Report from UNISON's Health Service Group Executive

Here is my report to UNISON members in the East Midlands of the meeting I attended on Wednesday of the Health SGE.

It was an emergency meeting to discuss the pay campaign. Contrary to the report on the UNISON website we didn't agree to defer a decision on balloting - there was no proposal to initiate a ballot during July or August because of the difficulties in getting a decent campaign and turnout during the summer. It's an indication of how poorly organised the union is in health, I think, that we haven't moved any faster towards a ballot - if we had done, we could now be taking action alongside the postal workers.

The officers' proposal - apart from the proposal to actually call a national demonstration every proposal I've seen debated at my three SGE meetings so far have originated with the paid officials not the lay members of the committee - was to prepare a timetable for a ballot between September 3rd and 20th with the result announced the next day. To organise a ballot on that timetable a decision needs to be taken by the end of July, and the SGE has a scheduled meeting on the 25th adn 26th. So that's when the decision about a ballot will be made.

The day after the meeting, it was announced that Alan Johnson had agreed to talks, although it seems clear that he's not willing to put any more money on the table. Somehow, the UNISON website has got the idea that the SGE decided to back away from calling a ballot because of the offer of talks. I guess that goes to show that not all the spin doctors work for Tony Blair.

What matters is that the new Health Secretary has three weeks to avoid a pay dispute in the NHS, and simply copying the decision of the health ministers in Scotland and Wales to pay the 2.5% pay award in one go is not going to be enough to save him.