Just a note to inform you all of the rally at Westminster on the 19th of October.I travelled down representing PCS for the constituency of Lancaster & Fleetwood with an arrangement to lobby Eric Ollernshaw MP in the Houses of Parliament.
By the time I arrived at Central Hall Westminster the venue was packed to the rafters so I could not enjoy the speakers, instead I milled about on the green with hundreds, nay thousands of other public sector workers. I noticed a large banner proclaiming the presence of the Prison Officers Association. I approached one of the carriers and introduced myself as a PCS member and asked for their view about the CSCS and the proposed 'new scheme'. Helpfully, just at that moment the Chair and General Secretary of the POA where on hand to answer my questions. Steve Gillen, the General Secretary of the POA kindly gave me the run down on the negotiations.
He told me that the Councils of Civil Service Unions had entered into negotiations with the government on the compensation scheme in the summer. The government had insisted on conducting these talks in absolute confidence, to which all the CSCU unions had agreed. In the first week of October, Francis Maude had insisted that the offer then on the table was the last that would be made and insisted on the unions agreeing to it or rejecting it by the 8th of October. Steve Gillen explained that he would have to take the offer to the POA National Executive Committee which was due to meet on the 12th, and that they could not respond before then. He believes also that Unite were in a similar position to the POA.
Despite this, Francis Maude then published the offer, a clear breech of "confidentiality" arrangements, as a full and final 'agreement' on the 7th October, in which he claimed that the POA and Unite had agreed the new scheme. This was a deliberate falsehood. The POA NEC met on the 12th of October and rejected the offer with a view to ballot their membership with a recommendation for rejection. Steve believes that the Unite is in a similar position. He also told me that they were planning on co-ordinating balloting and any 'action' with PCS and Unite. Prospect have agreed to ballot their membership in November.
Lobby
Due to the large numbers of people on the day, it took nearly two hours of queuing in the rain/sunshine/rain/sunshine under the watchful bronzed eyes of the leader of the English Taliban, Oliver Cromwell, before we were able to enter the lobby. Once there I met first with Eric Ollernshaw MP for Lancaster & Fleetwood who heard out the concerns I took to him. He agreed to take forward issues surrounding the costs of our 'public-private' partnerships and will ask questions in parliament in due course. I was also able to meet with Paul Maynard MP who was being lobbied by PCS representatives from DWP and HMRC on the Fylde Coast.
All in all it was a curates egg of a day, good in parts.
Yours fraternally
Ian Melvin
Veterans Agency PCS
National Branch Secretary
