Local News for local people

Blackpool Gazette carry the story that PCS plan a two day strike on the 8th and 9th of March following the recent ballot over the changes to the Civil Service Compensation Scheme.

AGM Guest Speakers Notes

For those unable to attend the AGM you can find Robert Jack's speakers notes here.

Lloyds Banking Group posts heavy pre-tax losses...

...yet their CEO is entitled to a £2.3 million bonus on top of his salary. The bank's boss had been entitled to a maximum 225% of his £1.04 million salary due to his "significant individual contribution", but waived a bonus for the second year in a row to stave off another row over bank pay.

One wonders what "significant individual contribution" was required to write down £24 billion in bad debts (more of our money vanishes down the rabbit hole of the Alice like Wonderland that is Bankerworld), and then posting more than £6.3 billion in pre-tax losses? If failure like that is rewarded so generously imagine what success might bring.

Read more here.

CSCS Ballot Result

CSCS Ballot Result

· Members vote 'yes' for action
· All out on 8 & 9 March

The ballot result sends a clear message to the employer that PCS members will not accept cuts in their accrued rights to fair redundancy compensation at a time when all the main political parties are planning deep public spending cuts.

The national executive (NEC) would like to thank all reps and members for their work in delivering a successful ballot result.

It was agreed to write to the minister for the civil service, making clear our aim of reaching a negotiated settlement and calling on the government to return to talks.

The NEC agreed that notice will be given of a two day national strike – on Monday 8 and Tuesday 9 March – and a national overtime ban. Please check the PCS website – www.pcs.org.uk – for further information.

AGM Chairs Address

For those who could not make the meeting at the Briar Dene, here is a copy of the Chairs address to the AGM.

I wonder if the crew of the Titanic felt time stretch out before them, if so then the approach into the iceberg and the subsequent wrecking of the ship probably felt a little like it feels to work in SPVA at the moment.

That slow, mad approach towards something that spells inevitable doom. The sound of metal tearing, like the sound of a once proud Agency being ripped apart. The main difference being that they didn’t have some maverick ship owner removing all the lifeboats, unlike our own maverick Government (present and, one can safely predict, future) ripping away public spending whilst keeping the greedy few afloat.

A time of doom and gloom and one feels as though the AMG want the Union to smooth the way to that iceberg by distracting the navigator, keeping everyone calm as they steer their insane course. Well, no. We shall be the warning horn, we shall be the hand that will try and turn the wheel. Will we succeed… I don’t honestly know.

Often the Chairs Address looks backwards over the last 12 months, but they only seem like a precursor for what is to come. Public Spending Cuts, pay caps, lack of staff, the compensation scheme attack continuing, attacks on our pensions and, for our own little corner of the devastation, an attempt to sell out the staff and pensioners to the lowest bidder. One Agency One Team is a Vichy term to try and soften the blow that they see as inevitable. We must come together, fight together and say with one voice, “No!”

Let us be clear Colleagues, for the third year running JPA has been viciously attacked by MPs of all parties and the National Audit Office have failed to sign our accounts off because of errors running to £268 million amongst other things. Yet our management claim we cannot look at taking JPA back in house because we do not have expertise. Lets face it, how much expertise would we need to make such a hash of things? Or do our senior managers have such a low view of us.

This is the same management who actually vocalised that they might consider giving the War Pension Scheme and AFCS under the interim contract to HP. That means they considered, against what I understand to be their own legal advice, handing your jobs over to that company without even bidding.

I would talk of the successes of the last year but more often than not they have been fire fighting victories, stopping attacks. The Branch has been inundated by personal cases from those personally caught in the downward spiral that is SPVA.

Is it all doom and gloom? Is there no glimmer of hope? Of course there is, we defeated the mad plans of the Agency in respect of Innsworth and we can defeat the new mad plans. By standing together in solidarity.

Branch AGM today 25th February

Members are reminded that the AGM takes place today at the Briar Dene Hotel, Cleveleys at 1:00 pm. The bar will be open from 12:00 noon and food available from 12:30. Facility time of two hours plus reasonable travelling time has been allowed by management for you to attend.

Hope to see you there.

Norcross Main Gate - Staff Arrivals

Staff who arrive at Norcross Main Gate by taxi or are dropped-off by vehicle are being asked to request their driver to drop them off in the lay-by area on Norcross Lane rather than outside the Security Hut. This is because vehicles turning at the Main Gate approach area present a danger of collision with incoming/exiting vehicles and pedestrians.

However, this branch believes that by doing so, staff will be put at much greater risk in crossing the very busy entranceway as 'soft' pedestrians against 'hard' vehicles. Therefore we have written to the ExO and asked that this notice is withdrawn with immediate effect until a full and proper risk assessment is conducted and that if remedial action is identified, then the landlord should affect such with immediate effect.

Due to the increased risk of crossing the entranceway as pedestrians the branch advises members to continue safely using the drop off point at the main gate until this matter is resolved.

MoD failings 'threaten security'

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been criticised by MPs for administrative failings which resulted in hundreds of millions of pounds being wrongly paid out and led to officials losing track of sensitive equipment.

The Commons Defence Committee said it was "unacceptable" that the National Audit Office (NAO) had "qualified" the MoD's accounts for the third year in succession because of the continuing problems.

The NAO disclosed in its report last year that the MoD could not account for the whereabouts of secure Bowman radio systems worth £155 million.

It also highlighted problems with the computerised Joint Personnel Administration system (JPA) responsible for handling service pay, which wrongly paid out £268 million in specialist pay and allowances. This an HP (EDS) system that famously cost us £245 million, and is meant to save us £100 million... and was described by MPs last March as having made 'truly reprehensible' mistakes. It seems that the theme continues.

The MoD was also unable to produce evidence that errors which led to £83 million being wrongly deducted from service personnel in food and accommodation charges had been rectified.

One dreads to think how 'truly reprehensible' mistakes will impact be if AFCS, WPS and/or MoDMO are outsourced to the same supplier, famously described in Private Eye last year as "p*** poor"!

"Failing to maintain accurate and full information on personnel and to keep track of assets such as Bowman has the potential to threaten the long-term capability of the department, including operational capability," the committee said.

"The MoD therefore needs to take urgent action to rectify the outstanding problems."
Committee chairman James Arbuthnot added: "That the MoD could not, at a given time, account for the whereabouts of radios worth £155 million is unacceptable.

"The security implications associated with losing equipment such as this are significant.
"Having an effective audit trail is the only way to ensure that all equipment is accounted for."

The branch suggests that bringing those items back in house will improve the quality of service Furthermore, we believe MoD should cease any and all plans to outsource any further. All evidence shows that privatisations have been more costly, delivered few if any savings and have resulted in reduced and in most cases, "p*** poor" performance!

Europe's winter of discontent

Strikes threaten to cause paralysis as workers reject government attempts to cut spending and wages reports The Independent.

A wave of industrial and social unrest is building across Europe as workers resist attempts by governments and private companies to impose austerity policies, drive down wages and rescue some nations from near-bankruptcy.

Huge protest rallies took place in cities across Spain last night; today a general strike could paralyse Greece while industrial action at French airports and oil plants as well as the narrowly averted stoppage at Germany's Lufthansa promise to be just the start of the greatest demonstration of public unrest seen on the continent since the revolutionary fervour of 1968. Europe's industrial economy is not clear of recession yet either and with unemployment rising and demands for austerity growing, Europe's workers are becoming increasingly restive.

The true cost of bullying

As rumours of bullying at No 10 emerge, a Times writer looks at abusive behaviour in the workplace — and experts offer advice on how to cope with it.

"Cary Cooper, Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health in Lancaster University Management School, defines bullying as the persistent, demeaning and devaluing treatment of an individual. It does not have to involve physical or verbal abuse, he says, and there is a fine line between an assertive or abrasive style of management and bullying.

“Ultimately, bullying is in the eye of the beholder,” he says.

“But if at the end of the day every time I interact with you I am putting you down, or withholding resources from you, or setting unmanagable deadlines, then I am bullying you.

“It’s not just shouting and yelling at you in a Malcolm Tucker sort of way.”

Don't risk the recovery

In the Financial Times, over 50 senior economists have written a letter demanding that Alistair Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer and George Osborne, Shadow Chancellor, do not make premature cuts to public spending. The world-class economists believe that the deficit should be financed until the economy is more stable and that if spending cuts are made at this point, the UK could spiral into a disastrous 'double-dip' recession.

The financial crisis has already terrible consequences for people all over the UK. Jobs have been lost, businesses closed and homes respossessed. Unemployment has risen to around 2.5 million and, as the letter-writers point out, the UK economy 'is not yet on a secure recovery path'.

It's vital that our leaders don't play politics with our recovery in an election year. 'Consolidation', or cuts in our public services, are too dangerous to be used as an election bargaining chip. Darling and Osborne should both publicly commit themselves to not making damanging cuts before its clear that the economy really has turned the corner towards recovery. Sign the petition to the Chancellor and Shadow Chancellor.

'Boy' George Osborne Promotes Snake Oil

"CUT-PRICE shares in state-owned banks will be offered to the public under a “people’s bonus” plan outlined by Tory Shadow Chancellor George Osborne.

Mr Osborne said the measure would be a reward for the £850billion of money used to bail out crisis-hit financial institutions. Young people, those on low incomes and parents saving for their children would be offered extra discounts, he said. " Reports The Daily Express .

So, let us get this straight. The prospective Chancellor of the Exchequer, the 'Boy' George Osborne, thinks that it would be a good idea to sell to 'US' shares in banks that 'WE' already effectively own having paid for this with 'OUR' future earnings to the value of some £45,000+ each? And some say the Tories are out of touch! On the contrary, I think this thinking demostrates conclusively that these people are very much IN touch with bankers, hedge fund managers and snake oil salesmen the world over.

A joke for the day.

One day a blind rabbit and a blind snake bump into each other in the forest.

The blind rabbit instantly apologises "I'm sorry but please forgive me as I've been blind all my life, I don't even know what I am."

The snake replies "I too am blind. how about I feel all over you and perhaps I can discern what you are?"

"Alright", says the rabbit.

The blind snake slithers all over the rabbit and says, "Well, you have long fur covered ears and a short little tail. You must be a rabbit."

The rabbit was happy to know what he was.
He tells the blind snake, "Come here and I will try to determine what you are."

The blind rabbit feels the snake with his paw and finally says, "You're cold and slimy, and you have a forked tongue. Are you someone from Senior Management by any chance?"

The rich 'live seven years longer than poor people'

Well-off people live an average of seven years longer than those in poorer groups, a new report has warned.

The gap between the lifestyles of the rich and poor is having a major impact on the chances of living a healthy life, it suggested.

And the stark figures mean that plans to raise the retirement age to 68 will cause hardship for millions because three-quarters of people will be too ill to work.

Although life expectancy for the worst off has improved in the last decade - by an extra 2.9 years - more needs to be done, the report said.

The review, commissioned by the Department of Health, calls on ministers to act to reduce the gulf between rich and poor.

You can access the full report, Fair Society, Healthy Lives, known as the Marmot Report, here.

Greek workers pay first...

... and the rich keep getting richer!

Read more here.

Bankers get their bonuses, billionaires up the price of artworks and all the while the rest of us get punished... with attacks on jobs, pay and pensions, and of course on vital services such as hospitals and social services..

The Greek workers are first in the firing line. Unfortunately it is a line that will be extended to include us within a very short space of time. However, together we can and will win the fight. This branch calls for solidarity with our Greek brothers and sisters.

3,000% - banks are the new loan sharks

Todays Money Mail reports that state-backed banks are charging more for short-term borrowing than back-street lenders and payday loan companies.

The charges levied can be significantly more than the amount borrowed.

Lloyds Banking Group is the worst offender. LloydsTSB charges an eye-watering £216.32 for someone who goes overdrawn by £150 for ten days without permission

Royal Bank of Scotland, another of the state-backed banks, charges a more reasonable £20.73. HSBC charges only 75p if it is the first time a customer has gone overdrawn in a six-month period. Nationwide Building Society would take £20.78 and Santander £51.06.

Civil Service Compensation Scheme

Dougie Brownlie from the MoD Group Executive Committee attended a very well attended PCS members meeting this morning to update members on the campaign that PCS is conducting in opposition to the planned changes to the CSCS.

If you were unable to make the meeting, you can read Dougie's speakers notes here.

CSCS Members Meeting 9th February

NOTICE OF A MEMBERS MEETING
Block 6 Conference Room 6201A Norcross
TUESDAY 9th of FEBRUARY 2010 at 10:00 AM

CIVIL SERVICE COMPENSATION SCHEME UPDATE
Facility time of 1 ½ hours has been allowed for this meeting

Dougie Brownlie from MoD Group PCS will be speaking to the meeting to give members an update on the latest position of the union’s campaign against the government’s proposed changes to the CSCS.

PCS response to Gus O'Donnell dated 3rd February can be seen here.

The proposals threaten to tear up members’ accrued contractual rights and drastically cut compensation payments in the event of redundancy, whether compulsory or voluntary. They would make job cuts cheaper at a time when we know that all the main political parties are planning huge public spending cuts. All members would be at greater risk of redundancy.

Meetings have taken place with government Ministers to make clear our objections and seek new proposals. We have worked hard in an attempt to secure an acceptable settlement. But, so far, the employer has refused to come to an agreement with us.

These proposals are of even greater significance due to the imminent SPVA Future Contract and the potential for significant parts of the War Pension Scheme to be out sourced.

Hope to see you there, Ian Melvin, VA(NB)Secretary

PCS are holding members meetings across many of the MoD estates. If you cannot make it to the Norcross meeting look out for one held near to you. I am sure you will be welcome.

Removal of Normal Retirement Age in MoD

Normal Retirement Age (effective April 2010)

Prior to April 2010, the MOD, like most employers, applied a Normal Retirement Age. This was the age at which employees were expected to retire, although individuals could apply to work beyond 65 in accordance with the rules set out in the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006. For MOD purposes, age 65 was termed the Normal Retirement Age – or NRA for short. However, from April 2010, the MOD no longer has an NRA. This means that employees can continue working after 65 and must resign when they decide to retire.

Read the new PRG here.