...Your Help is Needed.
Dear
Colleagues,
We
are asking that all members write to the leaderships of the councils regarding
the closure of the DWP Norcross site, and the fact that the redundancy process
has now commenced for some members who are employed by the DWP’s contractors.
When the DWP Norcross site
was announced to be closed on 27th
June 2012 PCS warned
about the dangers of job losses and redundancies in the DWP and particularly in
the DWP’s contractors areas. We doubted that all the jobs will be maintained in the Fylde if
one very large site closes.
We
asked the employer for assurances about all the DWP jobs and those of the
contractors including, IT support, Catering, Messengerial, Security, and
cleaners. We could not get a “no job losses assurance” for the DWP’s
contractors.
When we met
with the leadership of the Wyre Council on 28th May 2012 they were adamant that the
guarantee of no job losses included the DWP’s contractors (catering,
messengers, van drivers, security, cleaners etc). We explained to them who the
contractors were and the type of work that they did and asked if they were
absolutely sure that what they had was a “no job losses guarantee” in the DWP
and including the DWP’s contractors. They indicated that they were but would
check with the DWP.
As soon as
the announcement was made the DWP’s official position in their manager’s brief
and as reported in the media was “we will work with our suppliers and service
partners to help seek redeployment opportunities for the individuals
affected.” This is nowhere near to being a “no job losses guarantee” that
the Councils Leadership publicly announced.
The DWP’s
contractors employing privatised former Civil Servants in some areas, such as MITIE
cleaning have commenced the redundancy process and have started pre redundancy
meetings with their staff.
