You may recall before the Professional Services Review that management expressed an intention to change the Staff Development Review (SDR). Some of you may also have been involved in pilots of the proposed new scheme in the past year and registered concern about the new scheme both to unions and to management. In the mid-summer management advised the Unions that they intended to go ahead and implement the scheme with effect from 1st September.
The Joint Unions raised objections to this and made representations to the Chair of the Board of Governors on your behalf. Following an initial impasse, which required intervention by ACAS, discussions with a view to reaching an agreement on the proposals have commenced between management and the Joint Unions.
It is too early to predict what the outcome of these negotiations will be but early discussions have been both productive and constructive. We will give full reports on the discussions at our various branch meetings, our next meetings with management will be on 30th October and 4th November.
Please make every effort to attend all forthcoming branch meetings as it is vital that you hear and consider these discussions.
UCU; Unite; Unison