Conference report part two...

Andy Boylan seconds Motion A33 Composite 3 that was carried by conference.

Conference notes that Acoustic Shock is a problem that has been steadily rising across many workplaces PCS represents. In the past year there has been well over 100 reported acoustic shock incidents in the DWP Group alone, some of them malicious with callers blowing whistles on the line as an example. This is exampled in the DCS call centre areas of the DWP where the previously installed amplifiers, which had been installed to try and reduce acoustic shock incidents, were removed when the IPCC telephony was installed.
Conference notes that in this example there were no Risk Assessments carried out on the changes as the employer (DWP) declined to accept that there was a significant risk.
Acoustic Shock is a problem that could happen to anyone handling calls and can be distressing. Short term effects can include temporary loss of hearing, feeling sick and dizzy, and inflammation of the ear. Mid or long term effects can include permanent hearing damage and also panic attacks or depression.
Modern equipment legitimately installed correctly is compliant with noise at work legislation if used appropriately. However poor telephone lines or background noise will often cause a call handler to increase the volume of the call in an attempt to hear the caller, increasing their risk of Acoustic Shock. It is not clear if continually turning volume levels up breaches average noise exposure limits under this legislation.
Equipment exists now to monitor incoming sound, filter out excessive background noise and leaves a more clear sounding voice than if the equipment was not used. The equipment usually costs less than the price of the IP telephone it can be connected to, and can usually be used on a range of telephones, whether analogue or IP based. Conference instructs the NEC to investigate such noise filtering equipment, commonly referred to as a digital amplifier with filtering technology, and seek independent tests to demonstrate the effectiveness of this equipment.
Subject to proven effectiveness, Conference instructs the NEC to campaign at all levels throughout PCS that such equipment is installed by the employer for headset users across each workplace we represent.
Conference believes that PCS needs to be in the vanguard when taking legal test cases to defend members' rights at work and therefore Conference instructs the incoming NEC to ask Branches for details of members who have suffered an acoustic shock which has potentially resulted in a detriment to their Health and take a series of test cases against employer's who have not been taking steps to reduce the incidence of acoustic shocks.

For a great range of conference news reports and video clips I refer you to our friends at the PCS Shropshire blog: http://www.pcsshropshire.selfip.org/newspage/

Labour MPs head for the lifeboats

Gordon Brown is facing an escalating ­crisis of confidence inside the parliamentary Labour party as record numbers of his MPs apply to sit in the House of Lords after the next general election.
In the clearest indication to date that increasing numbers of Labour figures believe the party is heading for a heavy defeat at the hands of David Cameron, the Guardian has learned that at least 52 MPs have formally approached Downing Street to be given places in the upper house.

You couldn't make it up!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/may/28/gordon-brown-labour-crisis

Conference report part one...

The following is the text of the branch chairs address to the PCS ADC on the subject of private infringement on public neutrality.

"President, Conference – Andy Boylan on behalf of the Veterans Agency National Branch to move motion A14.

Conference some of you will be aware of how the SPVA came to be – but for those who don’t know we were a merger of the Veterans Agency and AFPAA.

Veterans Agency was entirely civil service but AFPAA had been mainly privatised to EDS in a so called ‘partnership’. Now our previous Chief Executive was somewhat friendly with EDS. Not only were they on the Management Group but he referred to EDS staff as his staff. He actively told civil servants how good EDS were and that they were better than the civil servant staff.

Now Conference, I should make it clear, we are not opposed to the actual hard working staff in EDS – many of whom were civil servants who were betrayed and sold by their employer. We want to support them and bring them back in-house, saving them from a company enforcing pay cuts whilst maintaining profits – aiming for 6% year on year increases in profit one of their senior managers once confessed. We are opposed, however, to EDS having such a pull within a Government Agency – a body that should be politically neutral.

How has this pull manifested? Well one example would be the Staff Survey Team that VA had. The team had produced annual surveys in full consultation with the Trade Union Side. Suddenly the survey was to be done by a private company (the one previously used by AFPAA). This was done without consultation because, “EDS wouldn’t like a survey designed by civil servants” – so much for partnership. Of course, what this means in real terms is that EDS forced an outsourcing.

EDS wanted to move the Agency’s Disaster Recovery Servers into an EDS building; why? I think it was to make it more difficult to extract us from the company. There was no gain for the Agency, no gain for the taxpayer. Indeed here was a substantial increased in annual cost to make the move. Thankfully this was something the TUS were able to prevent.

We asked for a seat, in an observers capacity, on the previous Chief Executive’s AMG – EDS wouldn’t like that we were told. In short the unions couldn’t observe the AMG but EDS managers were full participants.

Our Health and Safety committee terms of reference and our equality statement have both been signed by both the EDS senior manager and our Chief Executive. These documents have been dependant on EDS approval and EDS have failed to consult EDS PCS colleagues. The civil service TUS have had to send the health and safety terms of reference to PCS EDS because their management didn’t.

Conference, despite a legacy of failure, especially after PCS gave the previous Chief Executive a political kicking and saved Innsworth station, the Rear Admiral was given a New Years Honour.

Conference things have moved on and we have a new Chief Executive. Have things improved? Well they have to a degree but our new Chief Executive does carry a mantra of “One Agency, One Team,” we even have a corporate voiceover that goes {puts on gravely voice} “One Agency, One Team.” We are not one Agency, we are an Agency bolted together out of two separate companies – one public and the other private and trying to make a profit. It appears that our new contract, being signed today {by date of the speech}, has even cut out the main penalty clauses – penalties that I understand added up to around the £10m mark, mostly uncollected last year by public managers from the private company – FOI questions have been raised.

Conference this motion calls for a Parliamentary Enquiry into the influence private companies have within Government Agencies – it takes civil service neutrality as a necessity of Government. A Parliamentary enquiry might seem a strange call given that we can’t even trust the majority of politicians not to fleece us for every penny they can – but it is a way forward to highlight the issues with the public. I move."

This motion was carried at the national ADC with the wholehearted support of the NEC and resounding support from the whole of conference, including the commercial sector, and will now form part of the PCS campaign for the incoming NEC.

http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/conference/index.cfm

Let them eat cake?

EDS celebrated the signing of the interim contract with MoD SPVA last week.

To mark the occasion and in celebration of this fact their staff were given cake... the irony is not lost on us.

However, we understand that in the EDS Account Managers memo, staff were informed that the services they deliver under the new contract whilst initially will be similar to those they deliver today, the way in which they deliver them will change significantly. Apparently there will be a significant transition and transformation for both EDS and MOD staff in SPVA over the next few months... which, frankly, comes as news to this branch because have had no indication from SPVA management of, or negotiation or consultation on, any forthcoming significant changes to the way we work. We wonder if this transition will happen before the parliamentary inquiry that this branch called for into the influence that private companies have on the management of public bodies, and which has been accepted by the PCS Annual Delegate Conference in the past week? Watch this space for full details of the motion debate and Andy Boylan's speech to conference.

Make Your Vote Count

Postal workers refuse to deliver BNP leaflets

Postal workers are refusing to deliver British National Party election leaflets because they object to its “right-wing rubbish”.

About 100 workers in the West Country have told union leaders that they will not carry the leaflets, which bear an anti-immigration message.

They have accused Royal Mail chiefs in Bristol and Somerset of “bullying”, with one office allegedly threatening workers with dismissal if they do not comply.

The Communication Workers Union says that Royal Mail is breaking a “conscience clause” agreed four years ago that allows staff to refuse to deliver literature they find offensive.

Complete article here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6293374.ece

Pay Update 15: Important Info E1 and E2 Grades!

Dear Colleagues,

Pay Update No 15: MoD Pay – Update on Negotiations/Important Action for PCS members

PCS pay negotiators (from the MoD Group and the national union) have met twice this week with MoD management, including the director of MoD civilian personnel, Susan Scholefield and the Permanent under Secretary PUS Bill Jeffery.

The meetings were held as part off the MoD Dispute Resolution Process which has been triggered by PCS following our members overwhelmingly rejecting the management offer on pay (see PCS Pay Update Number 13).

At both meetings PCS has put forward a number of suggestions that could have helped to end our dispute. We have formally proposed involving the Cabinet Office and Treasury in the talks on MoD pay. We have set out the ways in which MoD could achieve its pay priorities without penalising our members in the E1 and E2 pay bands and also those working overseas.

In short PCS has entered the meetings in good faith and with a view to reaching agreement.

Disgracefully, it is evident very quickly that MoD management have in fact no intention of trying to resolve our dispute.

At both meetings management could offer us no good reason for rejecting our proposals. Instead they have chosen to hide behind flimsy excuses as to why they are attacking the lowest paid staff in MoD.

Management have refused to talk meaningfully about resolving PCS members concerns because they claim that the deal they have with the Treasury on pay is dependent on pay and pension cuts at E1 and E2.

Management has also refused to defer the imposition of the cuts until July or August because they claim it would be ‘too difficult’ to delay cuts any further.

Next Steps

Under the Dispute Resolution Procedure PCS is now seeking independent 3rd party involvement – via ACAS. We are committed to exploring every avenue to attempt to resolve our member’s concerns. However, we also want to be totally honest with members and make clear that we have little confidence in the dispute process and whilst we will attend the meetings we have do so under no illusions about management willingness to resolve the dispute.

Important Actions for PCS members

1. As members are aware PCS has taken very detailed legal advice on MoD proposals. In view of the employers abysmal attitude to the views of its staff on pay we now intend to proceed to test the legality of MoD pay proposals.

In the next few weeks every member will receive a letter from our union drafted by our lawyers. It is essential that every PCS member at E1 and E2 completes the letter and sends it to MoD. A copy must also be sent to PCS. To potentially protect your legal position you are urged to send the letter to the employer.

The letter is also available to download from our website (www.pcs.org.uk/ministryofdefence and available from PCS HQ.

Further action by all members at E1 and E2 will also be likely and you will be advised as and when this needs to be completed.

2. Sign the petition protesting about the pay cuts http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/MoDpaycuts/

3. Protest to the Secretary of State - download this letter at http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/ministry_of_defence_group/news/mod-pay-update-number-10.cfm

4. There will be an important discussion on MoD Pay at our Group Conference in Brighton next week. As part of this discussion our union will be debating an emergency motion on pay and will be deciding what steps our union needs to now take in our pay campaign and also what specific actions we should ask members to take on pay.

Please make sure your local PCS representative is aware of your views on the next steps our union needs to take to defend our pay and pensions.

5. Ensure that your friends and colleagues are members of our union.

A further pay update will be issued after conference.

Yours sincerely

Paul Barnsley Group Secretary
Chris Dando Group President
K C Jones Vice President

Crime and Punishment

Government minister Shahid Malik is paid a salary of £95,617 as junior minister at the Ministry of Justice. Yet on top of this he has claimed in 2005-06: £21,634, in 2006-07: £22,110 and in 2007-08: £23,083 for a second home allowance on a house he already owns in Peckham that he bought in 2001 for £85,000. He does not own another property, in his constituency, but he does rent a property from a slum landlord at a knock down below market rate rate of £100 per week... and which itself seems to be used by a constituency worker. He rents his local office from the same landlord... at public expense of course of £4000pa. In addition to the second home allowance Mr Malik has claimed thousands for a variety of items such as furntiture, home cinema, and a massgae chair? He also regularly claims £400 per month food allowance... apparently his salary doesn't cover that! But to be fair, now that all this has been pointed out to him, he has agreed to pay some of the money back... well, £65 actually... which was what he claimed for payment of a court summons for his non payment of council tax! I kid you not.

Of course, all of this was done within the rules... no crime was committed, and no punishment will be forthcoming.

What price justice?

(Reported today: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5326333/Shahid-Malik-his-house-and-the-slum-landlord-MPs-expenses.html)

Stalin's British Heroes

The Messerschmitt was screaming towards him on a head-to-head collision course, but it was Flight-Lieutenant Micky Rook who got his shot in first. He held his nerve, pressed the firing button of his Hurricane fighter plane and the German Me109 exploded in mid-air, disintegrating before his eyes. Another hard-won 'kill' for the RAF in the early years of World War II.

Yet this was no part of the famous Few's dogfight over Kent. The waters beneath Rook's plane were not the English Channel but the icy Barents Sea off Murmansk on the northern edge of the Soviet Union, deep inside the Arctic Circle.

Rook was part of 151 Wing, a little-known RAF group who fought against the Germans alongside the pilots of the Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin, for four vital months in the winter of 1941. Code-named Force Benedict, its mission has been largely forgotten for nearly seven decades - until the chance discovery earlier this year of a medal awarded to the splendidly named Wing Commander Henry Neville Gynes Ramsbottom-Isherwood, who led 151 Wing.

The red and gold Order of Lenin, resplendent with hammer and sickle and a platinum portrait of the Russian revolutionary leader, is one of the rarest ever won by a British serviceman. It had lain untouched at the back of a cupboard in Sussex for years.

The rest of the story can be found at the following link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1181390/Stalins-British-heroes-The-discovery-forgotten-medal-reveals-extraordinary-courage-RAF-aces-fought-Soviet-Union.html

How Safe is Safe

We live in a society that is becoming increasingly obsessed with being totally risk free. Clearly life wouldn’t be worth living if we eliminated all the risks.

Similarly in the work place we are increasingly suffering from ill advised low risk strategies. In particular I am referring to the current raft of security restrictions being placed on staff, regarding the handling and sharing of data, in the aftermath of a number of high profile losses and thefts of data.

The primary driver for the measures being introduced (or at the least being reinforced) has been the review ‘Loss of MOD Personal Data’ commissioned by the Permanent Under Secretary Ministry of Defence and carried out by Sir Edmund Burton. I’m also assuming at this point that the online ‘questionnaire’ that employees are currently filling in is part of this initiative.

Firstly it doesn’t seem that Sir Edmund is saying that data is being shared with people that it shouldn’t be shared, but the slant currently being taken in SPVA is not to share data with anyone making work at the business end of SPVA very difficult.

Typically, of course, the reality of the data loses and those responsible is rather removed from front line staff in SPVA.

From the Burton report;

The stolen laptop……was one of a small population of, currently, 51 laptops, which hold a large database incorporating over 600,000 personal records. Investigations revealed that a total of 4 of these laptops have been stolen since 2004 (all from parked cars). Although the security instructions for the safekeeping of laptops were clear in prohibiting them from being left in unattended vehicles, they did not dictate that the data must be encrypted.
From my understanding of the situation the laptops ‘lost’ were in the possession of service personal from the recruiting and training divisions of HM Armed Forces.

Readers will also remember HM Revenue and Customs loss of Child Benefit data in 2007 widely reported as lost by the civil service. Our understanding here is that the CD (or DVD) was lost at some point whilst in transit, with both messenger and courier services being privately owned.

Readers may also be aware of the loss/theft of data from RAF Innsworth last year, again widely reported as a civil service loss. Whilst news and information on this has been very quiet, with requests from us for information going unanswered, we understand that the data was lost from an EDS controlled (double secure) area. And possibly coincidentally on the day that EDS staff there were given redundancy notices.

More recently readers may remember in October last year that key government services were taken offline after a ‘pocket storage device’ containing details of the Government Gateway was discovered in a pub car park in Staffordshire. Whilst DWP claimed that the data on the drive was encrypted a security expert who was given the device said that he could access the data and potentially gain access to around 12 million public records. In this instance the data was lost by an employee of Atos Origin who have the £46m five-year contract to provide managed IT services for the Government Gateway.

You can see the pattern here, it seems to me that it is all too easy to blame civil servants for losses of data with the truth being somewhat different. The clear existing instructions forbidding users to leave laptops in unattended vehicles was not being observed. In all the other cases it would seem that private business has been culpable to some extent.

This does make me question why, in the light of these things, serious and draconian measure are being put into place in areas where, to our knowledge, no losses of data have occurred. Looking at the issue in a practical way, and using a little bit of common sense, why would anyone, for instance, tap into a phone call between a member of AFCS at Norcross and a member of VWS on a mobile phone to hear disability details?

The Burton report says;

Culture Changes – the ‘Facebook Generation’. The Department recruits from, and exists within, a culture where the rapid and often uninhibited exchange of information is the norm. At work, this behaviour must be tempered by common sense and sound judgement, informed by data protection practice, and the particular concerns of MOD work. However, returning to strict information control of the type applied to paper documentation of fifteen or more years ago is not considered practical in the modern working and cultural environment

In conclusion we have to agree that protection of public data is incredibly important but that we would like to see a little bit of realism as to what can be done where, to have procedures that are fit for purpose and not one size fits all and, finally, a little bit of honesty about where the real problem lies.

Twitter? No. Tweet to us? Please!

You must have by now heard of the latest internet craze of twitter? We are not recommending it, exactly, but what we are asking is that if you, a member of this union (or no) come across some interesting piece of news or work related gossip... tweet it to us. Perhaps you know of a vacancy due to open, a temporary promotion that just goes on and on, or anything else? If we don't know about it, we cannot deal with it! You know where we live.

Mandating Meeting

A mandating meeting will be held in Tommies (Norcross) at 10am on Thursday 14th May. This meeting is to decide how the branch will vote at Group and National Conference on the motions submitted.

1 hour facility time has been agreed with management for members to attend.

There will be a few copies of motion books available at the meeting, however if you want to view them before hand you can find them here:

MoD Group Conference: http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/ministry_of_defence_group/group-elections-and-conference-2009/standing-orders-report-1.cfm

National Conference: http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/conference/soc.cfm

Emergency Motion to MoD Group Conference

The following is the text of an emergency motion for consideration by the Mandating Meeting for submission to MoD Group Conference.

Emergency Motion – Pandemic Flu

Conference notes that there has been cases in the UK of, so called, swine flu and that the MoD advice is as follows:

If an individual feels ill with symptoms consistent with a flu whilst at work, it is important that he or she does not simply carry on working. It should be reported immediately to the manager or occupational health and if the symptoms are consistent with influenza, the individual should be sent home, advised to contact the Flu information Line and told not to return to work until the symptoms have cleared and they feel well enough to return.

If individuals develop symptoms whilst not at work, they should adhere to the
following advice:

• Stay at home (self-isolate).
• Not go to work until they are fully recovered.
• For advice and an initial assessment of symptoms contact the Flu Information Line: 0800 1 513 513 (+44 20 7928 1010 if overseas).
• Inform their employer or occupational health department to let them know they are ill.

Conference notes this was lifted directly from the NHS guidance and the same guidance suggests that a symptom may be as simple as a runny nose. Notwithstanding the irony that the Unions have, for many years, argued that a culture of presenteeism was just as much a problem as absenteeism, Conference is concerned as to what could happen to an individual should they follow this advice and this triggers sickness absence investigation.

Conference calls on the GEC to ensure with the employer that any absence for cold/flu symptoms during the swine flu panic and any future pandemic scare or event should be discounted as sickness absence for inefficiency/capability reasons.

Conference further calls on the GEC to attempt to ensure that absence for this reason is fully paid and does not count towards full/half pay calculations for any subsequent absences. However, conference notes that this second instruction will be difficult to achieve and gaining the first instruction should not be dependant on the second.

What to do with the Flu?

Latest advice from the government, and circulated around work today suggests what you should do if you have just returned from Mexico or an affected country and you think you might have swine flu?

STAY AT HOME

CHECK YOUR SYMPTOMS ON http://www.nhs.uk/ IF POSSIBLE

CALL THE SWINE FLU INFORMATION LINE ON 0800 1 513 513 TO HEAR THE LATEST ADVICE

IF YOU HAVE TAKEN THESE STEPS AND STILL HAVE CONCERNS RING YOUR GP OR NHS DIRECT 0845 4647 IN ENGLAND, NHS 24 IN SCOTLAND 08454 24 24 24, NHS DIRECT WALES 0845 4647, OR IN NORTHERN IRELAND 0800 0514 142.

DO NOT GO INTO YOUR GP SURGERY OR LOCAL A&E UNLESS ADVISED TO DO SO OR YOU ARE SERIOUSLY ILL, BECAUSE YOU MIGHT SPREAD THE DISEASE TO OTHERS. ASK A FLU FREIND TO GO OUT FOR YOU.

What isn't mentioned is that this is now an 'affected country'!

May Day

Today is May Day, the international workers’ day. This year for May Day we are asking you to Make Your Vote Count in the European and local elections on Thursday June 4. Stand up for public services and vote to stop the far right.

Keep up to date with the Make Your Vote Count campaign at: www.pcs.org.uk/myvc

May Day message from Mark and Janice - http://www.pcs.org.uk/mayday

Email the European election candidates and ask them to respond to our questionnaire about public services. These responses will then be published on the PCS website - http://www.pcs.org.uk/june4

Make sure you are registered to vote, you have until 19 May to register to vote - http://www.pcs.org.uk/x

Download the latest MYVC materials including the new MYVC spring calendar http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/campaigns/myvc/resources/posters.cfm

Sign up for regular email and text alerts about PCS campaigns - http://www.pcs.org.uk/alerts

Follow PCS on Twitter - PCS is now twittering! http://twitter.com/pcs_union