PCS Pay Update No 20 - August 2009

Update on negotiations

MoD management have failed to make any attempts to resolve our pay dispute and have not offered any meetings on this matter.

Members will be aware that we invited Susan Scholefield. Director of Civilian Personnel to meet with PCS members impacted by pay and pension cuts. She has however declined our offer and is not willing to talk to members. Instead she has suggested a meeting with the MoD pay team responsible for devising the cuts to members pay.

We are now writing to the Secretary of State for Defence with a request that he meet with members so that he can understand the impact on our lives of the imposed pay and pension cuts. We are also suggesting that he directly intervenes in this dispute and helps address the concerns of PCS members. We will report his reply back to members.

Pay Data

A number of members have asked that we point out the different pay rates that now exist in the Department. We are happy to do so and these are set out below:

Position
Maximum salary – the ‘rate for the job’
E2 Pay Band Maxima
£17,072 (cut from £19,315)
E1 Pay Band Maxima
£20,074 (cut from £23,534
MoD – SCS grade 1*
£116,000 (no cut proposed)
MoD – SCS grade 3*
£205,000 (no cut proposed)
Permanent Under Secretary*
£174,999 (no cut proposed)
Secretary of State for Defence*
£141, 866 (no cut proposed and does not include expenses etc)

*Figures from the Office of Manpower Economics website

Please note that:

!. The MoD management view of the above salaries is that those of staff working at E1 and E2 are ‘too high’ and therefore need to be cut.
2. These figures do not include bonus payments. This year MoD is proposing the following arrangements for the bonus (maximum payments achievable):

E2 staff - £360 before tax.
E1 staff - £390 before tax
MOD SCS grade 3 - £22,000 before tax
Permanent Under Secretary - can achieve a bonus of up to 20% (£34,000) of his basic salary, before tax.

PCS Legal Action

Our union is continuing to progress a major legal challenge to the imposed pay cuts for our members. All members impacted have been asked to complete a complaint letter and to complete an individual grievance and lodge this with the department. If you haven’t already done so, we would urge you to do this now.

We will notify member shortly of the arrangements for the grievance hearings and we hope that every member will attend the hearings.

12 Employment Tribunal claims are being lodged this month and we will notify members of the dates for the Department’s appearance in front of the Tribunal as soon as we can.

National Pay Campaign and Civil Service Compensation Scheme (CSCS)

PCS members in the MoD will continue to play a full role in the national PCS campaign that you will be consulted about during the next few months.

Members will be aware that PCS, with the other civil service unions, have been in negotiations with the Cabinet Office about this scheme since the autumn of last year. The published proposals have not been agreed with the unions.

The proposals are an outrageous attempt to cut people’s jobs on the cheap at a time when many are worried about job security. They amount to a cut in accrued and contractual rights to decent redundancy compensation at a time when we can clearly see that tens of thousands of jobs are at risk over the next few years.

They would mean a huge financial loss amounting to tens of thousands of pounds for the vast majority of existing staff, particularly those facing redundancy, whether that be compulsory or voluntary. The proposals will be considered at an emergency meeting of the PCS National Executive Committee (NEC) on 6th August. The NEC is determined to defend members' rights and will consider all options.

We will be seeking to meet Cabinet Office ministers and, considering the detailed and positive legal advice we have received, to determine whether we should seek a judicial review to halt this process.

PCS MoD Group will update members on the outcome of the NEC meeting and how this impacts our ballot for action in MoD over pay shortly.

Remember together we are stronger – ask your work friends to join our union now!

Yours sincerely
Paul Barnsley Chris Dando KC Jones
Group Secretary Group President Group Vice President

The swine are at the trough again

MPs have ignored public anger over the expenses system by quietly introducing new rules which allow them to claim up to £9,125 a year without producing any receipts. This measure has been introduced during a period of what can only be described as an overblown reaction to swine flu. It is almost as if we were being distracted!

Read the article here

Members beware

It seems that Vodaphone is charging it's customers 20 pence per minute to call the swine flu hotline. We therefore advise all members wherever possible to use a landline when contacting the SFH as it is then FREE.

However, we understand that O2, Orange and T-Mobile - have dropped charges for calls to the flu service. However, we advise all members to check with your provider before calling as some people have been waiting in excess of 45 minute for calls to be answered! That could cost a Vodaphone customer £9.00!!!

Our Health Secretary knows nothing!

Just over an hour ago, the Health Secretary Andy Burnham was asked a direct question on the BBC about swine flu, the question being... "How many deaths from swine flu in the UK occurred in patients that had no underlying health problems?"

Mr Burnham was clearly unable to answer this most pertinent of questions!

We find this most worrying. Not because we believe he is hiding something, rather the fact that he appeared genuinely not to know!
Read more here

And even more worrying - It seems that our venerable health secretary has agreed to the NHS paying Glaxo Smith Klien £6 and dose for swine flu vaccine.... despite the fact that it costs them £1 per dose. As well as knowing nothing it seems he is incapable of counting as well!!!

Lies, damn lies and statistics

Members are rightly concerned about the daily bombardment from the media regarding swine flu. Especially now as it is being suggested that it has become more virulent.

However, the following piece by the BBC Medical Correspondent Fergus Walsh puts it into proper perspective. We would advise any members with concerns to read the article...

Read it here

Pay update no 19 - Pay grievances

Legal update - important action for PCS members at E1 and E2

Our union is continuing to progress a major legal challenge to the imposed pay cuts for our members. All members impacted have already been asked to complete a complaint letter; we now need to take the next step and all members are asked to complete a individual grievance and lodge this with the department.

See details here

PCS National Black Members Seminar

‘Ten Years Later’
PCS National Black Members Seminar
23–25 October 2009
Jurys Inn, Birmingham

The annual residential Seminar organised for African, Asian, Chinese, Caribbean, etc, PCS black members will be held from Friday 23 October to Sunday 25 October in the Jurys Inn hotel, Birmingham.

The seminar will commence approximately at 1.30 pm on the Friday, ending no later than 1 p.m. on Sunday 23 October 2009.

For further details of how to attend this event please see the following Link

Cameron cheerleaders urge cuts

Yesterday I blogged about an article that suggested the Tories are planning to make swingeing cuts in the public sector... our jobs! Read it here

And today Simon Heffer a Cameron cheerleader urges 'honest' Dave to do the right thing to restore the public trust in democracy. How? Yep, you guessed it..., by sacking public servants!

He says, "There is no easier way to save money than by sacking people from the public payroll. This will entail more than cutting a few quangos: a defence expert recently told me that 25 per cent of the 100,000 civil servants at the Ministry of Defence could go without any detrimental effect to our defence capabilities. That is just one example."

Of course, our 'defence capability' would not see any detrimental effect if we stopped paying war pensions, to give 'just one example!' But that is hardly the point, is it, Mr Heffer?

Read the Telegraph article here

Nasty cuts or nice cuts, there will be blood

A few weeks ago an extraordinary meeting took place that could determine the future of public spending in this country. The venue was a white stuccoed house in Carlton Gardens. The chairman was Sir Gus O’Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary. Under discussion was whether drastic cuts in expenditure — of up to 20 per cent — will be needed to tackle the spiralling deficit. In the room were senior officials from across Whitehall and Conservative frontbenchers — but not a single minister.
Read the Times article here

Band E to D Promotion – have your say

As you will be aware MoD is currently reviewing the arrangements in place for promotion from Band E1 and E2 to D.

Specifically, the Department is looking at the future use of the Assessment and Development Centre (A&DC) and what might potentially replace it.

PCS believes that the views and input of staff are critical to ensuring that the proposals that emerge are sensible and attractive.

We have arranged a meeting with the staff from the Directorate of Civilian Personnel (DCP) responsible for taking forward this work.

PCS members can have their say in two ways:
i) By sending comments, ideas and suggestions to our union via email to paulba@pcs.org.uk or writing to the address on this circular (marked for the attention of Paul Barnsley).

ii) PCS Branches will be invited to nominate members to attend the meeting which will be held on Tuesday 21st July, commencing at 2.00 pm, PCS HQ, Clapham. If you would like to attend please contact your Branch.

We particularly want to hear from you if:
· You have previously gone through the ASDC process - whether successfully or not;
· You would potentially like to be promoted but are put off by the process that the employer operates;
· You have strong opinions on how MoD could improve the current arrangements;
· You would like to help to contribute to improving the opportunities of our members to improve their pay and career.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

Paul Barnsley
Group Secretary

Doomsday comes to a job near you!

Whitehall are preparing secret doomsday plans for 20% cuts in public spending.

Mandarins (civil servants, not cirus fruits) fearing a prolonged recession and a collapse in tax revenue, have begun planning for severe cuts of up to 20% in public spending.

Read it here

Part Time Workers Research Project

PCS has launched an on-line survey aimed at identifying the issues and concerns of our members who work part time.

Can I ask all members who work less than full time hours to take part in the survey which can be found at the following link:

Survey link

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.

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

City bankers on course for £7bn in bonuses...

...meanwhile the maximum pay for E grades is cut?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/apr/30/city-bankers-bonuses

The next poet laureate, possibly.

Today I am going to kill something. Anything.

I have had enough of being ignored and today

I am going to play God. It is an ordinary day,

a sort of grey with boredom stirring in the streets . . .

. . .There is nothing left to kill. I dial the radio

and tell the man he’s talking to a superstar.

he cuts me off. I get our bread-knife and go out.

the pavements glitter suddenly. I touch your arm.

Carol Ann Duffy
From Education for Leisure

Tories Promote Women? Yeah, Right!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/cartoon/

Get fit free with the army.

The British Army is offering a free fitness course and training programme online. To take advantage, click on the attached link... but be warned, it is not for the faint hearted... http://armyfit.mod.uk/
Numerous other web based fitness related sites can be found in the following article; ttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/wellbeing/5214756/Wellbeing-on-the-web-the-12-fitness-websites-you-need-to-bookmark.html

MoD Pay Offer – PCS’s Ballot Result Pay Update 14

As you will be aware the PCS ballot on the MoD Pay Offer closed at Noon today 28th April.
The outcome of the ballot is as follows:


Q1
Do you wish to accept MoD proposals to cut the pay band maxima at E1 and E2 and freeze the pay band maxima at B1?

Numbers voting yes 657 (12.6%)
Numbers voting no 4531 (87.4%)

Q2
In light of question 1 do you wish to accept the MoD departmental pay offer for 2008-2010?

Numbers voting yes 1054 (19%)
Numbers voting no 4508 (81%)

Therefore, our union is now in dispute with MoD on pay.

We are also seeking assurances that status quo will apply whilst we are in dispute, in particular in respect of MoD proposals to cut the pay band maxima at E1 and E2.

Yours sincerely

Paul Barnsley
Negotiations Officer

Workers Memorial Day 28th April

Every year more people are killed at work than in wars. Most don't die of mystery ailments, or in tragic "accidents". They die because an employer decided their safety just wasn't that important a priority. Workers’ Memorial Day commemorates those workers.

Worker’s Memorial Day is held on 28 April every year, all over the world workers and their representatives conduct events, demonstrations, vigils and a whole host of other activities to mark the day.

The day is also intended to serve as a rallying cry to “remember the dead, but fight like hell for the living”.