Pay Update

The following has been received from PCS Group:

The NEC has called a meeting of negotiators from all of the delegated bargaining units across the civil service about PCS actions in relation to our serious concern about the delays and difficulties in implementing our national agreement reached in December. This has been set for 26 March, and will follow a special NEC meeting the same day, at which the action to take will be discussed.

The meeting will consider an update on the talks with treasury and the cabinet office as well as feedback on negotiations with departments, agencies and other bodies. A full report of the outcome of the meeting will be issued shortly afterwards.

Minister highlights great work of DWP staff
Employment minister Tony McNulty this week highlighted the “great work” being done by DWP staff in response to the record levels of unemployment announced on Tuesday.

The minister pointed out that staff are on top of targets and were delivering 45,000 interviews and 60,000 phone calls every working day.

Fine words butter no parsnips
PCS believes that the minister should ensure that staff are properly rewarded and should agree that all efficiency savings made over the past year should be directed into basic pay. The scandal of low pay in DWP should also urgently be addressed.

This years review and the long-awaited, new treasury guidance provide an opportunity to address these real concerns.

DWP management to reconsider offer
PCS negotiators met with management this week to discuss an expected offer on improving employee relations, managing attendance, PDS, family friendly policies and job security.

On many issues it was clear that an acceptable offer was achievable. However the management team was unable to make an acceptable offer in all of these areas and after a prolonged meeting they have agreed to reconsider the offer and the possibility of improvments.

Whilst PCS are bitterly disappointed by this further delay it was agreed that a further meeting would be arranged in the next 2 weeks to consider a better offer.

The group executive committee will meet as soon as a revised offer is received and consider what action is appropriate.

DCPU Helpline Members’ Meetings

We have been meeting with Senior DCPU Helpline Management regarding proposed changes. You may have seen some of the circulars recently issued from the Branch.

We are very interested in gauging feedback from the members with regards to some of the issues and therefore have arranged meetings as follows.

Members Meetings
Thursday 26th March 2009
Warbreck House Canteen
10:00 am and 2:00 Pm.

Agenda/Topics to cover:

• Scheduled Breaks
• Removal/Reduction in Flexi for those on FWH
• Benchmarks
• First Class and Flexible
• Pressures on Helpline members

Time has been granted from the employer for you to attend. Please make every effort to do so.

Only PCS members can attend the meeting. Please fill print out, complete and return the membership form here if you wish to join and attend.

We look forward to seeing you at one of the meetings.

Stop the BNP in the North West

This message has been sent out by the PCS NW Regional Committee:

PCS is an independent democratic trade union, and opposition to all forms of discrimination is enshrined in the union rule book.

We are not affiliated to any political party, but as a union we campaign on all issues that affect our members. We are affiliated to Unite Against Fascism which campaigns against the election of racist parties such as the British National Party (BNP).

The BNP campaigns under the slogan “Rights for Whites” and says it is only standing up for ordinary white workers. As union members we know from experience, that the only way to stand up for our rights as workers is to stick together and deal with issues collectively. If the BNP was elected this would be impossible, because they will shut down independent trade unions and round up anyone who tries to organise them.

The BNP has stated that if elected to government they would introduce a policy of deporting all non white UK residents – this policy is called “voluntary repatriation”. This would presumably involve rounding up anyone the BNP determined not to be white and detaining them indefinitely.

You may be aware that the BNP has tried to involve itself in the recent disputes in refineries and power stations. It has latched on to the slogan “British jobs for British workers”. This is not because it supports collective action but because it will hijack any argument involving nationality or ethnicity to try to spread its racist message.

Four years ago the British National Party came within a whisker of winning a seat in the European Parliament for the North West. The vote is on the basis of proportional representation, so they only need a relatively small number of votes to achieve this. This year their leader, Nick Griffin, is standing to represent the North West constituency in the European Parliament and has a good chance of getting elected. This will raise the BNP’s profile both nationally and across Europe and would also lead to them being given tens of thousands of pounds of tax payers money to fund their activities.

We ask all members to make sure you vote in the European elections in order to reduce the percentage of the vote for the BNP.

Lean Roll out in DCPU

This is the latest post to update members with feedback from the latest correspondence with Senior DCPU Management on 4th March 2009. The "missing points" are the ones that Senior Management declined to respond to.

Senior Management’s response is as follows:

“I have attached a response to the points that you raised following your meeting with staff. I have not answered any points which I felt were not directly related to Lean……

Having now looked at the points raised during the meeting you held with staff from C222 and B307 on the 18th February 09 regarding Lean, I am now in a position to respond to the Lean specific points from my area.

a) Team Leaders are under no additional pressure as a result of Lean although they are understandably very busy getting to grips with the Lean tools and techniques. Team Leaders are not undertaking AO work however I can confirm in my area they were assisting AOs in a BF trawl as a one off exercise as WARS had been missed at the start of Lean.

c) DMs have not been told they have to do X number of decisions per day, what has taken place is a discussion around expectations which we would hold for any member of staff.

d) Staff are not being taken into rooms by the HEO because they have expressed their negative views, there was an incident where a member of staff had used inappropriate language during a training session and this was dealt with by the HEO.

e) Information centres are designed to take approx 10 mins each morning; any ideas/concerns raised are taken outside of the information area each day and progressed by a designated member of staff until resolved.

f) We do have a rota in place for staff to attend the Information Centre each morning; this is to ensure everyone is given the opportunity to get involved. Staff are also encouraged to pop into the information centre throughout the day at their own convenience.

k) What the SEO said to staff during a meeting prior to Lean was that anyone who was still unsure or had negative feelings about Lean that they were to raise their concerns with the managers so we could help.

m) There is no change to the way DMs are managed in Lean in terms of outputs, what we have recognised is that whilst staff are in a learning curve and still consolidating their training that their outputs will be lower for a period of time.

o) Concern strips are a means of staff being able to raise any concerns they have in an anonymous way if they prefer, by having the concern on a strip it is absolutely guaranteed to be taken forward and progressed until resolved. Discussions do take place once the concern is taken outside of the information centre.

w) The reason we advised not mentioning the word Lean to the public is because this would have no meaning to the majority of customers and could confuse them, Lean is not a new process in terms of how we decide on benefit merely a way of controlling the flow of work and improving the way we deliver our business.

y) The workstep manual has been formulated following all the Lean training and the best practices being highlighted by staff within the Lean rooms. It is the work in progress that can be amended should it prove beneficial. Pending trays are not required because we do not expect staff to be taking work in such big numbers that they would be leaving cases on their desks unactioned. This process was designed following the staff feedback to ensure that they do not feel overloaded, and that T/Ls are able to monitor the flow of work more clearly.

aa) Lean works on a two tray system i.e. in and out and therefore staff should not have any additional trays on their desks.

hh & ii) A/L and how it is managed has not changed with Lean, as with any area it is dependant on business needs, with Lean the system however is more visual.

ll) In terms of staff accessing the racking, staff have all been advised that if there are any problems with people accessing the racking that it must be flagged up with their manager and the normal procedures in terms of Health and Safety will be followed.”

We will continue to meet Senior DCS Management on Lean and raise the issues you raise with us.

We have no intention of stopping raising points regardless of whether or not an individual manager believes that points are or are not relevant. (They did say that some of the Health and Safety points we raised were “petty” in the meeting, we do not agree).

PCS will continue to speak to members in the areas that have rolled out to establish your views.

Please also let Dean Rhodes, Jim Marsh or Grant McClure have any concerns as they arise.

If you have not yet joined PCS then please print, complete return the application form here.

Your New Representatives Post AGM of The Fylde Central Benefits and Services Branch

The purpose of this post is to advise members of your new team of representatives for the forthcoming period following the Branch Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 26th February 2009.

The following are the details of those recently elected (or re-elected) to serve the Fylde Central Benefits and Services Branch:

BRANCH OFFICERS
Martin Jones - Chair, 7130A NX, Ext: 63505
Grant McClure - Deputy Chair, C122A WH, Ext: 67400
Fred Claber - Vice Chair, PP18 Peel Park, Ext: 88127
Charlie Kingston - Vice Chair, 7143 NX, Ext: 62448
Duncan Griffiths - Secretary, 7233 NX, Ext: 63484
Emma Haslehurst - Deputy Secretary, C122A WH, Ext: 61186
Patricia Spencer - Deputy Secretary, PP23 Peel Park, Ext: 88292
Lee Wallace-Dand - Deputy Secretary, 7233 NX, Ext: 62796
Charles Hancock - Asst. Secretary (Dept. Directorates), 7233 NX, Ext: 63385
Dean Rhodes - Asst. Secretary (DCS), C122A WH, Ext: 61186
Bill Robison - Asst. Secretary (CSA), PP23 Peel Park, Ext: 88205
Jacqui Dunkerley - Treasurer, 7233 NX, Ext: 62882
Chris Wade - Asst. Treasurer, C122A WH, Ext: 67309
Michelle Kenyon - Organiser, C122A WH, Ext: 67424
Janice Gibbons - Deputy Organiser (Peel Park), PP03 Peel Park, Ext: 88622
Jon Colgan - Deputy Organiser (Norcross), 7143 NX, Ext: 63274
Katya Lawder - Deputy Organiser (Warbreck), C122A WH, Ext: 61186
Mick Daniels - Membership Officer, 7233 NX, Ext: 62881
Gloria Hodgkinson - Equal Opportunities’ Officer, C122A WH, Ext: 67714

BEC MEMBERS
Craig Barrett, Clare Bat Or, Andy Bates, Bridget Bottomley, Scott Burrows, Victor Carman, Julie Dare, Carl Erwin, Peter Hitchen, Dave Kearsley, Paul King, Graham Lyndhurst, Alistair Mitchell, Alison Morris, Clark Nuttall, Kevin O’Grady, Malcolm Phair, Tracey Pierce, Ian Powell, Dave Ray, Lloyd Williams.

LOCAL REPRESENTATIVES (NOT ON BEC)
Simon Clapham, Gregg Fothergill, Deborah Jones, Tony Manning, Jim Marsh, Joyce Mellor, David Nutter, Margaret Sykes, Sally Taylor-Hughes.

MEMBERS’ PERSONAL CASES
Emma Haslehurst and Michelle Kenyon (primarily Warbreck)
Jon Colgan (primarily Norcross and non CSA areas at Peel Park)
Fred Claber (primarily CSA)

Annual General Meeting Ballots

The purpose of this post is to inform members of the outcome of the ballots that took place up to and at the Branch Annual General Meeting on Thursday 26th February 2009 at the Cliffs Hotel Blackpool.

The votes were as follows, as counted by the tellers and verified by the auditors, and announced to the AGM were as follows:

Branch Officers

Chair
Martin Jones: 215 (of which 76 were postal votes)

Dave Kearsley: 84 (of which 14 were postal votes)

Martin Jones was therefore elected as Chair.

Deputy Chair
Victor Carman: 60 (of which 11 were postal votes)

Grant McClure: 238 (of which 82 were postal votes)

Grant McClure was therefore elected as Deputy Chair.

Secretary
Julie Dare: 81 (of which 10 were postal votes)

Duncan Griffiths: 217 (of which 81 were postal votes)

Duncan Griffiths was therefore elected as Branch Secretary

Deputy Organiser (Warbreck)

Katya Lawder: 212 (of which 80 were postal votes)

Malcolm Phair: 83 (of which 11 were postal votes)

Katya Lawder is therefore elected as Deputy Organiser for Warbreck.

Membership Officer

Mick Daniels was elected unopposed part way through the election as Denise MacCallum withdrew.

Equal Opportunities Officer

Julie Dare: 83 (of which 16 were postal votes)

Gloria Hodgkinson: 214 (of which 76 were postal votes)

Gloria Hodgkinson is therefore elected as Equal Opportunities.

Branch Executive Committee at Warbreck

Please note that the results for Mick Daniels (elected as Membership Officer), Katya Lawder (elected as Deputy Organiser) and Grant McClure (elected as Deputy Chair) are not included here, as they were elected as Officers.

BEC Elected
Craig Barrett = 108 (of which 21 were postal votes)

Dave Kearsley = 106 (of which 16 were postal votes)

Julie Dare = 102 (of which 17 were postal votes)

Graham Lyndhurst = 98 (of which 20 were postal votes)

Clark Nuttall = 97 (of which 17 were postal votes)

Malcolm Phair = 79 (of which 13 were postal votes)

Bridget Bottomley = 74 (of which 15 were postal votes)

Tracey Pierce = 71 (of which 12 were postal votes)

Alistair Mitchell = 67 (of which 6 were postal votes)

Dave Ray = 65 (of which 16 were postal votes)

Victor Carman = 63 (of which 7 were postal votes)

Carl Erwin = 61 (of which 12 were postal votes)

Not Elected

Denise MacCallum = 58 (of which 6 were postal votes)

Peter Windle = 54 (of which 9 were postal votes)

Sally Taylor – Hughes = 49 (of which 6 were postal votes)

Deborah Jones = 31 (of which 3 were postal votes)

National Conference Delegates

Elected

Grant McClure = 202

Martin Jones = 166

Chris Wade = 156

Emma Haslehurst = 118

Dave Kearsley = 117

Not elected

Michelle Kenyon = 113

Clare Bat Or = 84

DWP Group Conference Delegates

Elected

Grant McClure = 188

Gloria Hodgkinson = 161

Chris Wade = 147

Emma Haslehurst = 146

Michelle Kenyon = 138

Not Elected

Dave Kearley = 113
Clare Bat Or = 88

Mandating Meeting – For PCS National and DWP Group Conferences

The purpose of this post is to advise members of a General Meeting to mandate (i.e. instruct) delegates to the forthcoming PCS National and DWP Group Conferences.

Obviously as the manner in which delegates vote can influence PCS policy on a range of issues from Pay Bargaining to the way the union is run, this is an important meeting.

The details of the meeting are as follows:

Wednesday 13th May 2009
Warbreck Canteen
2.00pm

1½ hours facility time, plus reasonable travelling time, have been applied for you to attend the meeting. Please make every effort to do so.

If you require any further details please do not hesitate to Duncan Griffiths by email or on 01253 333484.