Jordans & Ryvita -
Company Closure
On Thursday the 17th February 2011 a meeting
was set up at the Thistle Hotel Haydock to see what Unite could do
to assist Jordans & Ryvita in Stockport with regards to
supporting the employees through declared redundancy.
A private company had let Jordans & Ryvita
down with planned redundancy support and possible help for
threatened members was being looked into through Mick Charmers –
Unite Regional Officer (RO).
The meeting was made up of the following
people; Mick Charmers – RO and Dean Briody – Regional Learning
Organiser (RLO) from Unite the Union. Nicki Sherriff and Kathryn
Camben both from the Human Resource department of Jordans &
Ryvita.
The help needed at this point was for basic
Information Technology (Computers); Curriculum Vitae (CV) building
and job searching. Other support had been discovered locally
The outcome from this meeting was that we
agreed that we could deliver basic computer training to start from
Monday 7th March 2011 and also offer accredited qualifications
through the Unite Learning ‘moodle for ITQs’ levels 1+2 training,
free for Unite members and at a cost to non members as progression
to their original request.
Sessions were scheduled to start from day one,
10.00 – 13:00 and 14:00 – 17:00 with six learners per session (12
per day) running for six consecutive Mondays with learners sitting
in on two separate sessions, to make up six guided learning hours
each. An extra date was to be looked at later on, to catch up
with any missed learning sessions due to unforeseen events.
At the company, at the time, Unite
contributions were deducted at wages, but the reps started setting
up direct debit forms for members to maintain their membership
status in the Union. On the back of what we were doing for the
people at the company we have also attracted new members to join
Unite.
Sessions were delivered on site in a purpose
built IT Suite by both Sharon Ryall - Unite RLO and Dean Briody –
Unite RLO. Extra sessions were agreed beyond Monday the 18th
April to support any learners wishing to progress onto the ITQ’s
via the Unite Learning moodle web site at http://www.learnwithunite.org/.
Again Unite demonstrated the value of
membership to workers when they are let down by others. In these
difficult times for jobs Unite Learning teams working alongside
Unite officers give the best chance for members to increase their
skills and give themselves the best chance of retaining or gaining
employment.
Information supplied by Dean Briody - RLO
