Staff from Lytham St Annes HAD to move...didn't they ?

PCS fought long and hard over the closure of the LSA site at Moorland Road. We (as were staff) were told that the site was closing, to be sold off for redevelopment.

Many staff would be working outside their conditions of service if relocated to Peel Park as a compulsory transfer, this meant excess fares had to be considered, a bus service had to be provided, hardship grounds considered, people forced to drive to work (or to the old site to get the bus) going against green initiatives....the list goes on, including people re-co-located (if there is such a word) with other members of staff that they have previously had to transfer away from due to hardship or harassment.

How lovely it was to see on the intranet this morning a piece about how successful the move to Peel has been.

I guess if you use the fact that all the DWP staff have relocated and none remain on the LSA site as a measure of 100%, then yes it has been successful. But at what cost to the individuals ?

I guess the long and short of it is both Staff and PCS were lied to. The site isn't closing. The site is on indefinite lease. Just not to DWP. At best, the Department were lied to by their landlord, but that wouldn't happen...surely.

If you have access to the Intranet you can read the article here.

If you can't and are accessing this article from home, the last three paragraphs read like this:

"The relocation is all part of a plan to reduce the number of estate buildings from 35 to 13. Far from being demolished, the old site has had all DWP signage removed and is being leased out indefinitely. Building a better future has rarely been this successful!"

Some people might say there hasn't been as much spin since the USA's reporting on the Vietnam War.

10 Reasons to Join PCS (or ten reasons to stay a member)

You probably face many issues in the workplace as these are uncertain times.

Issues such as relocation, redundancy, pay and pensions can affect your working life at any time.

The fact is on your own there’s not much you can do to affect your working conditions. Joining PCS means that you won’t be on your own.

Join PCS and you will have a voice in your workplace and you will be able to draw on all the advice and legal support PCS has on offer.

Why you should join PCS:

• You will be joining the fifth largest trade union in the UK. Our strength comes from uniting to stand up for our rights.
• You will have a voice in your workplace and a say in developing our union’s direction and policies.
• You will have protection and support should you ever face bullying, harassment or unfair treatment in the workplace.
• You will have access to independent and confidential advice, usually from trained representatives in your workplace.
• You will have support to make your workplace a safer environment through your local PCS health and safety rep.
• You will have access to free training courses to keep your skills up to date and improve your knowledge.
• You will be able to join PCS campaigns which have helped shape government decisions and stopped injustices in this country and around the world.
• You can help continue the fight for better pay and conditions, for quality public services, a better environment, and against racism and fascism.
• You will be part of a union that actively promotes equality and tackles discrimination.
• You will have access to a range of services including free legal advice and our personal injury compensation claim scheme, financial hardship assistance, debt management, nursing support and much more.

If you are not already a members of PCS you can join using the "join us" linkon the right hand side of this site. Just fill in the form and send it to the courier address on the bottom of it.

Turrets Grievance Letter Template.

In a bid to help members within the DCPU facing difficulties with the imposed turret extensions, the Branch have issued a template that members can tailor to their own needs.

The template can be found here and is in an MS Word format.

Please save it to your own PC with a memorable filename in case you require it again.

PDS 2008 Explained.

The DWP Group have issued a circular to Branches detailing what SHOULD be happening with regards to PDS this year.

It gives information on:

- Awarding Performance Levels
- Evidence and Justification
- Decision Making Standards
- Performance Level Issues
- Procedural Correctness Issues
- Objectives and Performance Levels

The circular can be found here in the MS Word format.

Friday - final day

Friday started with motion a138 on securing a legal adviceline for reps to use when dealing with complex personal cases. The NEC asked for remission. Conference really wanted the additional resource and rejected the remission and carried the motion.

Conference moved on to motion a149 on the planned closure of the Keele School of Business and Economics, including the well utilised Industrial Relations Centre, with the loss of nearly 40 jobs. Conference carried the motion to campaign against the closure and support those facing the job losses.

Motion a150 was designed to support the campaign against the proposed changes to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill, changes that would mean it would be illegal for members of the Prison Officers Association to take strike action. The motion was carried.

A151 was a motion to campaign for the raising of the national minimum wage to £8.25 per hour, which is two thirds the average male wage and also used as the international measure of the poverty line. The motion was carried with NEC support.

A151 was moved by the General Secretary on behalf of the NEC to increase activities around the make your vote count campaign, there was a certain amount of debate around the fact that proportional representation if adopted in the uk could help the right wing political groups (the BNP) gain more seats. This was addressed in the right to reply and the motion was carried.

The next section was the equality section, there aren't usually many contentious motions in this section as it is usually full of motions that are campaigning for raised awareness of legislation protecting members against discrimination on grounds of disability or race. Motions a181 to a189 were all carried.

The Conference moved on to the International section, which is where we debate how we can poke our noses into other countries business, but in a helpful way, not in the same way the Americans or Blair did. In all seriousness, it's normally with the blessing of the people involved and their trade unions. It's all about political lobbying and raising awareness for people, as well as raising the issues priorities on the political agenda.

The standing orders committee picked up about 5 motions that had fallen off the agenda for the guillotine motions section which were moved swiftly. All were carried (a6, a7, a112 with statement from NEC, a47 and a190 with statement from the NEC).

Conference closed without any of our motions being heard in the guillotine section, we had specifically asked for our pay motion to be included.

Thursday - National Conference Day 2

The morning session opened with the section on Personnel Policy and then pensions.

A74 and a75 were heard, discussing lean and call centre conditions. The Branch interjected on lean, Chris Wade doing a great off the cuff contribution and building a paper plane at the same time.

Both motions were carried, though one delegate did ask for remission on a75 in a bid to try and get it given to the NEC to deal with and expand to all areas not just call centres. Conference rejected remission as the motion was sound.

Motion a76 was welcomed to try and put in place safeguards for members like the ao in the child benefit centre who was scapegoat for the loss of the data disk. The motion is aiming to protect members from criminal prosecution for instances out of their control within work or due to internal proceedures. There were some very good contributions, which were in fact horror stories of investigations that had gone on in other areas. The motion wap overwhelmingly carried.

Motion a79 dealt with better equipping reps to deal with issues arising in the workplace due to domestic violence, and also bringing any current policies in to line so that they covered LGBT members too. There were several stories recounted to the Conference that certainly helped the vote and made people think about the issues at hand. The motion wap carried easily.

Several more motions were debated in the section covering quality of working life, sick absence management, post natal depression, all being carried after debate. Opposition was given to a82 in that tribunal costs on sick absence can be awarded against members and the union, the motion did allow for consideration of cases by group before taking then, the motion was remitted after NEC opposition.

A83 on bullying in the workplace was debated and carried. The Branch Chair was to attempt to get into debate on a86 on "leap years" to oppose as it was factually incorrect, however the motion was guillotined.

The Pensions section was next. With several emergency motions debated and the NEC motion carried after some slight adjustment to take into account some of the sentiments of the motion set to fall if theirs was carried.

The section before lunch was the Health and Safety section, the first motion, a110, was to campaign for a maximum legal temperature in the workplace of 30 degrees C. The motion was carried.

Motion a111 against hotdesking was also carried.

The afternoon session opened with the green issues section. Conference endorsed the PCS Green Issues document, a115.

A116, a motion about expanding the high speed rail network proved quite an issue with a good few opposition speeches. The motion was passed, after Conference failed to vote in the positive for remission.

The financial report was given and accepted.

There was a good debate, around the credit union motion proposed by the NEC, however the opposition to it was very persuasive in that many delegates did not want to join with the civil service benevolent fund and open any services under the scheme to non-members. The Conference voting seemed too close to call, a card vote resulting in the motion being lost. The NEC won't be best pleased i'm sure.

The Services and Structures section started with a reasonably close vote on a135, which was carried but certainly left some delegations wondering which way to vote. One branch apparently had three delegates on the floor at the time, one voting for, one against and one abstaining!

A136 included a planned intervention by our Branch, Chris Wade, who stated his experiences at tribunal and for costs awarded. To be fair to Chris, his input certainly seemed to sway Conference totally rather than the moving Branch's speech, there were many shouts of "here here" and "well said" - The motion on reviewing the access to legal advice from our solicitors was carried even though the NEC asked for remission.

Distinguished Life Member Awards were given out next.

The final section of the day, Social and Economic, started with a148, a motion proposed by the gangmasters licensing authority in a bid to campaign actively for more resources from the Government to expand the service nationally. The motion was carried easily.

Composite 3 was a motion combining many other motions submitted on the issue of two members of serving staff in csa actively campaigning to stand for the BNP, obviously the employment of facists, and active ones that had been reported for intimidating behaviour (with no action taken) towards a black member, should not be allowed. The whole ethos of the BNP is completely outwith the standards of behaviour and diversity policies, not to mention the equal ops policies. The motion was carried wholeheartedly.

Wednesday - National Conference Day 1

The Conference opened with a good speech from the National President, followed by a very good (as usual) speech from Mark Serwotka labelling both the senior civil servants and the government ministers a disgrace. Explaining that he found it totally incomprehensible that the civil service can sack long serving employees for defending their members yet allow someone standing for a parliamentary position for the BNP, to remain in employment as a civil servant, a nazi by any other name.

The Conference proper opened with a massive amendment to standing orders. The standing orders committee merged and replaced the two first sections in their entireity. There were 42 subsequent pages of amendments.

The first major debate was on the forward and continuing strategy for the job cuts and pay campaign. The general debate included several emergency motions devised to encompass a plethora of motions submitted by many branches nationwide.

General debate was on em1, em6, em8, em12, a13 all of which covered other motions.

After much debate motion em1 was overwhelmingly carried. Em8 and em12 were both lost, a13 was subject to a felling when em1 was carried.

The afternoon started with a couple of motions on affiliations, one on the UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group and the Hands Off The People of Iran Campaign (a22 and a23). Both were carried successfully, after a lively debate on the Iran motion.

A slight change in the agenda moved the guest speakers from the National Union of Teachers up to be on next. As you would guess, the speeches were were around solidarity and support on the same public service issues we face. Both speakers were well received.

Several motions on our private sector colleagues and protection of their original civil service terms and conditions were discussed and wholeheartedly supported. They were a28 and a29, they came along with a new motion a676 which the NEC asked the branch to remit due to what it perceived were some incorrect facts. The General Secretary interjected and gave a revised view of support with a couple of qualifications. The motion was carried.

A debate ensued on a34 which was to raise death benefit payable to £2,000 then increase with inflation each year. The NEC asked for opposition but promised to raise the amount by start of next year to ten times the maximum subs rate (which pretty much brought it in line with inflation from it's last raise) and then raise by inflation from then on. The Conference decided it wanted a card vote even though it appeared to be easily lost from the floor.

A two thirds majority was required for the rule change, the result being 95,579 in favour, 134,389 against, it was lost.

The next motion also necessitated a card vote, it was a35 which centred around making the branch learning coordinator an elected position in the model branch constitution. The result of the vote was 129,480 for and 85,300 against, again this was lost.

Again our motion was guillotined. Making all of them so far!

The next main debates were on victimisation of trade union reps, a43 and a44 both heard in general debate and easily carried unanimously, a matter dear to the heart of the branch reps having experienced it to a certain extent from DCS and also CSA.
There was a standing ovation when one of the aforementioned reps, eddie flemming, spoke on the motions. Eddie was sacked last year for carrying out his role as a tu rep.

The final motion of the day was a large composite authored from many other motions, encompassing them, which dealt with the consultation on organisation for the new Borders Agency with the branches that would be involved once it is set up. The motion was opposed due to the timescales within it, the opposing speaker stating that they were too short to do the job properly. As a branch we agreed with this, our thinking was that maybe a new group should be created to also include hmrc and immigration. In any case, a timescale of a decision on direction in two months was ludicrous. However, the NEC speaker swayed us taking our thoughts into account.

The motion was carried.

Our final motion of the day on campaigning against site closures through regional committees was guillotined, making it 100% of our national motions so far. Extremely unusual.

DCPU - Imposed Extension to Turret Working.

Has the Employer addressed the Health and Safety and Equality Issues?

If you work in the DCPU you will be aware that Senior Management have imposed the extension of turret working from 4pm to 5pm (and we assume the earlier hours before 10 am as well) with effect from Tuesday 20th May 2008. Hopefully you will also be aware that PCS rejected Senior Management’s imposition of, and the extension of the Turrets working with its compulsory rotas.
At the members’ meetings both Health and Safety and Equality issues were raised by the members and discussed. As explained at the meetings the employer has been slow off the mark in addressing its Legal and contractual requirements. But quick off the mark in imposing the new Turrets rotas. It is worth bearing in mind when talking about contractual requirements that where FWH schemes are offered to staff they become a contractual right and not a privilege despite what some managers perpetuate.

Overleaf is a copy of the latest correspondence to the DCPU Senior Management regarding the issues of the work process Health and Safety Risk Assessments (legal requirement that should have been done in 1992 and then reviewed every time there is a significant change or a new RA done) and the Equality/ Diversity Impact Assessment.

Although these issues were once again flagged up to the employer at the meeting on 28th April 2008 they have not been forthcoming, nor has the discussions about implementation.

IF you are asked to work on a Turrets rota you may wish to indicate that you wish to view the Risk Assessments PRIOR to doing so. If they are not forthcoming then please work under duress and submit a grievance.

If you have read this circular and are not a member; then please complete the membership form (link on right hand side of this site) to join.

Group Conference

The PCS DWP Group Conference kicked off on time at 9.15am.

The Branch had made representations to the Standing Orders Committee on Sunday afternoon to move the motion previously submitted by the Branch on lighting and the individual control of lighting up the agenda. The soc didn't accept the reference back but we requested to address Conference before standing orders were adopted to hope for a sympathetic response.

Unfortunately, even after an excellent speech by one of the Branch Deputy Secretarys' (Grant McClure), Conference also rejected the proposal. We may still get to speak on the motion at the end of Conference in the section for motions that have fallen off the agenda.

The main debate of the morning session was on pay and the forward strategy. Motion A1 was carried and will now inform the incoming GEC.

The second session started with a guest speaker from NIPSA, their General Secretary, speaking on the similar problems faced in Northern Ireland that we face within the DWP.

The next section was on privatisation and job cuts, headed by Emergency Motion 3, a motion primarily dictating the way forward on these issues. It stipulated the need for equality impact assessments and monitoring, alludsmative employment offers in all cases of potential redundancy, full consultation on redundancy avoidance. The motion was overwhelmingly carried.

Motion A47 was carried, as was A49 with the qualification that the Branch wanted included of "seek to" prior to the latter two bullet points.

The debate on CMEC/CSA and the way forward regarding the privatisation of the area was an important one. The motion, A86, was resoundingly passed, the other three motions on CMEC were moved to the national conference agenda for debate.

A206 in the Welfare Reform section was carried, this dealt with third sector organisations being lined up to cherry pick our members jobs.

The motion on Remploy (A209) was also well supported against the closure of their factories. A140, a composite on flexible working hours, was moved by Dave Burke on the GEC.

It was an important motion for Conference, dictating the actions the incoming GEC should take, steering them in the direction the membership wishes, against restrictions and qualifying periods and trying to introduce a DWP wide fwh policy. Zero tolerance for zero flexibility.

There were several more motions passed on flexi and the attacks on it, examples of new non-flexible contracts, genysis work planning tools, not being able to change hours when you need to and also the requirement to give four weeks advance notice of your working patterns in the pension service, being disciplined if you vary from it.

There was quite a long debate on the composite A169 which would cause A189 to fall. Both were reasonable motions in as far as trying to combat the terrible sick absence regime, however the latter motion simply trying to censure the GEC for failure to progress over the year, which is not the case.

A169 was carried by about two thirds after a mildly annoyed Dave Burke reiterated what he had been doing over the last year that the opposers said he hadn't in his right of reply.

DCPU Imposes Turret Extension.

The Employer Imposes the Extensions

to Turrets Working.
If you are a member of the DCPU in Blackpool, You will be aware that Senior DCPU Management have imposed the extension of turret working from 4pm to 5pm (and we assume the earlier hours before 10 am as well) with effect from Tuesday 20th May 2008.

Hopefully you will also be aware that PCS members rejected Senior Management’s draft Joint Statement on turrets working at the recent members meetings.

The Branch is actively campaigning on the issue and considering all options. Please see the circulars due to be issued to members:

Turrets2
Turrets3

The files are MS Word documents.

Caffeine - A Quick Fix or Something more ?

A UK authority on Neuro-Linguistic Programming has released a fact sheet on caffeine, it's effects and over-use.

The article has some pretty interesting reading for those who use coffee and other drinks heavy with caffeine on a daily basis.

The website can be found here.

Branch Mandating Meeting

The Branch mandating meeting is being held today (14th May 2008) at 2pm in the Warbreck House Canteen.

This is an important meeting for members as it helps inform the Branch delegation to both Group and National Conference as to the wishes of the members.

By taking part in this meeting and making your feelings known on the issues raised you can help formulate the policy and direction of your union.

Facility time has been granted from most management units of one hour for the meeting plus reasonable travelling time from your normal location.

The Branch Executive looks forward to seeing you there!

GEC Elections - LAST DAY FOR POSTING

Remember today is the last day for posting your DWP GEC election ballot paper. If you haven't already voted you should do so now.

Please remind every member that the ballot closes at 12 noon on Thursday 15 May 2008.

The election results will be published first on the DWP pages of the new PCS web site in the afternoon of Friday 16 May 2008. That will either be here or here, dependant on the post below this one :)

New HQ Website

The PCS Headquarters website has been revamped and re written in a bid to make it a little more user friendly. The site can be accessed here.

To get to the DWP pages go to "where I work" on the front page then select DWP from the list or use this temporary link: DWP Pages.

The link to the DWP pages will soon return to: www.pcs.org.uk/dwp

National Executive Committee Elections 2008 - Results

The results from the NEC Elections are available here.

Thank you to all those who voted.

Thousands Wasted on Personal Grooming Course.

It was recently revealed in an article in the Daily Telegraph that the senior civil service are running courses in “personal grooming” to help the top civil service managers to “balance the professional persona with natural style”

The 2 day courses run by national school of government cost a staggering £970 per person. More than most DWP staff take home each month.

At a time when the Treasury hold down our pay and offering members in DWP a 0% pay increase it is obscene that money is being squandered in this way.

Petition for High Quality Public Services, Accessible to All.

DWP Group are asking all members to join the demand for public services that genuinely meet peoples' needs, and are calling on the European Commission to bring forward European Legislation.

There is a petition that can be found here. Please sign it.

You need to put a valid email address on it so that your electronic signature can be verified. If you don't, your input won't be counted.

Support the Overtime Ban

PCS has called an overtime ban following the 24 April strike until midnight on Thursday 8 May. The overtime ban is a crucial part of our campaign to force management to improve their appalling three year pay offer.

We know that the strike has created large backlogs and arrears of work. An effective overtime ban after the strike means management won't be able to even try to get this work cleared.

The two week ban on overtime across DWP will significantly increase the pressure on the Department and deepen the impact of the strike. All our feedback tells us that the overtime ban is well supported across the whole country. Keep up the pressure, support the overtime ban.

Have Your Say
In two weeks time delegates from every PCS branch across the country will debate what next steps to take in the pay campaign.

Be sure you attend your branch mandating meeting to hear what the issues are and to have your say.

Your local meeting will have been advertised through distribution and notice boards.

LGBT History Month - Bulletin 45

The Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender monthly bulletin is available.

It can be found here.

Included this month are:

News: A selection of LGBT related news articles from the past month
Events: a calendar of shows, conferences and meetings during late January.
Community: appeals, requests and community based ideas.
Coming Soon: advance notice of events occurring during the month.

Quotes: who said what, where and when.