{"id":1165,"date":"2013-01-15T18:19:27","date_gmt":"2013-01-15T18:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bsb.lasunison.com\/?p=1165"},"modified":"2013-01-15T22:54:43","modified_gmt":"2013-01-15T22:54:43","slug":"999-bonus-nein-nein-nein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/?p=1165","title":{"rendered":"999 Bonus &#8211; Nein Nein Nein!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>LAS UNISON\u00c2\u00a0want all our members to have extra money in these difficult\u00c2\u00a0times of\u00c2\u00a0Coalition austerity,\u00c2\u00a0but,\u00c2\u00a0bonus schemes to\u00c2\u00a0meet government targets\u00c2\u00a0are not the way to do it.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>W<\/strong><strong>e oppose these types of\u00c2\u00a0bonus schemes as divisive and wrong within an emergency service.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Let&#8217;s deal with the targets and Coalition policies that bring these problems head on and not cover them up with Band-Aid bonus schemes.<!--more--><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>We understand the position the Service is in, which is not of their making. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>We understand also\u00c2\u00a0the pressure the Service is going through and accept that\u00c2\u00a0we all\u00c2\u00a0have a duty to manage that pressure so that patient care is not compromised.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>However, the news that \u00c2\u00a353million of funding was to be withdrawn from the LAS by the government was received in relative silence by senior management and the Trust Board. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>We have already lost two years&#8217; worth of job losses (vacancies not filled) and funds taken away from us.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The government places us in a no-win situation. To put it in a nutshell:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>\u00c2\u00a353m of funding is being withdrawn from LAS. That has led to a reduction of staff. <\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>At the same time the\u00c2\u00a0call rate has increased throughout these withdrawing of funds and reduction of staff.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>T<\/strong><strong>he Service has to meet government targets on response times for patients with life threatening conditions (among other things).<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>If it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t meet these targets by the end of\u00c2\u00a0March it will be \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcfined\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 millions of pounds by the Commissioners.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Catch 22!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>I know that I have simplified very complex forces at\u00c2\u00a0play,\u00c2\u00a0but I do\u00c2\u00a0so to make the point.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The bonus scheme was brought in to give an incentive to staff to reach those targets.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>It has been brought in with good intentions by senior managers who are accountable to our Commissioners. Brought in with good intentions-but still wrong.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The scheme\u00c2\u00a0is\u00c2\u00a0already being misinterpreted and misrepresented by people who are not known to be friends of the Public Sector.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Telegraph had a field day insulting the professionalism of\u00c2\u00a0our Control Staff. They all but accused Control Staff of putting patients&#8217; lives at risk for a\u00c2\u00a0quick buck. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>That is a lie and a slur and\u00c2\u00a0someone has to stand up and say it! I say it.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>LAS UNISON will stand up for all our staff against lies and misrepresentation.<\/strong><strong>\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Telegraph make no mention of the Coalition\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s policies of course.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>How ever\u00c2\u00a0hard you try with a Bonus Scheme they are always (and are always seen) to be divisive. This one is no different, added to the fact that it is wrong to have &#8216;productivity&#8217; incentives within a patient caring profession. We shouldn&#8217;t need it.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>It is time we got round a table and talked seriously about the future of proper pay within our Service.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">____________________<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>I met the new Chief Executive Ann Radmore today for the first time.\u00c2\u00a0Other commitments and meetings have come in the way of our meeting up formally\u00c2\u00a0earlier.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>As diplomats \u00c2\u00a0would say &#8220;There was an honest and frank exchange of views!&#8221;.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>I have written in previous blog posts that I am pleased\u00c2\u00a0a &#8216;NHS person&#8217; was appointed Chief Executive. Someone with a public service ethos.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>We have a huge struggle to get our Service back on track. Doing what we are good at without the stress and tension that all staff are feeling and going through.\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>It won&#8217;t be easy with the\u00c2\u00a0economic and political\u00c2\u00a0storms blowing around our heads (and there\u00c2\u00a0may be lots of fall outs)\u00c2\u00a0but I am looking forward to a positive and constructive working relationship with the Chief Executive.\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">____________________<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<strong>Information of all issues can be found elsewhere on our website.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>___________________<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you are reading this, work for the London Ambulance Service or are eligible to join, and are not yet a member of UNISON Join Today!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>\u00c2\u00a0 <\/strong><strong>I Am Frontline You Are Frontline We Are All Frontline<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>We are stronger together. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Eric Roberts<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Branch Secretary.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LAS UNISON\u00c2\u00a0want all our members to have extra money in these difficult\u00c2\u00a0times of\u00c2\u00a0Coalition austerity,\u00c2\u00a0but,\u00c2\u00a0bonus schemes to\u00c2\u00a0meet government targets\u00c2\u00a0are not the way to do it. We oppose these types of\u00c2\u00a0bonus schemes as divisive and wrong within an emergency service. Let&#8217;s deal with the targets and Coalition policies that bring these problems&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":895,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1165"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1175,"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1165\/revisions\/1175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}