STRIKE SUSPENDED
A strike by our members across DWP and Defra shared services has been suspended after we negotiated protections for staff.
The following has been provided by PCS HQ:
The staff working in HR, procurement and finance face having their jobs transferred on Friday (1 November) to Shared Service Centre Limited (SSCL), in which the government retains a 25% share and multinational Steria owns 75%.
They took strongly supported action across six sites last week to oppose the outsourcing of jobs and services.
Steria had declared its intention to cut staff and offshore work within 12 months of the transfer date but the action drove the multinational back to the negotiating table where we secured further protections for staff and slowed down the delivery of the project.
As a result no sites will close for at least a year, and there is a special commitment from Defra that Alnwick and York offices will continue to operate as they are for at least 20 months after the transfer.
Protections
The talks led to an agreement of:
- No offshoring of any functions for at least a year
- No material changes for at least six months, including compulsory redundancy
- Steria committing to take reasonable steps to avoid compulsory redundancies for two-year transformation period.
- Guarantees that staff will remain in their current pension scheme with no change to contributions or benefits.
- No site closures for at least 12 months.
We will continue to fight privatisation plans and represent members' interests.
