Fighting to Save Our Shared Services in the Ministry of Justice

The 6-day strike against privatisation by PCS members in Bootle, Merseyside who provide corporate services in the Ministry of Justice, continues to be strongly supported.

The action, which involves 118 members and runs until 31 July, is part of our ongoing campaign to protect jobs and prevent offshoring in shared services, covering areas such as payroll, IT and HR.

There is also a 1-day strike by MOJ shared services members in Newport on 31 July and the national overtime ban, which runs until 31 July, will be extended for these members until 31 August.

High morale

Morale has been high on the picket line with members in full support of the six days of strike action.  Debbie Sulley, one of the members said: "We need to take this action, it needs to be something substantial, something significant and one day at a time isn’t enough."

Solidarity

In Bootle, PCS members employed by other government departments had stopped to offer support to the pickets as they went into work and also to make donations to the hardship fund.  Members from the HMRC sites nearby had also visited to show solidarity.

The striking members have received messages of support via email from South Yorkshire and Surry MoJ branches, Salford County Court Money Claims Centre, BIS and ACAS branches and Fylde health branch.

Rob Williams, chair of the National Shop Stewards Network, emailed: "I'm writing to send a message of support from the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) to PCS members in Bootle and Newport who are taking action against privatisation of shared services and to defend jobs. You have our full support and we are trying to help spread the message of solidarity to our supporters and beyond that to the rest of the trade union movement.”

PCS Defra Southern branch also sent a message of support calling the strikers “an inspiration to us all.”

What you can do 

• Sign the petition against privatisation
• Send messages of support to solidarity@pcs.org.uk
• Contribute to the PCS fighting fund. 

Corporate shared services – the threat becomes clearer

Today’s date will live in the memory of all MoD employees as the day the MoD threw open its doors and invited the private sector into the heart of the department.

MoD’s corporate shared services are currently run by Defence Business Services (DBS), managed under a strategic business partner contract by Serco.

They provide key services in areas such as finance, procurement, IT and HR; but are critically also a key enabler of whole force management and directly support defence capability and delivery.

Background

The government is in the process of privatising corporate shared services (CSS) across government in stages, with no regard of risk to the services they provide to government departments or the sensitive data they hold.

Defra and DWP CSS have already been privatised under Shared Services Connected Ltd (SSCL), and our members there are currently facing the threat of office closures, job losses and the offshoring of jobs and functions.  

Only last month staff in the Ministry of Justice’s CSS who work in payroll, personnel and finance covering the courts, prison services and Home Office were informed they face being handed over SSCL.

The threat

Bringing together shared services across government departments and then potentially offshoring that data holds serious risks for defence, where that data includes the personal data of serving and retired military personnel and civil servants.

The MoD, in progressing how the private sector could be further involved in its CSS, is obviously ambivalent to the potential risks to defence sensitive data and the role DBS plays in supporting the front line. Our union is not.

To date the civil servants in DBS have delivered flexible and cost effective services, hitting every key performance indicator placed upon them. The proposals announced today are directly at odds with the DBS vision and place uncertainty at the heart of the organisation.

Our response

Our union believes that the threats of outsourcing and offshoring far outweigh any potential benefits that the private sector will claim from privatisation.

The department’s proposed ‘pick and mix’ approach, to invite the private sector to pick over the work of DBS and bid for what they fancy, will not lead to greater efficiency.

We will be pressing for a fully resourced in-house option to be developed, as well as stressing that the department needs to understand what it is contracting before inviting the private sector to bid.

And we will be working with other groups and organisations to identify and publicise the risks of flirting with the offshoring of nationally sensitive defence data and jobs.

We will also be pressing to ensure that any outcome avoids enforced redundancies or moves and site closures.

Our union is not willing to let DBS or the data it manages and holds be sold off to the lowest bidder, or stand by while nationally sensitive information is at risk of offshoring.

Actions members can take now to support our campaign

Please make sure that you have done the following:

ü  Sign our petition

Our union has a petition against the offshoring of shared service jobs and data. Please encourage all your friends and workmates to sign and circulate: https://you.38degrees.org.uk/p/ourdata.

ü  Get ready for direct debit

We are asking all members to do something very simple but very important – get ready to switch payment of your subs to direct debit.

It only takes a few minutes, but if our employer imposes any changes to how our subs are collected, you will remain protected by your union's membership.

Registering is easy - switch to direct debit now.

ü  Get the message

The government is trying to stop us communicating with our members, by blocking PCS emails to work email addresses and limiting access to our website.

This means we can’t keep you posted on vital union business - like our latest campaigning work on pay, pensions and terms and conditions.

Get the message - update your contact details now.

ü  Recruit a non-member

Our campaign will be stronger if we speak for all staff involved in shared services. So please take a moment, if the person sat next to you is not a union member, to encourage them to join PCS.

Their non-membership and non-participation in our campaign to save our shared services could lead to your job being privatised.

ü  Save our shared services – a national issue

The latest news on shared services can be found on the PCS website.

Please make sure that you bookmark this page and follow the suggested actions.

By campaigning together we can protect our vital shared services and stop our jobs and sensitive data being sold off to the lowest bidder or offshored. Please get involved.

Save our shared services

Say no to shared services privatisation and offshoring

What is shared services?

Shared service centres provide corporate services that are required across a government department, or sometimes, across several departments and linked organisations), in areas such as finance, IT or HR, from a centralised or single unit.

The privatisation of shared services is being done in stages. 

The government is in the process of privatising these services, which are currently part of the civil service. Where privatisation has already taken place in Defra and DWP there is now the added threat of offshoring jobs and functions.  

Latest threat

The lastest privatisation threat is in the Ministry of Justice (MoJ); the department announced the privatisation of its shared services to Steria/SSCL.

MOJ had previously contracted Steria to create an IT platform - Steria failed to deliver and reportedly wasted between £120 million and £200m of taxpayers’ money.

Say 'no' to offshoring

David Cameron says he wants companies to bring jobs to this country. Yet his government has agreed Steria’s plans to cut jobs, close offices and offshore the work done by our members in DWP and DEFRA to India.

Union campaigns work 

We have launched a high profile campaign to protect jobs and security of data from the threat of off shoring. This includes political, media and industrial action to fight this attack. 

What can you do: 

• Sign the petition to stop offshoring our jobs and data
• Send our e-action to your MP opposing offshoring
• Send any responses you get from MPs or important points of support that you think we should know about to SharedServices@pcs.org.uk
• If you want to be a union rep or want to get more involved with the campaign, email SharedServices@pcs.org.uk
• Follow this campaign on Facebook (facebook login required to join this group)
• Join PCS
• Look out for union circulars and notices of further members' meetings in your workplace

Timeline of attacks

In June 2013 our members in the Department for Transport (DfT) were the first to be privatised and transferred to multinational company Avarto.

A strong union campaign, including strike action, won agreement that staff who wanted to stay would be found jobs in the DfT and a commitment to no compulsory redundancies for a year.

In November 2013 staff in DWP and DEFRA were privatised and transferred to a new company called Steria/SSCL owned by a French multinational.

Again a strong union campaign with members taking action won some protection against redundancy, site closures and off shoring for six months.

Our shared services members in HMRC and Ministry of Defence are next in line to be threatened with privatisation.

The threat posed by shared services privatisation is two-fold.

It is clear that privatising shared services is a key part of the government’s plans to cut jobs in the civil service. But it also means that if we do not stop offshoring the personal data of thousands of civil servants will be sent abroad raising serious questions about the security of this data.

10 July - Striking for fair pay

Striking for fair pay on 10 July

We are urging members to strike on 10 July and join millions of public sector workers across the UK who have had enough of having their pay frozen or capped.

Our national executive took the decision today to back joint action with other unions, following an overwhelming 73.7% yes vote of those who voted in a consultative ballot, which ended yesterday, asking members to back our 'We all need a pay rise campaign,' starting with a 1-day strike on 10 July. 

The campaign will continue after 10 July with targeted action and potentially more joint union action.

We have sought central talks on our national pay claim of:

£1,200 or 5% for all civil service and related staff

We must force the government to end the pay cap, to succeed with it.

We have an existing industrial action mandate but our annual delegateconference in Brighton in May agreed to ask our members to vote 'yes' in a consultative ballot on our national campaign running from 12-30 June.

Strength of feeling

Members have voted to take action for fair pay, alongside colleagues from other unions, including teachers and local government workers. NHS workers and others will be balloting for joint action in the autumn. 

Now it’s time to show your strength of feeling by joining one of the largest strikes for decades on 10 July:

• End the government’s pay freeze
• Win a fair settlement on our pay claim.

We have been campaigning for meaningful national negotiations on pay, jobs, and terms and conditions. Sending a clear, united message on 10 July is the best way to put pressure on the government to come to a fair settlement.

What can I do?

• Show you refuse to accept the attacks on your pay by striking on 10 July 
• Use the PCS pay squeeze calculator
• Recruit a colleague to PCS 
• Sign up for direct debit.

#WeAllNeedAPayRise