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

Have you voted yet - We all need a pay rise

For the first time in a long period, there is the prospect of co-ordinated strike action against the public sector pay cap.

At TUC Congress in September 2013, a PCS motion backing a programme of co-ordinated action to break the pay cap was supported unanimously. 

Members are now being asked in a consultative ballot to support our campaign for a fair pay rise, including potential co-ordinated action with other public sector unions, and to support our campaign plan for action on all our national campaign demands. 

What is a consultative ballot? 

It is important that we talk to members about the way forward. Our national conference agreed to consult on our national campaign, including about asking members to take support co-ordinated strike action with other public sector unions aimed at ending the public sector pay cap. 

We are consulting members in the civil service and other public sector bodies including the Metropolitan Police and devolved administrations.

We want the strongest possible "yes‟ vote on the highest possible turnout, to send a clear message to the Cabinet Office. 

What’s the timetable? 

The ballot opened on Thursday 12 June, and closes on Monday 30 June. The NEC will meet on 1 July to consider the outcome of the ballot, and take decisions. 

Talks are ongoing with other public sector unions to organise a campaign of co-ordinated strike action. 

What are our demands on pay? 

We have submitted a pay claim to the Cabinet Office, which seeks “a £1,200 or 5% pay increase”. We have sought central talks on our claim to force the government to end the pay cap. 

We believe a programme of joint union co-ordinated action represents the best opportunity to break the public sector wide pay cap policy. 

What else is happening? 

We are asking branches to organise workplace opportunities for members to use our new pay squeeze calculator, where members can see what their level of pay should be if it had kept pace with inflation, available at pcs.org.uk/pay 

This is part of a wider strategy of political lobbying which will intensify in the coming weeks and be sustained through to the 2015 general election. 

We are also asking members, especially those in London and the South East, to support the People‟s Assembly national demonstration "No More Austerity‟ on Saturday 21 June, assemble 1pm, BBC HQ, Portland Place (Tube: Oxford Circus). 

What are other unions doing? 

Local government unions Unison, GMB and Unite (between them representing about 1 million public sector workers) are balloting their members, with the possibility of strike action on 10 July. 

The NUT has a live strike mandate and is considering strike action in the education sector. FBU members also have a live mandate and have strike action in June. 

PCS is attending regular meetings at the TUC and engaging other unions in bilateral discussions. We are attempting to maximise co-ordination – to intensify the pressure on government (which says there is a recovery) to end its pay cap. 

We will seek to build momentum and bring more unions into the action. Local government unions are discussing further strike action in September. Unions representing workers in the NHS are also considering balloting for action in the autumn, with some holding a consultative ballot now, to gauge support for an industrial action ballot. 

We will continue to work through the TUC and the NTUC to try to bring other unions on board for further action. 

We will also be supporting the TUC's "Britain Needs A Pay Rise‟ national demonstration on 18 October. 

Why is this ballot important? 

Because we want to send the loudest possible message to government and our employers that a pay policy that has left members 10% worse off in recent years (16% once pension changes are included) is unacceptable. 

This is the first time since 30 November 2011 that there has been a serious prospect for mass co-ordinated action across the public sector – the sort of action that can bring greater pressure to bear on government. 

Why are we also asking you to switch to direct debit? 

The Cabinet Office has written to each government department, stating that check-off (the decades-old practice of collecting your monthly union subs directly from your salary) is “undesirable”, and asking each department to review it. 

We are campaigning to save check-off, but it is essential we have a plan in case check-off ends. So to protect the union and your protection at work, we are asking all members to sign up for direct debit. 


We won‟t process your direct debit form unless your employer stops deducting your union subscriptions, or we decide to end check-off, so there‟s no danger of you paying twice.

We all need a pay rise

Our members are facing the tightest living standards squeeze for nearly a century so we are asking them to take action over pay.

We are holding a consultative ballot from today (12 June) until 30 June asking members to back our 'We all need a pay rise campaign,' which calls for a concerted campaign of joint action with other public sector unions, starting with a 1-day strike on 10 July. Action is aimed at breaking the pay freeze, and winning a fair settlement on pay, jobs, pensions, outsourcing, and terms and conditions such as performance management.

We are also asking all members to join a day of workplace protests to launch the ballot.  

Across the UK pay cuts have damaged the economy and caused real hardship for millions of people.

If pay had kept pace with inflation, average civil service pay would be £2,300 higher than it is now. But the government has announced that the pay cap will continue in 2014 and 2015 and possibly beyond.

We have submitted a pay claim to the Cabinet Office, which seeks a:

£1,200 or 5% pay increase. 

Mass walkout

About 1.5 million local government employees could walk out of work for 24 hours on 10 July, supported by up to 500,000 civil servants and teachers.

Unite began balloting its local government members today while Unison is also currently balloting its members. The GMB has notified the Local Government Association (LGA) that it is to hold a similar ballot.

The unions demanded that the LGA pay all workers an extra £1 an hour, saying typical local government workers have seen their pay reduced by 20% in real terms since the coalition came to power in 2010.

The national executive of the National Union of Teachers decided in May against taking action during the week of 23 June to allow time to see if progress is possible in the talks with government. If there is no progress they will be taking action on 10 July.

Back our campaign

We have sought central talks on our claim. We must force the government to end the pay cap, to succeed. We have an existing industrial action mandate but our annual delegate conference in Brighton last month agreed to ask our members to vote 'yes' in the consultative ballot on our national campaign.

The campaign includes a co-ordinated 1-day strike on 10 July with other public sector workers and setting up a fighting fund to support targeted action.

How to vote 

Members are able to cast their ballot in 1 of 3 different ways: By internet, phone (freephone number) or by post.

To cast a vote electronically members need a security code, which is on the reverse of the ballot paper. It comes in 2 parts, and both parts are needed.  

Members do not need their membership number or NI number to cast their vote, just the security code. However they will need either or of these to request a replacement paper.

Find out more about the campaign.

#WeAllNeedAPayRise