Fair Deal in Defence campaign update No 11 - It's time to stand up for our interests

Our union has been in substantive negotiations since the New Year with senior departmental officials to deliver a negotiated settlement that achieves a Fair Deal in Defence for all staff.

As part of the negotiations, our union identified a number of possible solutions for each of our campaign objectives and offered a potential framework agreement to achieve a negotiated settlement to our dispute. Our discussions identified a number of areas of possible agreement, including issues where the department believed that they might already have developed solutions through other initiatives.

To apply further pressure on the department to deliver a negotiated settlement, we commenced an overtime ban across the Ministry of Defence with effect from 9 January 2013. Branches have been policing this overtime ban, with picket lines appearing in key branches to help explain the importance of the action in support of our Fair Deal campaign.

We have been told that departmental officials have drafted a letter to our union, outlining their proposals to achieve a negotiated settlement to our dispute. We have further been told that their proposals have been shared with both PUS and the Secretary of State.

However our union has received no such letter, despite regularly hastening officials. We therefore need to significantly escalate our actions, to demonstrate to the department that we are serious about our demands and we are growing increasingly impatient for a solution.

We have therefore given notice to the Permanent Secretary that our union will be starting a work to rule from Saturday 9 March 2013, in addition to the overtime ban that will continue. Details of the proposed work to rule are attached as annex A. Further, detailed, briefings will be issued to members and branches on individual elements of the work to rule shortly.

Our union takes industrial action only where other options have failed to deliver. We hope that our notice of intended action will be enough to persuade officials to deliver a negotiated settlement, but we must stand ready to deliver action if they continue to drag their feet.

Our union has given notice to the department that we will commence a work to rule across the Ministry of Defence with effect from 9 March 2013. This will run alongside the existing departmental wide overtime ban, which will continue.

Work to rule actions will consist of:

With effect from 9 March – Take your proper breaks, including:

• Meal breaks
• Rest breaks
• Rest days
• Display screen equipment breaks

With effect from 16 March – Take your proper breaks, plus work your proper hours, including:

• Work only your conditioned hours per week
• End any opt out waivers under Working Hours regulations
• Go home at a reasonable time each day
• No travelling out of normal working hours
• Establish and maintain a proper work/life balance

With effect from 23 March – Take your proper breaks and work your proper hours, plus refuse to cover the work of others, including:

• Cover only the work of your post and work appropriate to your grade
• Refuse to accept additional tasks beyond your existing agreed objectives
• Refuse to accept objectives or tasks that you are not competent, trained or resourced to deliver

With effect from 30 March - Take your proper breaks, work your proper hours, refuse to cover the work of others, plus work rigidly to laid down instructions, including:

• Comply with any laid down rules or procedures

Detailed briefings on each of these elements will be sent to branches and members in advance of these dates.

We will also be working with branches to develop measures to ensure that these actions are effective across the department.

Regional liaison officers will be available to support branches in publicizing the importance of the work to rule in all workplaces and can answer questions or concerns as they arise.

Don't Forget to Vote in the National Ballot

Vote Yes in the National Ballot

The national industrial action ballot started on Friday, 8 February, and closes on Monday 4 March. It remains imperative that we make members aware of the ballot, persuade members to vote and to vote 'YES' for action. Please hold a BEC meeting, hold campaign events and members' meetings, remind members to update ballot addresses, and recruit new members.

For updates on activities please check the 'vote yes' section on the PCS website:

http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/campaigns/national-campaigns/vote-yes-2013/index.cfm 

A range of campaign material has been dispatched to branches, including a 'Worth Every Penny' leaflet; 'Vote YES' leaflet; and associated posters and stickers. These are also available on the PCS website via the above link. The 'don't forget to vote' postcard is also attached hereto for your use.

They won't talk so we must act - correspondence between PCS and Bob Kerslake: 

http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/pcs_comment/index.cfm/id/0DAED667-2237-46CB-9BA91AFCA66210BC

A new video featuring the general secretary and PCS members discussing the reasons to vote 'YES' is now available to view and share:

http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/campaigns/national-campaigns/vote-yes-2013/index.cfm

The PCS austerity pay calculator is available here:

http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/resources/pay/austerity-pay-calculator.cfm 

E-action - encourage members to write to their MPs about our campaign: 

http://pcslive.bluestatedigital.com/page/speakout/NationalCampaign2013

DWP to blame for fitness-to-work tests fiasco, MPs say

The government should accept much of the blame for distressing and expensive fitness-to-work tests that have caused "misery and hardship" to thousands of benefit claimants, according to a report by MPs released on Friday.

The public accounts committee said there had been much criticism of Atos, the firm contracted to conduct so-called work capability assessments (WCA), but it warned that most of the problems lay with the Department for Work and Pensions.

The tests on claimants were introduced in 2008 to assess entitlement to employment and support allowance. Atos was paid £112.4m to carry out 738,000 assessments in 2011-12.

The MPs' report said: "The Work Capability Assessment process is designed to support a fair and objective decision by the department about whether a claimant is fit for work, but in far too many cases the department is getting these decisions wrong at considerable cost to both the taxpayer and the claimant.

"The department's decisions were overturned in 38% of appeals, casting doubt on the accuracy of its decision-making.

"Poor decision-making causes claimants considerable distress, and the position appears to be getting worse, with Citizens Advice reporting an 83% increase in the number of people asking for support on appeals in the last year alone.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmselect/cmpubacc/744/74402.htm

Vote Yes Yes in the national Ballot

The ballot of PCS members taking place between 8th February and 4th March is vital for the living standards of our members.

A large YES vote on a healthy turn-out would allow us to begin to redress the balance in the UK economy and secure a fair reward for the hard work civil and public servants continue to provide. 

Throughout the next few weeks we can expect the legitimacy of our demands for a pay increase – 5% of £1,200, whichever is greater – to be challenged. This newsletter is intended to deal with those challenges. 

We’re not “all in this together”! 

According to the Sunday Times Rich List the one thousand wealthiest individuals in the UK increased their wealth by £156bn or 60% in three years between 2009 and 2012. Over the same period, as a result of the public sector pay-freeze and 1% cap, your pay has lost between 16% and 25% of its value in real terms.

Fig 1 

Over the last thirty years, the highest earners have seen a disproportion-ate increase in their pay compared to average (median) and low paid workers, as this graph from the TUC demonstrates. 


Divide and rule – the oldest trick in the book 

A lot of rhetoric from our opponents seeks to pit the interests of public sector workers against private sector workers and, more recently, unemployed workers by establishing an arbitrary “1%” as the benchmark for annual uprating. The fact is, while the super rich continue to line their pockets the rest of us are all suffering. In fact, since the late 1970s when Thatcher’s attacks on the unions gathered pace the share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP – the nation’s “wealth”) paid as wages has fallen dramatically to just under 55%. 


Fig 2: UK wage share as proportion of GDP 




The “missing” 45% is largely profit and helps explain the vast sums accumulated by the people featured in the Rich List mentioned above. 


What about the workers? 

If the power of the unions had not been undermined over three decades and collective bargaining coverage in the whole UK labour market not fallen from 64% to 31% over the same period, average earnings today would likely be over £33,000 per year rather than just under £26,000 per year. 

Fig 3 



When you consider that average earnings usually equate roughly to the EO (or equivalent) scale maxima, it soon becomes clear to what extent workers, including among our membership, have lost out. Neither is this just a UK phenomenon; similar patterns are evident in most advanced industrialised countries. 

Conclusion 

Calls from leading economists on George Osborne to ditch a policy of austerity are growing and it is widely recognised that cuts in spending power are the cause of the double (soon to be triple) dip recession rather than the cure. As we have demonstrated in this newsletter, our demands for a decent pay rise are not just legitimate but necessary. 

VOTE YES/YES 

Fair Deal in Defence campaign update No 10

Since our last Fair Deal update in late December, our union has held a number of meetings with senior MoD management in the hope that we can avoid taking industrial action in order for us to achieve our Fair Deal campaign objectives.

Unfortunately, although we have made some progress and MoD management has come to the table prepared to discuss our concerns; we now have to take action to further pursue our campaign objectives.

Meetings with MoD management

The Permanent Secretary, Jon Thompson acknowledged our concerns regarding job security and overstretch, mobility and redundancy and threats to our terms and conditions in a meeting in mid December. At that meeting, we jointly agreed that further discussions with key officials could develop acceptable solutions to our key campaign objectives.

Several meetings have been held since then and these have been positive and have identified common ground that can be further developed into meaningful concessions and agreements that address our concerns and bring some relief to our union’s members.

Progress halted

We understand that PUS and the Secretary of State have now cleared a full and detailed written response, but as yet our union has not received this response.

Unfortunately the prohibitive trade union legislation in place in the UK meant that as we had not been fully successful in achieving our campaign objectives in these meetings by Monday 28 January, we had to enact our industrial action mandate. If we had not enabled it by this date, the ballot result would have been declared invalid and any action declared unlawful.

Overtime ban

Therefore, although we are making progress, we have little choice but to announce that the Defence Sector Group will start an indefinite overtime ban from 00.01 hours on Monday 4 February.

We have chosen the use of an overtime ban to start the industrial action part of our campaign, as one of the key issues we are currently discussing with MoD management is overstretch in the Ministry of Defence. The department is currently just about able to continue functioning because of overtime being worked by PCS members.

Our union believes that if all PCS members support the overtime ban, the department will very quickly reach crisis levels and we believe it will hasten an agreement between the department and ourselves on our Fair Deal objectives.

Overtime is usually voluntary and we are asking all members not to do any overtime for this indefinite period. If there is any compulsory or conditioned overtime which is counted as contractual pensionable pay, in your area, then you would still do that. If unsure, please seek advice from a PCS rep. If Saturday or Sunday working is classed as voluntary overtime, rather than part of the normal shift rota, then members should not do it.

If the employer makes any threats to deduct pay or take other punitive action as a result of the overtime ban, please contact your full time officer immediately for advice. PCS will resist any such threats.

Overtime ban picket lines

We will attempt to ensure that branches mount picket lines at defence sites that are currently offering voluntary overtime. Branches and members should report where overtime is being offered by emailing information to Tahira Hussain at tahira@pcs.org.uk.

PCS HQ will then work with the GEC, branches, reps and members to ensure we have sufficient pickets at each site with the relevant picket line materials.

Elsewhere in PCS

Defence Sector group members will have seen that last week our colleagues in DWP won guarantees that remove the threat of compulsory redundancy for 43 low-paid jobcentre and benefits staff. Similar to the Defence Sector group, DWP members had voted for industrial action but, after what officials described as "very constructive discussions", the compulsory redundancy notices have been withdrawn.

Today (31 January), PCS negotiators in the Department for Transport (DfT) have called off a strike planned for tomorrow after progress in negotiations lifted the threat of compulsory redundancy for hundreds of staff.

In both of these areas, the respective departments have reaffirmed their commitment to avoiding compulsory redundancies and are now working with PCS on this. We have offered such agreements to MoD management - we can only hope that MoD management value our members in the same way as DWP and DfT members are.

Conclusion

Taking industrial action is always the last resort for our union. We recognise that losing pay at a time of pay restraint and increased pension contributions is difficult and financially painful. By starting our industrial action programme with an overtime ban, we hope to ease those difficulties whilst putting maximum pressure on the department.

Threats to job security, mobility and our terms and conditions allied to further pay restraint, further pension contribution increases and more and more privatisation proposals that will bring a much worse support to the front line is what we face if we don’t stand together.

It is time to stand up and be counted. Do not work overtime and fight for a Fair Deal in Defence.