Briefing to right of us,

Briefing to left of us
Briefing behind us
Volley'd and thunder'd;
And yet again attacks come upon civillian staff in the MoD as the Telegraph reports "Two troops for every civil servant in the MoD" Read here
What they of course fail to mention are the massive cuts already made in staffing over the past few years, nor do they point out that many of the civillian jobs are in fact staff employed at significantly reduced rates doing work previously undertaken by service personnel.

As members today heard about and discussed the attacks upon the Civil Service Compensation Scheme, briefings continue in Whitehall against MoD civillian staff in particular. It is certain that a campaign aimed at softening public opinion over major manpower cuts is being played out in the more than co-operative capitalist media. This campaign alongside startling unanimity of opinion amongst the main political parties over pay freezes, cuts, and pensions reform (i.e. plundering) alerts us to the coming battles to be fought over our incomes, our jobs and the security of our retirement benefits.

Sub Sunk!

Trident fleet to be cut Gordon Brown to announce

The surprise move will inevitably be seen as an opening salvo in the battle to find Whitehall savings to help pay off the record deficit built up by Labour.
However, the Prime Minister will claim the move is part of a nuclear non-proliferation deal that Mr Brown hopes to engineer on his four day trip to America. Read the article here

Liberal's also attack our pensions and pay

Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat treasury spokesperson laid out their public sector plans at their party conference.

He talked about “too many unaffordable defence commitments” and further advocated freezing public sector pay and abandoning civil service bonuses. Our union will welcome any move to get rid of bonus schemes in the civil service, but not in conjunction with pay freezes!

Rather than looking to improve pension provisions across the board, he advocated a race to the bottom as he talked of “very generous subsidised public sector pensions which desperately need reform” whilst “occupational pensions in private firms have been cut to shreds.” Our union will make no apology for fighting to retain our existing pension rights.

Addendum: This from the man who dropped a clanger yesterday, embarrassing himself and his colleagues over his ill thought out £1million pound house tax - Read the article here

Tory priorities for Defence?

Liam Fox, the Conservative shadow defence secretary outlined his priorities for defence. He asked why “the military seems consistently to shrink while the civil service keeps growing?”

According to the DASA statistics, the Ministry of Defence civil service population has shrunk from 266,000 to 69,000 in the period 1975-2008, a drop of 197,000. In the corresponding period, the service figures have gone from 338,000 to 187,000, a drop of 151,000.

Not only is Mr Fox wrong in his assertion, but the MoD civilian workforce has as you can see already been cut by almost three quarters in less than 35 years. Our union did agree with one statement Mr Fox made – “You can delegate authority, but not responsibility. Labour Ministers are to blame for the failings at the Ministry of Defence - not the Civil Service or the Armed forces.” – we are not to blame, and should the Conservatives form the next government, we will be asking Mr Fox and his party to honour this statement by not seeking to push the blame onto civil servants.

Extraordinary General Meeting - Yesterday

There was a branch Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) yesterday, 17th September 2009 held in Tommies.

The following motions were discussed and voted on at the meeting and both were carried unanimously and become branch policy.

Motion 1
This EGM is aware that General Secretary elections will take place in PCS this year. This EGM agrees to nominate Mark Serwotka as General Secretary of PCS and 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.

Motion 2
In a bid to reduce the amount of paper used in the union office which will benefit the environment and be a time saving initiative, this EGM agrees that, where possible, e-mails will be sent to members instead of paper distribution. To accomplish this, all members will be put onto the members’ mailing list as soon as possible regardless of whether they have previously ‘opted-in’ to this system or not. This EGM also notes that in some circumstances e-mail cannot be used and so paper distribution or desk dropping will need to be used instead.

The illness that dare not speak its name

Poor mental health is becoming as big a problem as heart disease. It must not be taboo in the office

It is known in medical circles as the Oscar Pistorius question: if an athlete with no legs can compete at Olympic level, why should an employee with a history of mental illness not be allowed the chance of holding down a decently paid job?

Richard Saville-Smith is posing precisely this question at an industrial hearing in Edinburgh, where he claims that he was dismissed from his high-powered public relations job with Scotland’s tourist agency, despite a track record of achievement at executive level, because of an onset of bipolar disease, or manic depression.

The case is continuing, and the facts have not yet been established. But it is an important test not just of discrimination law, but of civilised values. There is no justification for bias these days against those who carry the burden and the stigma of mental illness.

Indeed the law forbids it. The Disability Discrimination Act specifically protects job applicants or employees from discrimination on the ground of serious mental impairment up to and including schizophrenia. The European Convention on Human Rights included it as recently as this year: no personnel office is unaware of the implications.

Read the full Times article here

Now Tories propose £10 charge to see GP!

One wonders just what will happen to our NHS if the Tories are elected at the next election. After one of Dave Cameron's darlings described the NHS as a 60 year-old mistake(here), another of his golden tory boys proposes to charge us £10 to see our GP.




Read more here

Tory NHS critic's hero is... not Dave?

"Controversial Tory MEP Daniel Hannan has caused fresh embarrassment for Conservative leader David Cameron after naming Enoch Powell as his political hero.

Mr Hannan recently provoked controversy by describing the NHS as a '60 year mistake', saying that he 'wouldn't wish it on anyone'.

Now in an interview with US internet television channel reason.tv, he has cited anti-immigration campaigner Mr Powell as his political influence."

Dave must be so proud.



Read more here

Dumbed-down defenders of their own turf

General Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank former UK Chief of Defence Staff speaks up about the Mod in todays Times:

"Britain is at war, but one would never know it walking around Whitehall. For too many politicians it is merely another day of awkward things happening in far away places. The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan appear no more than inconvenient blips — something to be muddled through until things return to normal.

And muddle is the word, as was manifest in a scathing report into defence procurement leaked this week. Its author, the former Labour adviser Bernard Gray, an experienced observer of the defence scene, blamed incompetence and “political fudge” for £35 billion of defence project overspending.

Moreover, The Times revealed that poor decisions about software have kept eight Chinook helicopters, costing a total of £259 million, in climate-controlled hangars during the Iraq and Afghan conflicts. Such an error would never happen in the private sector without dismissals and a plain identification of where the buck stopped."

Read the article here

And then they come for us?

Crunch time for council workers’ golden pensions reports the Times, today:

"Millions of public sector workers will have their pensions slashed under plans to deal with a massive shortfall in the value of local government pension funds, The Times has learnt.

The move by ministers to strip council workers of their “gold-standard” final-salary pensions is likely to trigger widespread industrial action.

It comes as the gap between public and private sector pensions widens. Yesterday Royal Bank of Scotland became the latest company to reduce final-salary benefits to existing staff. John Denham, the Communities Secretary, is drawing up a series of proposals to overhaul the pensions of two million council workers, covering short, medium and longer terms."

Read the article here

Recycling in the SPVA

PCS and SPVA are committed to Sustainable Development, and to recycling wherever and whenever possible.

We’d like to take this opportunity to ask that you, the members, help promote Recycling in the workplace.

Why recycle?

Not a question that should really require an answer but there are many reasons:

· Recycling saves trees – Half of the Earth’s rainforests have gone now. Trees take in the carbon dioxide we breathe out and in turn expel the oxygen we need.
· Recycling helps curb global warming – By recycling just one ton of glass energy savings of more than 300% can be made, and carbon dioxide emissions reduced by almost 3.5 tons.
· Recycling reduces water pollution – Turning trees into paper is the most water intensive industrial process today in the United States and other countries. Paper recycling mills use far less water, and consequently produce far less pollution.
· Recycling reduces the need for landfills – Most of our planet is water. We have a finite amount of land in which to “dump” unwanted items. Recycling will therefore reduce the amount of land needed, and also reduce the toxic pollution produced by landfill which escapes into the air and into the ground.
· Recycling saves energy – It is less labour intensive and polluting to recycle materials than to produce new materials, this means that energy and fuel is saved. The fossil fuels currently in use by most large companies won’t last forever.
· Recycling saves money – Selling recyclables materials offsets the cost of collecting and processing them. This makes recycling a cheaper option than new production.

What can you do in the office?

You can do your bit, no matter how small. If all staff in the SPVA recycled items the savings, both to the Department, and at home, would surely mount up in time.

1 Emails Do you need to print an email? If you need to save it for future reference then move it to a folder on your PC. A manager giving feedback to staff as a result of an email, for instance, needs only to send it to staff, give them time to read it, then feedback. They don’t need to print it out and hand a copy to each member of staff. We all know there are occasions however, when an email does need to be printed. In that case, please ensure you long edge (double side) your printing. This would halve the amount of printed paper produced immediately.

2 Re-use Finished with a piece of paper? Turn it over, use the blank paper left for any notes you need to make. Don’t just throw it because you’ve finished the current piece of work it was needed for.

3 Recycle Every office has confidential waste sacks. When you’ve finally finished using the paper, or documents are no longer necessary and must be removed, put them in these sacks. And remember the same can be done for the cardboard boxes that stationery etc is delivered in. Break them down and put them in sacks for recycling.

Do you have recycle bins? Many offices have recycling bins. If you have, put your empty cans, bottles etc in them. If not, ask your management how to get them installed.

Do you have any ideas you would like to see PCS take forward to help sustain the environment? Please forward them to your local PCS Environmental Rep.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Alison Platt
Environmental Rep
Veterans Agency (National Branch)

Brown: I will cut spending

£25bn Trident nuclear weapons system may be among key projects delayed or cut, according to The Independant today:

"Gordon Brown is to issue a list of specific spending cuts before the general election in an attempt to convince voters that Labour will reduce the soaring deficit in public finances.

The Prime Minister has been reluctant to use the word "cuts", fearing that Labour would look no different to a Conservative Party committed to spending less than Labour. But The Independent has learnt that as a key part of Mr Brown's autumn fightback he will change tack on the issue which will be the central battleground in the election expected next spring.

Mr Brown will deny he is redrawing his favourite "dividing line" – contrasting "Labour investment versus Tory cuts". However, he has come under pressure from Cabinet ministers, led by the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, to change his language on public spending amid fears that Labour could lose the argument."

What money on our jobs going before nuclear weapons?
Read the article here

"60-year-old mistake"

Leading Tories describe the NHS as a 60-year-old mistake.

A bigger mistake would be to vote for THEM.

The Observer (today) can reveal that leading Tory MPs – who include Cameron's close ally Michael Gove – are listed alongside controversial MEP Daniel Hannan as co-authors of a book, Direct Democracy, which says the NHS "fails to meet public expectations" and is "no longer relevant in the 21st century".

Read more here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/aug/16/tory-mps-back-nhs-dismantling

Civil service compensation scheme

7 August 2009 - Government intends to tear up longstanding agreement on terms and conditions to cut jobs on the cheap

The Cabinet Office has published proposals for changes to the civil service compensation scheme (CSCS). If implemented, the changes will leave many PCS members tens of thousands of pounds worse off in the event of voluntary or compulsory redundancy.
This is a disgrace, and is particularly cynical at a time when we can clearly see that tens of thousands of jobs are at risk over the next few years.

The CSCS is the redundancy and early retirement payment scheme for the civil service and many other public bodies.

If your employer is in the principal civil service pension scheme (PCSPS) you will be covered by the CSCS and the benefits from the scheme are accrued entitlements that we believe the government have no right to remove. As it is a statutory scheme changes have to be agreed by parliament.

PCS, with the other civil service unions, have been in negotiations with the Cabinet Office about the scheme since the autumn of last year. The published proposals which have not been agreed with the unions do not represent the best offer that could have been made.

The employer refused to put a further offer that would have given some protection during transitional arrangements when PCS was not prepared to be coerced into giving an undertaking to recommend acceptance.

Even this revised offer was completely unacceptable and would still have meant a detriment to the vast majority of existing staff, particularly those facing a redundancy situation in the future.

We believe the proposals are an outrageous attempt to cut people’s jobs on the cheap at a time when many are worried about job security.

Read more here

You don't have to be MoD to work here...

In Private Eye No.1242, 7-20 August, In The Back,

they report that the Ministry of Defence accounts, sneaked out at the end of the parliamentary term, shows that the "MoD is still losing hundreds of millions of pounds on two shambolic schemes highlighted in the Eye."

Firstly chaos still reigns at the DSDA where "particularily high discrepencies" were largely responsible for the National Audit Office refusing to vouch for the accounting of £6bn worth of equipment - including £155m worth of Bowman radios whose whereabouts are unknown.

But perhaps of more interest to our members is that "elsewhere in the MoD empire, the unified forces payroll system designed by the p***poor IT firm EDS is still causing havoc three years after it began. Last year the system made overpayments of £204m to some personnel while underpaying others by £64m. As the NAO concludes: "Several step changes are still required before the end-to-end military pay process including JPA can be considered fit for purpose." In English, that means that the EDS system is still... rubbish."

Read it here

Further comment from us would just seem churlish.

Would you let your teenager...

...prescribe Tamiflu?

An NHS call centre is employing 16-year-olds to assess suspected cases of swine flu.

They earn up to £16.40 an hour reading out a prepared script of questions.

It is their responsibility to hand out powerful anti-viral drugs such as Tamiflu - known to have violent side-effects.

Read more: here

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