The Society has recently launched an ‘It’s safe to speak’ campaign. It’s an initiative designed to raise awareness of the Whistleblowing Policy and to encourage employees to “speak up about any act where you genuinely believe there is actual or potential criminal activity, there is an intention of misleading people, or it may endanger people’s health and safety or the environment.”
Whistleblowing is the popular term for a disclosure made under the Public Interest Disclosure Act (PIDA). This Act also provides protection for a person making such a disclosure. It is intended to encourage the exposure of unlawful acts and breaches of compliance or health & safety rules and is something that regulators, such as the FSA, expect organisations to promote through internal policies. It is not intended to cover complaints about the treatment of an individual - issues which would more normally be pursued via the grievance procedure.
The Union welcomes the ‘It’s safe to speak’ campaign, as employees should feel that it is safe to raise these types of issues with their employer. We believe that this is a fundamental part of any employment relationship.
You can read the Whistleblowing Policy by clicking on the Read More link below. You'll see that the Union is identified as an external organisation to which Nationwide employees can make a disclosure to and retain the protection under the PIDA and policy. You can make a disclosure to us by asking to speak to an Individual Cases Officer (ICO) and advising them you wish to make a disclosure under the Whistleblowing Policy.
We concluded the Pay settlement for 2010 earlier this month and details of individual pay rises have been distributed to employees. Overall the reaction from members has been positive - many seem to have been surprised by the level of settlement given the financial pressures that the business is facing. However, we've also been contacted by a number of members who didn't receive an award because their salary exceeds the maximum. For some this has been the situation for several years and they are concerned that they will continue to be excluded in future years. We recognise this concern and how important is to make progress on this issue if the business is to retain the skills, knowledge and experience these employees bring and this will be a priority for us in future settlements.
We'll be featuring some of our benefits for members in coming editions of the newsletter. Details of the benefits are available on the website and featured in other communications from time-to-time but we're always surprised that many members don't know what's available and that it’s possible to save the cost of union subscriptions by taking advantage of our offers - so we'll do our best to improve awareness.