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Opening Statement

170 Hackney Council employees, the vast majority Unison members, are
taking their employer to Industrial Tribunal alleging that the council
unlawfully broke their employment contracts. The dispute arose when the
council decided that to meet a target of a 6% reduction in its
expenditure it would reduce the pay of 3,500 staff. To achieve this the
council wrote to all 3,500 staff saying that they were dismissed and
offering them re-employment on a lower pay scale.

Due to pressures of other commitments, the union’s legal department were
reluctance to support these cases. Unison members, while recognising
that the national union cannot support every potential unfair dismissal,
felt the need to challenge the decision to cheat them of their wages. We
have therefore taken this forward as a local campaign based on the
energy of rank and file members.

The Union was reluctant to support the cases, and the staff have taken this foreword without formal backing from Unison's Legal section.

DAVID AND GOLIATH!

Stewards and activists within Unison are using their spare time to
prepare a case that the tribunal believes will last five days. We have
been fortunate that to prepare the case we have been allowed the use of
the local law centre’s library. In contrast the employer is using a top
Cambridge based firm of specialist employment solicitors, and have a
barrister standing by for the hearing.

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This page was last updated on 03/21/99.