UNISON has more than 250 members in Capita, including in Revenues and Benefits, Customer Services, IT, HR and Payroll functions. We have just gone through the £3.3 million cuts programme this year and have managed to avoid compulsory redundancies by working closely with management and ensuring our members’ interests are protected. We know that there will be more government cuts in the years to come and it is vital that we build up as many members as possible so we will be in a position of strength to face the battles ahead.

We also need members to step up and become stewards or contact points in the organisation so we can organise effectively and deliver on behalf of our members. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch, we will be delighted to hear from you.

(02/02/12) The UNISON/Capita stewards Forum met on 11 January 2012 to re-launch UNISON’s national approach to dealing with Capita following Capita’s further expansion into the commercial call centre market. 

The main challenge faced by UNISON within Capita is to develop a strategic national approach to dealing with an employer that operates each of its contracts as separate entities and covers a broad spectrum of types of employment and this challenge has intensified as Capita has expanded and diversified.  The diversity of contracts and the business model followed by Capita means that although there is a national joint working framework between UNISON and Capita, the experience of activists around the country suggested that this is often ignored or bypassed by local managers. Further challenges identified at the meeting were to raise the profile of UNISON at all levels of the business and launch a new recruitment drive, as membership is strong in TUPE staff, but less so in staff taken on post-TUPE.

The meeting also decided to launch the following initiatives - to update and re-launch Capita/UNISON website, to launch a regular newsletter to be distributed to members, which will be both informative and campaigning.  Future initiatives will be to look at what national campaigns can be launched within Capita and reach agreement with Capita about better mechanisms for reaching new starters within the organsiation.

The yearly national meeting between Capita Unison Stewards and Capita management takes place on 1 March 2012 with the intention being to look to this meeting to solidify existing agreements around partnership and, through the re-launch, improve the profile of UNISON/Capita at a national level.

Ken Curran, Acting Convenor
James Vizard, Steward
John Bisby, Steward

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