The Delegates third full day in Brighton saw the commencement of the National Conference with Union President, Janice Goodrich, giving her address to conference. In it she thanked the membership for the support in the campaigns against the Compensation scheme cuts and sent her and conferences best wishes to Mark Serwotka who is in hospital having tests for a heart problem. Mark will apparently review the events of the day in a DVD and in his absence Hugh Lanning (Deputy General Secretary) made the presentation of the 2010 PCS Annual Report and included references to the High Court victory.
Protecting public services was the heading for the first section of the day motion A1 was passed calling for a coalition of Public Sector Trade Unions to campaign together in common campaign activities. Joint action to protect public services being a major plank of this motion despite the failure of other Civil Service Unions in recent months to join with PCS in working towards our victory.
A624 took the collaborations of unions to the international level, calling for closer links and support with our sister unions in Greece where Public Sector workers are facing a struggle more desperate than our own in their current Economic Crisis. This motion was also passed as were A609 and A611. A609 dealt with outsourcing pilots in HMRC and A611 with the movement of responsibility for learning and skills to the CSCB and Cabinet Office.
Returning to the original schedule motion A3 was passed calling for a reversal of office closures and staff cuts and a reversal of the move towards offices based on telephony whilst realising that to achieve this may require industrial action.
Despite the new governments statement that National Identity Cards were to be scrapped before they came into existence conference passed A4 dealing with the jobs of those staff in IPS. DEFRA staff made redundant barely six months after being transferred to "Interserve" in 2009 led to motion A5 being passed calling for revised and effective guidance to be negotiated. The section closed on time and with all motions having been heard with A6 also passed calling for the wasted money spent using favoured contractors to provide services such as travel to be saved before jobs were cut.
High Lanning then addressed conference before the next session dealing with the Civil Service Compensation Scheme and Pensions. He told conference that when the victory was announced to members in the PCS flash text scheme the negotiators for the Cabinet office had to leave the room when they, who are PCS members themselves, received the message. He then outlined the next steps in the campaign to defend redundancy terms now that the Government are considering their response.
A647 recognised the necessity of maintaining pressure in the campaign especially with a new government no keener to negotiate with Civil Servants. Any new scheme will now have to be approved by a ballot of members as the motion was carried by the conference, as was motion A660 which called for legal and other challenges to recover the wages lost by staff that were forced to take strike action in response to the government's illegal actions.
A9 condemned the treatment of disabled staff under the scheme when they worked within "host" employers such as charities where the scheme limited their reckonable service because of this duality of employment. Carrying this motion and calling for negotiation of better treatment for disabled staff the section came to an end.
MP John McDonnell the head of the PCS parliamentary group then addressed the conference and used his annual address to not only report on the action of the group, the moves to include new MPs and grow the influence of it but also to launch his candidacy for the Labour Party leadership. John will need nominations from 33 Labour MPs to get his name on the ballot and all PCS members can help by contacting their MP (if a Labour one) and calling them to nominate John.
After the Lunch break Equality motions were debated.
A12 agreed that the establishment of PCS regional equality networks had proved vital in increasing the participation of members in passing the motion conference called for reasonable paid time off for members to attend these regional meetings.
A13 was also carried calling for equality proofing of all union goods and services to ensure that the marketing material members receive from PCS and its partner organisations.
A14 committed conference to inviting the authors of "The Spirit Level" to attend meetings and to publicise their findings to members.
A15 was lost when voted upon, it called for the NEC to be censured for failing to implement last year's Motion A47. The Branch intervened on this motion to oppose it in an impromptu speech before motions A277, A18 and A19 were carried, these motions called for a return to access to Access to Work for employees in the civil service, an end to discrimination in the PRP system for Senior Civil Servants and for the NEC to report back on and publicise the inequalities in the Civil Service across all Government departments.
Following this section Commercial Sector matters were discussed.
Martin intervened on A25 calling on the NEC to report how it intends to organise in the PCS Commercial Sector and how improvements to conditions of services could be achieved. The practices of in-shoring and out-shoring of Civil Service jobs were addressed and condemned in Motions A26 and A27. Both were carried before Charles moved the branch's motion on pay in BBW which was also carried by conference.
The last two motions in the section A29 and A30 were remitted to the NEC to address wages for outsourced work and the secrecy sometimes imposed by employers in negotiations about redundancy.
The communications awards were then presented, see the PCS website for more details, before conference moved onto the last section of the day Personnel Policy.
A31 called on the NEC to negotiate for a clear policy dealing with medical retirement, while A320 called for sick absences to be removed from the disciplinary and dismissal procedures. Both motions were carried as was A32 calling for an end to the discriminatory Civil Service Fast Track scheme and A33 calling for recognition for carers employed by Government departments.
The last motion of the day to be heard was A585 which was carried although the fairness for Apprentices in Government Departments was well on the way to being achieved in pre-existing negotiations.
Leaving the conference hall the delegation headed off through the mists of Brighton to fringe meetings supporting victimised reps and to prepare the speeches for tomorrow.
Written by Chris Wade
