Unison demands ill-health justice from Plaid-led Carmarthenshire council

By Mark Evans, Retired Members Branch Secretary Carmarthenshire County Unison (personal capacity)

Members gave blood,sweat and years to the council pay their pension

For approximately the first ten years I was branch secretary of Carmarthenshire County Unison local government branch with around 4,000 members I cannot recall the branch dealing with a case of a member being refused ill-health retirement or being unhappy with getting a higher (worse) tier than they expected ( there are three tiers).

But then the pension doctor retired, and for approximately the last three years as branch secretary the council employed a company from Cardiff and suddenly we started getting a significant number of cases where members were either refused ill-health retirement or given a higher (worse tier) than they expected. We raised this on several occasions with senior management who refused to acknowledge it was happening. They also refused to put in place procedures that would enable a member to know before they were dismissed on ill-health whether they would be getting ill-health retirement.

Senior management said they would only do this for exceptional circumstances! What was happening was members were being dismissed on ill-health as they could not perform any job in the council and then when they applied for ill-health retirement were told they were not eligible. Often the explanation of the company doctor was our member was awaiting an operation, and this could improve their condition so that they would be able to work never mind that at the time there was a waiting list of several years for some operations often with no guarantee of success. Many members were left unable to work and without an income.

Clearly it had become a lot harder to get ill-health retirement with some members getting PIP ( not an easy thing to get) but could not get ill-heath retirement!   Due the council’s refusal to acknowledge this was an issue on several occasions, we decided to lobby Dyfed Pensions Board ( Dyfed pensions includes Carmarthenshire County Council) on Wednesday the 8^th of January.

We think that making ill-health retirement harder to access is a consequence of cuts -the council tightens its belt, and we feel the squeeze. Retired Unison members, our branch and Unite lobbied the council and we will continue to demand the council makes acquiring ill-health retirement a fair process to members and that the council stops passing on cuts that have serious consequences for our members. The council with their fingers crossed behind their back is promoting social partnership they cannot even ensure staff that have given blood, sweat and years to the local authority get the pension they have paid for and deserve.