Union Mail – September 2013: Amendments to Conference Motions, In-Charge and Additional Responsibility Payments

Amendments to Conference Motions

Conference 2013 is just over four weeks away and the deadline for submitting motions has passed.

The Standing Orders Committee has met to ensure that all motions submitted fulfilled the requirements of the Rules and a full list of valid motions is now available to view here.

The motions fall into a number of different categories, including Pay, Benefits, Terms and Conditions, Diversity, and Branch Working Arrangements, and they come from right across the business.

Before Conference meets to debate motions on the 7th October, there is now an opportunity for members to propose amendments – for instance, if you think the wording is unclear, or the motion as it stands could be developed to include a relevant point. Totally changing the meaning of a motion, however, cannot be done through an amendment. The closing date for amendments is 18th September 2013.

If you have any queries regarding amendments to motions please call Steve Barnes, NGSU President, on 01295 710767.

An example of a suitable amendment might be:

Motion: This Conference believes that the current job family structure is no longer appropriate.

Amendment: Add the following – “and requests the NEC to commence urgent negotiations with Nationwide Management to introduce a fairer system of Reward.”

If adopted at Conference, this would lead to the motion reading:

“This Conference believes that the current job family structure is no longer appropriate and requests the NEC to commence urgent negotiations with Nationwide Management to introduce a fairer system of Reward.”

An inappropriate amendment might be:

Amendment: Delete the words “is no longer appropriate” and add the following: “is ideally suited to the needs of the business”.

This totally reverses the original idea, rather than developing or refining it.

Please send your amendments to ngsu@ngsu.org.uk stating the motion reference number; your amendment and how the amended motion should read.

Tim Poil
General Secretary

In-Charge and Additional Responsibility Payments

We’d like to remind members in the Branch Network that new guidance has been issued about eligibility to claim in-charge and additional responsibility payments.

In-Charge Payments

CRs, Hosts and PBMs, who are required to be in charge of the branch in the absence of the (S)BM for a minimum of a half day (three consecutive hours which includes either the branch opening or closing time), are eligible to claim an in-charge payment regardless of the day of the week. MCs are also eligible to claim an in-charge payment, but the requirement for an MC to be in-charge is likely to be exceptional.

Additional Responsibility Payments

This applies to all branch roles who are stepping up to cover the duties of a more senior colleague. The eligibility criteria for claiming an Additional Responsibility payment is set out in the Allowances Policy. If you also qualify for an in-charge payment, you cannot claim this simultaneously with an additional responsibility payment. However, any full consecutive days for which you are eligible to receive an in-charge payment will count towards the three full consecutive working days needed for the additional responsibility allowance to be paid. For example, if you are a CR covering the role of your (S)BM during a week’s holiday, you can claim in-charge for the first three days and an additional responsibility payment from day four.

Full details of how to claim can be found in the Employee and Manager guides to Branch Working Arrangements. These are available on the NGSU website (see Branch Working in the Help at Work section).

Tim Poil
General Secretary

Monthly Subscription Draw

Just a reminder that NGSU members can increase their number of chances in our monthly draw at any time during their union membership. You can have a maximum of 10 chances – each chance costs just £1. Every month 75% of the draw pool is returned to members as prizes and 25% is retained to help meet the running costs of the Union. The draw is restricted to NGSU members only.

To enter the draw or increase your chances please call us on 01295 710767 or download an application form from our website. If you pay your Union subscriptions by salary deduction we can collect your draw subs that way too.

September Draw Winners

First Prize : £10,984
094673 : Pamela Mapstone of Development Centres
Second Prize : £5,000
121496 : Debbie King of Swindon (The Parade)
Third Prize : £2,000
099639 : Victoria Greenham of Clacton on Sea
Fourth Prizes : £500
128606 : Susan Ashley of Dorchester
103469 : Jade Hollister of Walton-on-Thames
086525 : Hayley Moore of Leighton Buzzard