Minister's snub to bereaved families

The government's health and safety minister has refused to meet with representatives of the families of people killed at work. Employment minister Chris Grayling, who pushed through unprecedented funding cuts to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and demanded a dramatic reduction in proactive enforcement by the safety watchdog, has rejected requests for a meeting from Families Against Corporate Killing (FACK), to hear their views about his workplace safety strategy.

The group, which was founded by relatives of those killed at work, said in snubbing them the minister has exposed his intention to 'ease the burden on employers' without taking account of the far greater burden borne by families and the public purse as a result of criminal health and safety failings at work. FACK first wrote to Mr Grayling on 6 May to request an audience, arguing that 'there seems to have been no attempt to contact, involve or consult those harmed by work - injured and made ill - or the families of those killed by gross negligence.'

In response the minister said that he regretted that 'diary commitments mean I am unable to meet with you at the current time'. He has found time for meetings with other organisations, including business groups - and told campaigners including FACK members who doorstepped him at the DWP HQ on Workers' Memorial Day 'my door is always open'.

FACK founder Linzi Herbertson said: 'FACK families are utterly disgusted with Chris Grayling's refusal to meet with us about the effects of the cuts he is proposing to the already inadequate health and safety system which allowed people we love to be killed just for going to work.' She added that the minister was more interested in 'listening to the false accounting of the business lobby.'

Victims made to pay in new offenders bill

Victims of occupational injuries or diseases will be unable to afford a compensation claim or will have to pay the legal costs as a result of a proposed law introduced this week by the government.

The TUC says provisions in the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill to switch the cost on personal injury cases from those who negligence caused the problem to the victims will not deliver a saving to the government but 'will simply line the pockets of insurers.' The Bill will do away with Conditional Fee (CFA) or 'No Win No Fee' agreements. These currently allow all legal costs, including the solicitor's success fee, to be recovered from the negligent defendant.

Under the proposed new law, the injury or disease victim will be expected to give up 25 per cent of their compensation to meet his or her legal costs, even in cases where the defendant has been grossly negligent. The draft law leaves open the possibility for victims who lose cases to be required to pay legal costs incurred by the employer. The changes have been criticised by unions and work injury and disease victims' advocates.

TUC head of safety Hugh Robertson commented: 'This bill will mean that many workers who suffer an occupational injury or disease will no longer be able to afford to make claims against their employer or, if they do manage to fund a case, will find their damages reduced. It is a blatant assault on victims and will simply line the pockets of insurers.'

Tony Whitston, chair of the Asbestos Victims Support Groups' Forum UK, said dying workers are being 'told that they must carry the risks of suing for compensation', adding 'isn't the risk of losing their lives enough?' He said the reality of the 'shameful attack' is only negligent firms and insurers will benefit from the government proposals. 'The fact is that many frail and terminally ill sufferers will no longer sue for compensation, fearing more uncertainty and stress of litigation,'he said. The union Unite said there were other damaging changes in the proposed law, estimating 650,000 people 'could be denied legal aid and advice to help them with housing, employment and immigration problems.'

PCS INDUSTRIAL ACTION

ALL OUT ON 30th JUNE 2011

Then a Civil Service wide overtime ban throughout July 2011

The purpose of this post is to inform members of the strike action on the 30th June 2011 to be followed by a Civil Service wide overtime ban.

PCS has done everything possible to negotiate a solution to the Civil Service Compensation Scheme, the Pay Freeze, and our Pensions however to date there has not been an acceptable outcome from the Government.

We have already witnessed over two thousand job losses from the Fylde economy due to the job cuts in the area and even more are now in jeopardy, we have seen our pay frozen (and unlike other areas of the Public Sector our Pay Progression isn’t separately funded meaning that we are treated even more unfairly than other public servants), our Pensions are under attack (we are being expected to pay more for our pensions, work longer and receive less) and our redundancy terms are being cut so that it is cheaper to get rid of us.

We are being asked to pay for the financial mess created by the bankers and the financial speculators and spivs, with our jobs, our pay, our pensions and our conditions of service. The financial mess was none of our making. It’s their financial mess make them pay for it.

It is time for members to show that they oppose the notion of being forced to pay for the excesses of the spivs.

Our reasonable demands are:

• No detrimental changes to our pensions and our redundancy payments
• Application and strengthening on the protocols to avoid redundancy
• An end to the pay freeze and a fair pay rise for all members

JOIN YOUR COLLEAGUES ON STRIKE ON THE 30th JUNE 2011 AND SUPPORT THE FOLLOWING CIVIL SERVICE WIDE OVERTIME BAN THROUGHOUT JULY

Potential Members
If you have not yet joined your Union, please consider doing so and complete the form here and return to Room 7233, Norcross.

Rally for the Alternative - Blackpool!

Blackpool Against the Cuts will be holding a Rally for the Alternative on:

3.30pm, Thursday 30th June

The Rally will be held at St John’s Square, Blackpool Town Centre. Please come along and offer your support for the alternative – Tax Justice, not slashing the terms and conditions of public sector workers.

North West Rallies - 30th June 2011

PCS North West Regional Office has provided details of several rallies being organised in the North West for the strike day taking place on June 30th.

The flyer advertising the events can be found here.

***update***

There is now an event in Blackpool, click here.

Pensions - Update

Have you checked the online PCS Pensions Calculator?
We urge all members to check the PCS online Pensions Calculator to see how much more you will have to pay, work longer and receive less. The calculator can be found here.

Millions of workers, who were already facing meagre average annual pension income of less than £5,000 in many cases, will have to work longer and pay more for far less in retirement. The calculations used in the PCS Pensions Calculator are taken from government proposals which are based on the Hutton report.

The calculator provides members of the three main civil service schemes: Classic, Premium and Nuvos with estimates of how much the government’s proposed pension changes could cost them between now and their retirement. Many people face a doubling or tripling of contributions and might have to work longer because of the raising of the pension age from 60 to 65 and then to 68. For the average worker that could mean paying an extra £50.00+ a month at a time when there is a pay freeze.

PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka explains: “These figures show the scale of the pensions’ robbery facing millions of people across the UK. Many people on low incomes will lose money they can ill afford to each month as their contributions could more than double or even triple. Thousands of people will also lose out; because of the switch from RPI to CPI indexation.

The cuts are unnecessary; our pension schemes are affordable and sustainable. The proposed huge increase in contributions will go straight into the coffers of the Treasury to pay off the deficit caused by the finance sector. We need action to stop this pensions robbery, to stop the job cuts, and the pay freeze. There is an alternative: create jobs to grow the economy and collect the £120 billion in tax evaded, avoided and uncollected each year.”

For examples of the extra you may have to pay each month please below:

A larger version of the image can be found here.

The above are examples only and use DWP imposed 2011/12 salary rates. Those in the Premium and Nuvos scheme tend to lose even more. Check the PCS Web Site yourself to find out how much you could lose!

NUT Rally - Lancaster

The following has been supplied by NW Regional Office:

Lancaster, Morecambe & District NUT have arranged a couple of events:

Thursday 23rd June
Open Public Meeting at Lancaster Town Hall, 7pm-9pm
Speakers: Kevin Courtney (NUT), Bob Wareing (ATL), UCU, PCS, NHS, etc.

Thursday 30th June
Rally and March; assemble 11am in Market Square, Lancaster with live music, stalls, street theatre, balloons.

All are invited to both events.

The Lancashire NUT website can be found here.

War on Want - Fest-Watch

War on Want will be present at many of the festivals across the UK this summer.

For further details check out their page here.

How Much Will YOU Lose?

PCS have prepared a calculator for the three Civil Service Pension schemes to show how much you will lose over your career (if you have a job) by the changes the Government intend to impose.

The calculators can be found here and it is suggested that everyone uses them to find out exactly how the Governments impositions will effect individuals income both directly in their wage packet and in the future for their pensions.

Pay 2011 Q&A

The members’ meetings on the DWP Pay offer are ongoing here is a questions and answers brief from PCS DWP Group:

Q: I am aware of the Pay Freeze, but how much is the real value of my pay falling?

A: A lot. The rate of inflation for May was 5.2% RPI (4.5% CPI). Set against this almost half of the DWP workforce get no increase and the rest an increase of less than 2.5%. Nobody gets any progression. This is also the fifth year of pay restraint in DWP. Had the EO maximum not been held down since 2007 and then frozen for two years it would be worth over £2,500 more now.

Q: What about the government’s pension changes?

A: In addition to the rapidly rising cost of living members will need to consider the increase in employee pension contribution of at least 3% which the government intends to introduce from April 2012. This will reduce your take home pay by roughly the equivalent of losing a day’s pay every month. For a personal illustration of how this could affect you - use the pension calculator on the PCS website.

Q: Is it true that the non-consolidated end of year bonus now costs more than the pay increase?

A: Yes. The pay offer is worth £30 million and the end of year bonus is worth £52 million. The money is used to allow non-consolidated and non-pensionable payments to be made to staff earning above £21,000 full-time equivalent, but the employer insists it must be performance related. Despite the opposition of the unions it is distributed on the basis of a 2 to 1 share to staff in receipt of “consistently good” and “wholly exceptional” markings. This means the small number receiving the top box marking get twice as much as those whose performance is rated as “consistently good”. This represents a huge increase in the proportion of pay costs that are performance related and sets a very undesirable precedent.

Q: What is the union’s attitude to performance related pay?

A: It is wrong in principle to claim to reward high performance when the money comes out of the pockets of those whose performance is consistently good. Improved performance is only really possible when everyone contributes. A carrot on a stick may be ok for donkeys but not civil servants. In practice performance related pay can be shown to discriminate against staff for other reasons. Full diversity and equality data is not yet available but on the emerging figures seen by pay negotiators there has been little or no improvement in the outcomes which made part-time staff, ethnic minority staff, and staff with a disability less likely to be awarded the top marking last year.

Q: Do all staff with the qualifying box marks get an end of year bonus payment?

A: No. Staff must also be in post on 1st July 2011. This year, significant numbers of staff who can claim to have earned a bonus through their People performance marking are excluded, such as those taking an exit package whose last day of service is 30th June, and anyone terminating at the end of an FTA before 1st July 2011. PCS negotiators have made this point to management repeatedly but to no avail.

Q: Do unsatisfactory performers get a pay award?

A: No. As in previous years in addition to exclusion from the end of year bonus staff marked as unsatisfactory in the 2010/11 People Performance report will not receive any consolidated increase. This applies even if their pay falls below the range minimum. There is provision for the award to be paid if performance improves.

Blackpool Against Cuts

A reminder that the next meetings of Blackpool Against Cuts are on the 21st and 28th of June, both metings are at the LMS Loco Club, Back Ribble Road, Blackpool, FY1 4AB (map here).

The meetings will run between 6:30 PM and 7:45 PM.

Any agenda items for 21st by the morning of the June 20th please. Agenda items can be sent to Andy Boylan.

It's Yes and Yes - Ballot Results

The purpose of this post is to inform members of the outcome of the National ballot on the Pay freeze, Civil Service Compensation Scheme, Pensions changes and the campaign to defend members’ jobs, and pay in the Civil Service (including the DWP/ CSA on the Fylde).

The ballot closed on 15th June 2011 and the results were as follows:

Question 1 – Are you prepared to take part in Strike Action
Number of members voting: YES = 61% NO = 39%

Question 2 – Are you prepared to take part in Industrial Action Short of a Strike
Number of members voting: YES = 84% NO = 16%

It is important that members write to their MPs so that they will (hopefully) realise the depth of feeling of the membership. It can make a difference. We have previous circulated model letters on the issues to send to your MP.

You may also want to visit this site which looks at the impact on your pension.

The Branch website will be updated with information during the next stages of the campaign.

We believe it is vital that all members support the campaign and get actively involved.

DWP PAY 2011 - Meetings

Members Information/Ballot Meetings
The purpose of this post is to advise members of a forthcoming round of information meetings to discuss the DWP pay offer.

The details of the meetings are as follows:

Thursday 16th June 2011
Warbreck Canteen
2:15 pm

Friday 17th June 2011
Norcross Canteen
10:00 am

Monday 20th June 2011
Peel Park - The Lecture Theatre
13:30 pm

Wednesday 22nd June 2011
Warbreck Canteen
10.00 am

Carer's Week

AgeUK promote a carer's week each year. The branch Equal Opportunities Officer has arranged for a stall to be set up at Warbreck House in the canteen providing information on caring related issues members may face and directions in which they can turn for assistance and advice.

More information can be found on the website at the link above.

The Warbreck stalls will be available on the 16th and 17th of June from 11.30am to 2.00pm in the Canteen.

There will be information available on: Maternity Rights, Law on age discrimination, Parental leave, Paternity Leave, Flexible working options, Elder care, Time off for Dependants and Carers and The Equality Bill.

For more information please contact Gloria Hodgkinson by email or on x67714.

National Pensioners Convention

The NPC have embarked on a campaign to get one of their representatives to appear on Question Time.

You can read more about it here.

The NPC are holding their Pensioner's Parliament from the 14th to the 16th of June, the draft agenda can be viewed below:

NPC Pensioners' Parliament
14-16 June 2011
Draft Programme

Tuesday 14 June

1.00pm
March to the Winter Gardens

2.00-4.00pm
Official opening of the NPC Pensioners' Parliament, Opera House Rally with a range of guest speakers

---

Wednesday 15th June

10.00am-12noon
Question Time with Steve Webb, Pensions Minister followed by panel discussion
Delegates have been asked to send in questions for this session

2.00pm-4.00pm
Older people and the Big Society
This session will discuss the government's Big Society and what it means for older people in light of cuts to public spending

The future of the NHS
This session will consider the changes being proposed to the NHS, what impact they could have on older people and what can be done

Engaging with policy makers across the UK
This session will hear examples from the four countries in the UK of how older people are getting their views across to those in power

Social evening with The Bachelors

---

Thursday 16 June

10.00am-11.30am
Age Equality - are we there yet?
This session will look at the new Equality Act and how it will affect older people

The vision of social care
This session will consider the latest proposals for how care should be funded, the quality of the services people receive, the use of individual budgets and the rights of older people to be protected from abuse

The ongoing campaign for concessionary travel
This session will look at how the government's spending cuts are impacting on services for older people and the campaign to improve public transport

11.45am-12.30pm
NPC Report
The NPC will report on its work and campaigns over the last year and outline what challenges older people face

Keynote Speech: Mark Serwotka, General Secretary, PCS

Important Notice regarding the Branch Hardship Fund

The Branch has set up a Hardship fund to support members who have encountered financial hardship as a result of taking strike action.

The term financial hardship means for example that you need cash for a prescription but no longer have the funds to pay for the prescription.

If you wish to make a claim to the Branch hardship funds then please contact the Branch Office for more information or fill in the hardship fund application form here and send it to the address supplied.

PCS Opposes DWP’s refusal to pay redundancy compensation to FTA’s

PCS has been arguing that any FTA member of staff, who has 2 or more years service, should be entitled to financial compensation at the time that their contract is ended.

The Civil Service Compensation Scheme rules state:

"As long as the fixed term employee has at least 2 years qualifying service and is being dismissed for redundancy, they will receive the same compulsory compensation terms as a permanent member."

PCS believes that every FTA who has their contract ended at the contract end date, or at the end of any contract extension period, is being dismissed for redundancy. We therefore have put to DWP that every FTA with at least 2 years qualifying service should be entitled to compensation when their contract ends.

Unfortunately DWP has refused to accept this. Instead they have argued that they took FTA’s on to do a set period of work and are terminating the FTA’s at their due contract end date. In legal terms they maintain that this termination at the contract end date isfor ‘some other substantial reason’ and not a redundancy situation. As a result they maintain they do not have to pay redundancy compensation.

PCS does not accept DWP’s position on this issue. We are currently taking legal advice to clarify the position and assess what our next steps should be.

PCS will be issuing further guidance and advice to reps and members as soon as possible.