Rather than negotiating with our union and trying to defuse the situation, last week the head of the civil service Sir Bob Kerslake, and minister for the cabinet office, Francis Maude, sent out an inflammatory letter stating, “When we talk to civil servants, terms and conditions are often raised. The Civil Service will continue to offer employment terms that are among the best available.”
Defence Sector members may also have seen the interview with the aforementioned Sir Bob Kerslake in the recent Defence Focus magazine where he said, “ By any measure I think we can be seen as a good employer.
Is the MoD a good employer?
Our union decided to investigate further to see how good employers from the private sector treat their employees. Every year since 2001, the Sunday Times have been publishing the 'Best Companies to Work For' list. This year 896 businesses registered to take part.
Below are two companies from the top 25 big companies list with comparable workforces to the Ministry of Defence -
Iceland (frozen food retailer) – No 2 on the list with 23,763 employees
Comments on company website
Iceland is second to none when it comes to staff Wellbeing; work relationships expressed in our survey factors My Team and My Manager, good Leadership and a Fair Deal. People don’t just like working for Iceland. They love it.
(79%).93% of our retail employees told us that they are proud to work for Iceland, 90% feel a strong sense of belonging in the company, 93% enjoy the work they do, 95% consider that their manager treats them fairly and with respect, and 94% would recommend Iceland as a good place to work.
On our management more generally, 73% feel that senior management listen to them and 81% are confident in their leadership skills, which were both the top scores in the UK. Staff also agree that Iceland is run on strong values (80%) and that senior managers truly live those values.
In October 2011 our 22,000 front line staff shared in an industry-beating and inflation-busting £14.6 million pay award, which delivered store staff an average pay increase of 6.3% and a maximum possible increase of 45.5%, while home delivery drivers received an average increase of 13.1% and a maximum possible increase of 22.1%.
In addition to a friendly work environment and high levels of job satisfaction our overall Fair Deal ranking of 80%, up 14 points on 2011, was simply the best in the UK.
The 500-strong team at head office in Deeside benefits from one of the best staff restaurants anywhere: the Roxy, The prices are truly exceptional, with lunch costing between £1.95 and £2.50 for a main course, including a wide choice of vegetables or salads to accompany it. Fresh fruit is provided free at the The Roxy and staff who over-indulge can work off their excesses through free membership of a local gym.
PWC (Professional services) – No 11 on the list with 15,980 employees
Comments on company website
One of the strengths of our firm is the breadth of what we do and the flexibility and variety we are able to offer our people.
Attracting the best talent calls for more than just a good financial package and stimulating work. From flexible hours and career breaks to job sharing and homeworking, we're committed to providing a truly healthy work life balance. To facilitate this choice and maximise flexibility we offer 'PwC Lifestyle' - a web-based source of self-help ideas, information and tools to help employees make lifestyle decisions, cope with different life events and generally make the best use of their time both at work and outside. 'Lifestyle' covers such areas as:
- Caring and parenting
- Work-life integration
- Your health and fitness (including playing sports)
- Your finances
- Managing time and stress
We go out of our way to give them the respect and recognition they deserve - which means offering stimulating work, investing in continuous professional development, ongoing coaching and constructive feedback, and by maintaining fair, transparent promotion processes.
PwC's diversity strategy recognises people's differences in terms of gender and ethnicity, social and educational background and individual personalities. We are committed to ensuring all our existing and potential staff, clients and suppliers are treated with respect irrespective of their background, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, age, race (including colour, nationality and ethnic origin), religion, beliefs or disability.
MoD Your Say survey results
In comparison to the above the recent MoD Your Say survey details –
- 9% believe that when changes are made in the MoD, they are usually made for the better.
- 16% have confidence in the decisions made by the MoD’s senior managers.
- 29% would recommend the MoD as a great place to work.
- Only 18% believe senior managers will take action on the results of this survey.
- 8,263 people said they had experienced bullying, harassment or discrimination in the workplace in the last 12 months.
The Sunday Times introduction to this article says, “Enlightened and forward-looking business leaders are investing in the wellbeing and motivation of their most valuable assets: their employees. And in a tough economic climate this makes sense: support them and they will support you.”
Our union is in full agreement with this statement; unfortunately this government and the MoD appear to believe the best way to value their own employees is with pay freezes, increased pension contributions; a denigration of their terms and conditions and a culture of intimidation.
Conclusion
We are often told that as public sector workers we should adopt the best practices of the private sector. In some cases we should – the examples above show that the private sector values and treat their employees fairly as it adds and support their business; the civil service on the other hand does not
On 20 March, take strike action and demand that the governments own employees are treated with dignity and respect. We deserve fair pay; we are entitled to decent pensions and we are worth top quality terms and conditions.
DEFEND YOUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS - ALL OUT ON 20 MARCH
