Unite to stop the facist BNP

Special National Conference 2009

Called by Unite Against Fascism

and Love Music Hate Racism


10am-5pmSaturday 18 July 2009
Manchester Central Hall
4-5 Oldham Street
ManchesterM1 1JQ
Link here

PCS Pay Update No. 18

Update on negotiations

PCS has received a further letter on pay from the Director General for Civilian Personnel, Susan Scholefield. This is attached to this circular with the PCS response.

As you will see PCS has asked Susan to meet with PCS members impacted by the imposed pay and pension cuts at E1 and E2. We will advise members of her response in due course. Our union hopes that those responsible for the pay and pension cuts can find time to discuss their proposals with those on the receiving end of them.

We are also seeking a meeting with the new Secretary of State on pay and have written to him asking him to intervene and help us resolve our dispute. We will also advise members of his response.

Legal Action

Many thanks to the thousands of members who have completed the pay protest letter. Next week PCS will be asking all members at E1 and E2 to complete a grievance on pay and pension cuts. It is vital that this is completed by all members.

We are also in the process of lodging employment tribunal claims and further details on this will be set out in the next pay circular.

Industrial Action

The PCS MoD Group is seeking approval from our national disputes committee to commence a ballot for industrial action across MoD. Should approval be granted we intend to commence the ballot on 21st July 2009. We are currently consulting Branches and members on the forms of activity that we should take in the event of a YES vote. Again we wish to thank members who have taken the time to give us their feedback and ideas to date. These ideas have been incorporated into our planning.

Further details will be set out in future pay updates.

National Campaign

PCS is continuing our campaign around public sector pay. Talks are ongoing between PCS and the Cabinet Office/Treasury.

PCS conference last month decided that members will be consulted across the civil service during the summer about the way forward for our national pay campaign. More details on this will be available soon.

MoD Regional Forums

Our GEC has also agreed to consult widely across the Group throughout the summer. We will be holding regional forums near you to discuss MoD pay and much more including job cuts and the operational efficiency programme, the future of corporate services, outsourcing, civilian allowances and other MoD programmes.

Why not come along?

Members are also asked to:

1. Sign the petition protesting about the pay cuts on the 10 Downing Street website (http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/MoDpaycuts/)

2. Protest to the new Secretary of State (please download the model letter from our website or collect a copy from your Branch)
A further pay update will be issued shortly.

Response from DGHRCS

1. Thank you for your two letters of 1 June 2009 sent by e-mail.

2. Your first letter, in which you reserve your members’ position, contains similar assertions to those made by some of your members who have written to me using a template which I understand was provided by the union. As we have told those of your members who have written individually, the Department has been very careful to ensure that no member of staff suffered any detriment in pay terms as a result of the 2008 award. We do not, therefore, believe there has been any unilateral variation to contracts of employment.

3. As you know, the Department’s offer was structured so that all staff below the pay band maxima received a 2.5% increase, backdated to 1 August 2008, and they were then assimilated on to the next highest scale point on the 3% scale. Those staff above the new pay band maxima received a 0.5% cash payment and a 2% pensionable allowance paid monthly from that date. On 1 May 2009, the 2% allowance was added to the protected pay allowance which was achieved by converting the difference between the new pay band maxima and current salary into a protected allowance which has all the characteristics of an individual’s existing pay so it is reckonable for pension, overtime and promotion purposes. When that formal proposal was put to the PCS in Dec 08, you noted the details but chose not to ballot members until 14 Apr 09.

4. I am unclear what you mean when you state in your letter that the PCS believes its members in pay bands E1 and E2 have “a contractual right to progress to the current pay band maxima”. Presumably by “current” you are referring to the pay scales set under the 2006 award which expired on 31 July 2008. It would be helpful if you could explain what you mean and let me know the basis of the “contractual right” claimed.

5. On your second letter, we have indicated to the non-industrial trade unions that we will continue to work with you to investigate how pay scales should be structured going forward. It is difficult to predict what affordability constraints might be imposed on public sector pay when the current three year award expires on 31 July 2011. We have already offered to look at those in receipt of the protected pay allowance before then, in consultation with the Trade Unions, to see if there is a case for re-grading some of those posts or to consider whether there is any justification to pay a market skills supplement to any of the affected groups. Also, as I said in my earlier letter, PUS has offered to provide greater assurance to your members who are in the pay protection group and to work with you before the next pay round to address the pay protection issue. We remain willing to try and agree with you a form of words to cover your concerns.

6. In your correspondence and in your communications to your members, you persistently say that the Department is proposing to cut the pay of the lowest paid staff. In fact, the offer was carefully structured to ensure no individual suffered a detriment in pay terms. All your members, apart from those already on the pay band maxima, received a 2.5% increase backdated to 1 August 2008 which was paid in their February salaries. The Department has absolutely not cut anyone’s pay.

7. In your letter you express disappointment with the Department’s position on third party assistance and say that you had not sought arbitration. However, our contemporaneous notes of the meeting with PUS on 14 May 2009, record that PCS sought a short adjournment and on return requested third party assistance in the form of arbitration with ACAS. You also say that PCS had offered several proposals to resolve the issue; we recall your suggestions that the Cabinet Office and/or HM Treasury should be drawn into our discussions and that the new maxima should be withdrawn. Are these the several proposals to which you refer, or are there more ? For clarification, it would be helpful if you could explain in writing exactly what your proposals are both in terms of external assistance and for resolving the substance of the dispute.

8. As I have said, we remain willing and ready to continue discussing your concerns with a view to reaching agreement.


SUSAN SCHOLEFIELD
DGHRCS


PCS Response to DGHRCS



Dear Susan

2008 NON INDUSTRIAL PAY AWARD – OPEN LETTER FROM PCS

Thank you for your letter of 9th June 2009.

In the letter you pose a number of questions which PCS has already answered fully on a number of occasions. However, for the avoidance of doubt, we are happy to answer them again.

PCS Legal Challenge

You have asked us to clarify the basis of our legal challenge.

PCS has advised members to write to you regarding a detriment that you have imposed. PCS is clear that our members have a contractual right to progress to the current pay band maximum for their grade (for the avoidance of doubt this is the pay band maxima as at 31st July 2008).

MoD decided to impose a unilateral reduction to pay band maxima which amounts to a unilateral variation of the contracts of employment of each of our members in pay band E1 and E2.

We will be taking further steps in the next few weeks to further protect our member’s legal position.

MoD “sympathy” for PCS members

You again repeat your claim that you are prepared to work with us “to investigate how pay scales should be restructured going forwards”.

In our meetings with you to date we have seen no evidence of this. At our meetings the department has only offered to ‘express sympathy’ to members facing pay and pension cuts and to let staff at E1 and E2 know that you “will be thinking of them” in the next pay round (which is due in 2010/2011)

PCS would again repeat to you that our members cannot pay their bills or feed their families with your ‘sympathy’.

We are willing to talk to MoD at any time and place but only on the basis that you have something meaningful to say and that you commit to a revised offer that contains more than warm words.

Pay Cuts for PCS members

You state that “no individual will suffer a detriment” as a result of your proposals. This is simply inaccurate.

Over 2,000 staff will have consolidated pay and pension entitlements transferred to a non consolidated payment that the department can take away on a whim. This is a disgrace and totally unacceptable.

Every other member of staff at E1 and E2 has been transferred to a new pay scale with a lower maximum – meaning lower pay and a lower final salary pension when they come to retire. This is a also a disgrace and also totally unacceptable

PCS proposals

Despite us setting out a number of times our proposals to resolve this dispute you again ask us to repeat these.

PCS proposes:

The involvement of the independent conciliation service, ACAS, to provide assistance in helping us to resolve this dispute.
To involve the Cabinet Office and Treasury in those talks. This is particularly important as you have repeatedly told us that you have a deal with the Treasury based on cutting the pay of the lowest paid staff in the department.
To agree new pay scales for PCS members at E1 and E2 that would be acceptable to MoD and to PCS.
To agree reserved rights for existing PCS members in MoD that honours their current contracts of employment.
To provide a guarantee for all PCS members of no future detriment to their pay and pensions.
To produce new proposals that would alleviate the concerns of PCS members working overseas in respect of ILW.
To ensure that MoD pay proposals cohere with the wider national talks of pay rates and ranges between PCS and the Cabinet Office.
That MoD should accept it cannot railroad pay cuts and that it has an obligation to reach an agreement on pay with the union that represents 25,000 of its staff.

Meeting with PCS members

Our members are rightly angry at these proposals. Our members at all grades are sickened by proposals to attack the pay of the lowest paid in the department.

They cannot understand why MoD constantly states that our members (some of whom earn as little as £17,000 per year and are entitled to benefit because they are so poorly paid) are “overpaid” particularly when some of those saying it, in contrast, enjoy lavish pay, bonus and expenses packages.

We would like you to hear for yourself what our member’s think of your proposals – and why they believe MoD should genuinely seek to resolve this dispute on pay. Many senior MoD officials have accused PCS of over exaggerating our member’s anger at the pay cuts.

You will have already received a number of letters from PCS members raising concerns about your proposals (your letter of 9 June 2009 makes passing reference to these). In order that you can properly appreciate their strength of feeling on this issue, I would therefore like to invite you to meet PCS members working at E1 and E2 so that they can put their points to you directly.

PCS will be happy to arrange a venue for the meeting and if you are agreeable I would be grateful if you could contact me to agree a date for the meeting. We would hope that the department would fund the travel and subsistence costs for our members to come to the meeting, but in the event that you are not PCS will meet those costs.

We hope you will agree to meet face to face our members who face cuts to their pay and pensions.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely


Paul Barnsley
Group Secretary

BNP 'could face court injunction'

The British National Party could face legal action over its membership policies, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has said.

The commission said it had written to the party over possible breaches of the law in the BNP's constitution, membership rules and recruitment.

Read the EHRC letter here.
Read the BBC story here.

Tories head new right wing grouping in Europe

David Cameron has finally allowed us a glimpse of the real Tory party as he aligns them with European right wing homophobes, racists and social extremists.

Good to see some things never change!

Read the article here.

Fred the shred lets go...

...of at least some of his ill gotten gains. He still walks away loaded with more than sections worth of pensions mind!




Read the article here.

VA Branch supports Mark Serwotka's re-election campaign

At todays Veterans Agency BEC Meeting (Branch Executive Committee), a motion was submitted by Andy Boylan that pledged this branch to support the re-election campaign of Mark Serwotka, General Secretary of PCS. The motion was the subject of lively debate and was subjected to a vote and carried by 83% of the officers voting.

The motion in full reads: This BEC is aware that General Secretary elections will take place in PCS this year. This BEC agrees that Mark Serwotka should be supported by the Branch Machinery in his bid to be re-elected and pledges to support the Serwotka campaign.

Unison see our light!

At long last, the country's biggest union Unison, have at their 2009 conference decided to join with PCS against privitisation of public services.

Crucially they have voted to suspend financial support to the Labour Party. This is, we believe, a necessary step towards building a truly effective campaign against further privitisation and attacks upon public sector pensions.

Furthermore, Unison revealed the results of a MORI poll that showed “over 73% of the public and 80% of public service workers say that private companies should not run our public services” and that “over 70% of public service workers now say they won’t vote Labour.”

You can read their conference report here.

PCS Pay Update No 17

As reported in pay update number 16 (MoD/C/40/09) the MoD group executive committee (GEC) met last week to consider how we take forward the pay campaign and how to forward the terms of the emergency motion on pay passed at PCS MoD group conference on 18th May 2009.

The GEC discussed how we can take forward our central concerns with the imposed pay offer and in particular the impact on PCS members working overseas and the proposed reductions of the maxima at pay band E1 and E2.

The GEC has agreed the following programme of action:

All PCS members will be balloted on industrial action over the imposed pay offer (at this stage for industrial action short of a strike only). The GEC is urging every member to vote YES to take action in this ballot which will commence shortly.
Every branch will be invited to send representatives to specially convened PCS MoD regional forums. These forums will discuss other practical ideas and steps to progress our dispute.

The regional forums will also discuss wider threats faced by PCS members in MoD including government attacks on our pensions, possible cuts to the civil service compensation scheme (CSCS), new MoD proposals to slash pay and non pay related civilian allowances, cuts to welfare officers and peoples services, an increase in reported bullying and harassment of PCS members and the wider climate on public spending cuts leading to further efficiency savings measures and privatisation.

The GEC will receive reports from the regional forums at its next meeting and then publish our intended response to members on both pay and the wider issues.
PCS is progressing a major legal challenge to the imposed pay cuts for our members. All members impacted have already been asked to complete a complaint letter and sent to Susan Scholefield. We know that she has already received thousands of these letters, and we urge members who have not already completed them to do so. In the next few weeks all members impacted will be asked to complete an individual grievance form and lodge this with the department. At the same time PCS will be lodging test cases at employment tribunal for unlawful deduction of earnings. Additional legal challenges, around equal pay, are also being actively pursued.
Members are to be invited to directly participate in taking our message to those responsible for imposing pay cuts. Further details will be circulated shortly.
The MoD group will be seeking further discussions with other PCS groups and the national union to ensure that our campaign and programme of action is consistent and coherent in respect of the PCS national pay campaign.

Further details on the industrial action ballot will be circulated shortly. All members are urged to vote YES for action.

Members are also asked to consider actions short of a strike that would have an impact in their workplace. Any ideas can be sent to Paul Barnsley at: paulba@pcs.org.uk.

At its meeting the GEC noted the magnificent response of members in the pay ballot where 81% of members voted to reject the divisive offer made by management. This is a stunning result.

The GEC, and our general secretary Mark Serwotka, have both commended those PCS members in MoD for displaying solidarity with the lowest paid staff in MoD, for supporting their union and for standing together to demand fair pay.

A YES vote in the forthcoming ballot will enable us to make clear our anger at pay and pension cuts for the lowest paid workers in the department. Cuts imposed by MoD Ministers and other senior staff in the department who, in contrast, enjoy lavish pay, bonus and expenses packages.

Members are also asked to:

1. Sign the petition protesting about the pay cuts on the 10 Downing Street website (http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/MoDpaycuts/)

2. Protest to the new Secretary of State (please download the model letter from our website or collect a copy from your Branch)

A further pay update will be issued shortly.

Surprisingly a judge rules that naughty judges deserve privacy

The government and the judiciary can continue to conceal the names of more than 170 misbehaving judges, a freedom of information tribunal has ruled.
The judge heading the tribunal decided that some members of the judiciary who have been sacked or reprimanded for misconduct would suffer "great distress" if details of their misdemeanours were made public.

As has often been quoted, "He would say that, wouldn't he?"

Newspaper article

Suspect in US Holocaust museum guard killing has links to BNP

Newspaper article

Toff taps us up for hundreds and thousands

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, serial groupie of Russian billionaires and Tory Shadow Chancellor Georgie 'Porgie' Osborne has been caught with his priviledged fingers deep into the public purse.




Some people cannot seem to get enough. Read the whole sorry tale here:
Newspaper article

Rank injustice and bonus inequality

We have had sight of the 2009 Non-industrial Performance Awards and have to voice our continuing concern that, at a time when bankers are rightly pilloried for receiving undeserved largess and MP's have been dipping in the public purse, it is wholly obscene that a Grade 6 in the MoD can, if receiving a Top bonus, get as much as 40%+ of an AA's total annual income.

Thats nearly half of the entire monies our lowest paid members have to feed and cloth themselves and their families with for the whole year!

This unfairness must end.

Egg damaged beyond repair by racist scum!

Say 'no' to fascist civil servants

Please sign the petition to say 'no' to the BNP in the civil and public service.
Civil servants deliver a huge range of services as part of implementing government policies and programmes.
It is vital that we prevent BNP members from working in public services so the public are assured extremists are not able to discriminate against people including ethnic minorities as well as women, gay people and the disabled.
Staff should instead promote legal public sector equality duties. The prison service and the police service are currently allowed to ban staff from being members of far-right groups and we wish to see a ban extended across the public sector especially in the Home Office.

http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/campaigns/myvc/say-no.cfm

PCS Pay Update No. 16

As a result of the department’s decision to impose the 2008 pay offer, and their disgraceful and arrogant decision to not seek third party assistance to help resolve the dispute, the PCS MoD Group Executive Committee (GEC) will meet on Wednesday this week. At our meeting we will consider how we take forward the emergency motion on pay passed at PCS MoD Group Conference on 18th May 2009.


This motion, unanimously supported at conference, commits PCS to:

- Continue to oppose the MoD pay offer and any imposed award.
- To examine all legal routes to challenge the cuts to consolidated pay. The GEC is instructed to take steps to ensure that legal test cases are lodged and that the legal position of every member is fully protected.
- Step up our campaigning activity and in particular ensure that MoD pay is on the agenda of the PCS Parliamentary Group and is raised with all MPs.
- To conduct a detailed consultation exercise with all Branches on the next steps in the pay campaign. This should include face to face discussion with activists and meetings to gauge the mood of members.
- Publish the next steps in the campaign of opposition to these proposals in due course, and if possible link activity to proposed MoD job cuts.
- Ensure that MoD pay is raised by the national union in discussions with the Treasury and Cabinet Office and that we continue to seek their intervention in MoD pay.
- That the next steps in our pay campaign compliment and are coherent with the PCS national pay campaign.
- The consultation exercise should include considering forms of action that members could be asked to take.


In the meantime members are urged to:
1. Sign the petition protesting about the pay cuts on the 10 Downing Street website (http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/MoDpaycuts/)

2. Protest to the Secretary of State (please download the model letter from our website or collect a copy from your Branch)

3. All members at E1 and E2 are urged to complete and send the 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 available from our website and also is also being mailed to every member with your copy of the Defender magazine.

A further pay update will be issued after the meeting of the GEC.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Barnsley
Group Secretary

Make Your Vote Count

In the European and local elections on Thursday 4 June, far right candidates will be attempting to win seats.The far right are not like any other political parties. Their favoured methods are not canvassing but Violence and Fear.

The far right are a danger to all our members, our workplaces and our communities. They are opposed to trade unions like ours and they are a threat to democracy.

The BNP are the far right group most likely to win seats in this election.

The BNP are trying to exploit the current economic crisis, with unemployment rising and affordable housing in short supply, by scapegoating black people, Muslims, Jews, foreigners, gays and lesbians for this country’s problems.

The BNP are racist. They have declared their belief in an all white Britain. Their political friends include the Klu Klux Klan and white supremacist and Nazi organisations across Europe. Their political traditions are rooted in fascism.

The BNP are intolerant of different religions. Muslims have been the main target of the BNP in recent years.

The BNP are sexist. They want women to stay at home and breed the ‘white race’.

The BNP admire Hitler and deny the holocaust. Hitler incarcerated and murdered thousands of people. His extermination policies began with the killing of institutionalised disabled people in the 1940s.

The far right offer us nothing but division and hatred. We want to unite people from all backgrounds to challenge discrimination and promote equality.

The voting system in the European elections means that if you do not use your vote then the BNP need a very small percentage of votes to return a candidate.

PCS wants to stop the far right.

We want fascist free zones in our workplaces and in our communities.

This is a battle at the ballot box.

When Trade Union members vote – the far right lose.

MAKE YOUR VOTE COUNT.

For more information visit the PCS Make Your Vote Count website

Make Your Vote Count

Do the right thing and stop the RIGHT!




Vote for anything but them.




Make your vote count.