregulation of inspection regimes in the meat industry. For years UNISON was told that it didn’t matter if the meat inspection service was killed off and that the industry could self-regulate. The consequences as warned by Adderley could be far worse than Trojan Horsemeat burgers:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/19/abattoir-meat-checks-food-scandal

Veggie

Meat Inspectors in a beef over unpaid wages

UNISON members employed as vets and meat hygiene inspectors staged a protest at the head office of the Food Standards Agency in London yesterday over non-payment of wages following a transfer of employment. UNISON National Officer Simon Watson said: “More than 100 vets have not been paid for up to two months after the contractor the FSA paid to employ them lost the contract. The new contractor has now promised to pay their wages, but the £500,000 cost could put terms and conditions in jeopardy in the future” http://www.unison.org.uk/asppresspack/pressrelease_view.asp?id=2663