DCS (still applicable in the AAU) FWH agreement

We have had a number of members requesting a copy of the DCS (still applicable in the AAU) FWH agreement. It can be found here.

Nominations and AGM 2014

Dear Colleagues

BRANCH AGM, THURSDAY 27th FEBRUARY 2014

This year’s Annual General Meeting will be held at:

The Little Theatre, Thornton (commencing at 1.15 pm.)

The Agenda for the AGM will be sent to you nearer the time, but you should make a note of this date NOW.

I hope you will attend, not only to elect those who will represent you in 2014, but also to vote on making Union policy. This meeting is your opportunity to vote on issues which affect YOU.

A full list of valid nominations for Branch appointments is shown below.

I look forward to seeing you there on 27th February 2014.

Yours sincerely

DUNCAN GRIFFITHS
Branch Secretary

Nominations
The following nominations for Branch appointments were received by the closing date at 12 Noon on Wednesday 29th January 2014.

Chair - Grant McClure
Vice Chair - Charles Hancock
Branch Secretary - Duncan Griffiths
Branch Deputy Secretary - Lee Wallace-Dand
Asst Branch Secretary (OSN) - Carl Erwin
Asst Branch Secretary (Corp Centre/Shared Services) - Jon Colgan
Asst Branch Secretary (CMG) Bill Robison
Treasurer - Jacqui Dunkerley
Organiser - Mick Daniels
Deputy Organiser (two posts) - Katya Lawder, Clare Bat Or
Equal Opportunities Officer - Alistair Mitchell
Young Members’ Officer - No Nominations
Branch Auditors (2) - Diane Noblett, No second nomination

Conference Delegates
National Conference (5 to be elected) - Jon Colgan, Jacqui Dunkerley, Grant McClure, Alistair Mitchell and Garry Wild.
DWP Group Conference (5 to be elected) - Jon Colgan, Jacqui Dunkerley, Grant McClure, Alistair Mitchell and Garry Wild

Where the prescribed number of nominations were received the officers above have been duly elected unopposed.

Other Positions 
Branch Women’s Committee (12 to be elected) - No Nominations

The following vacancies can be filled by candidates nominated at the AGM:

1. Branch Officer (Young Members’ Officer)
2. Branch Auditor
3. Branch Women’s Committee (12 posts)

Please attend and exercise your democratic rights as a member.

Holocaust Memorial Day

The following has been supplied by our Branch Officer Alistair Mitchell:

Every year on 27 January we mark Holocaust Memorial Day by remembering the millions of people killed in the Holocaust.

Between 1941 and 1945, the Nazis attempted to annihilate all of Europe’s Jews. From the time they assumed power in 1933, the Nazis used propaganda, persecution, and legislation to deny human and civil rights to Jews. They used centuries of anti-semitism as their foundation. They introduced legislation intended to deny Jews freedom and restrict their rights. Boycotts of Jewish doctors, lawyers and shops began in 1933 and by 1935 Jews were not allowed to join the civil service or the army. The introduction of the Nuremberg laws in September 1935 further increased Jewish marginalisation. Jews were banned from marrying non-Jews and their citizenship was removed, including their right to vote. As time progressed, more restrictions were brought in – Jews were barred from all professional occupations and Jewish children were prohibited from attending state schools. In 1938, further laws decreed that men must take the middle name ‘Israel’ and women ‘Sarah’. All German Jews would have their passports marked with a ‘J’. Jews were not allowed to sit on park benches, go to swimming pools or the theatre or cinema.

As Jews had more and more of their rights taken away from them, some of them packed their suitcases and tried to leave the country. Some parents decided to send their children away to safety, through a programme known as the Kindertransport.

The Kindertransport was a unique programme which ran between November 1938 and September 1939. Approximately 10,000 children, the majority of whom were Jewish, were sent from their homes and families in Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia to Great Britain to escape from Nazi Germany. Strict conditions were placed upon the entry of the children and every child had to have a guarantee of £50 to finance his or her eventual re-emigration. Many of the children did not see their families again.

The first concentration camp was established at Dachau on 23 March 1933. As the Nazis captured more territory through wartime invasions, the camp system was greatly expanded and used as a tool in the creation of a single-race state.  The Nazis created thousands of camps – including forced labour, transit, and extermination camps throughout German-occupied territories.
Camp inmates were often subject to forced labour, overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, starvation and cruel treatment, with a high death rate resulting from the poor conditions.

After initial attempts to commit mass murder through shootings and mobile killing units proved ‘inefficient’, the Nazis extended the camp system to include six extermination camps: Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Chełmno, Majdanek, Sobibor, and Treblinka.  Their purpose was to carry out genocide – using gas chambers.

By the end of the Holocaust, six million Jewish men, women and children had perished in ghettos, mass-shootings, in concentration camps and extermination camps.

Local Legal Option – Another Option

The Fylde Central Benefits and Services Branch priority over the forthcoming period will be to ensure that the collective campaigning work continues (job cuts, site closures, pensions, pay etc). We issued a circular about this is November 2012.

We are aware that members have many employment law issues surrounding the job cuts, redundancies, contractual issues, wrongful dismissal, unfair dismissal and discrimination. 

PCS Legal support 
PCS personal case and legal link: http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/resources/legal_toolkit/index.cfm 

In the first instance for employment law issues members are directed to the Branch. It is then for the Branch to refer (if appropriate) for legal support through PCS (often Thompsons legal services). PCS also have a Personal Injury Compensation Scheme and you may be able to seek legal redress and financial compensation if it is a workplace health issue, or if you have had an accident at work. 

The attached link provides details: http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/resources/legal_toolkit/personal-injury.cfm 

Options if particularly the employment/ contractual legal advice is not positive and the PCS solicitors believe that there isn’t reasonable prospect of success. 
 We are aware that there have been several occasions when unfortunately PCS legal advice has been to not pursue the case (especially employment/ contractual law issues). Please also remember that there is often a three month time limit in which to make a claim to an Employment Tribunal.

We have been asked on several occasions what can be done next in terms of private local legal support. We have always informed members that if they want to approach a solicitor personally then they can do so (or in cases of dismissal check to see if their home or credit insurance covers for legal services).

We obviously cannot recommend one law firm over another in these circumstances and would recommend that PCS members consider using the PCS legal support options in the first instance. 

Local Legal Option – A New Option that you may wish to consider (if the PCS legal support has been exhausted) 
We have been approached by a former Branch Officer, who is now a fully trained and functioning solicitor working in employment law. They have informed the Branch that they are prepared to offer the following members of PCS Fylde Central Benefits and Services members.

1. Free initial legal advice at their first 20 minutes appointment.
2. Discount rates for those members who wish to pursue their employment matter further

If you wish to pursue your employment matter via this route then please visit the following website and complete the employment matter referral form. 

gdasolicitors.co.uk 

This is not a recommendation from the Branch and we would recommend that all members consider all the options if they do feel that they want to privately take forward an employment law matter. Please note that other options are available.

In the current climate we thought that the above option may be of interest to members.

Unite Against Fascism Blackpool Meeting

Nick Griffin Must Go!

Unite Against Fascism Blackpool Meeting
Friday 17th January , 6.00pm
Blackpool Town Hall, Committee Room E

Speakers include:

• Gordon Marsden MP
• Paul Jenkins [North West Regional Organiser, UAF]

At the European Elections on 22nd May, fascist BNP leader Nick Griffin only needs around 7.5% of the vote to keep his seat as Member of the European Parliament for the North West Region.

We do not want our region to continue to be represented in Europe by a fascist and a Holocaust Denier.  Unite Against Fascism launched the Nick Griffin Must Go campaign in 2011, supported by Trades Unions, MPs, MEPS, Councillors and others.

Come to the meeting and join the discussion on how we can stop the fascist BNP leader from being re-elected.

Supporters of UAF’s Nick Griffin Must Go campaign include: UNISON Blackpool Local Government branch; Gordon Marsden MP; Arlene McCarthy MEP; Brian Simpson MEP; Blackpool Councillors: Chris Maughan, Martin Mitchell, Mark Smith, Christine Wright; Gerry Gable [Editor, Searchlight Magazine] and others. 

For more information, please contact northwest@uaf.org.uk or 0750 737 3609

George Osborne wants your pension

The following details have been supplied by the TUC:
The Chancellor’s December 2013 budget delivered a crumb of safety comfort but accompanied it with some devastating news for your prospects of ever living to see your pension.

George Osborne announced the government will extend the exemption from taxation on medical treatments recommended by employer-arranged occupational health services, with an anticipated £500 limit on the costs. This will be in addition to treatments recommended by the new Health and Work Service, which starts later this year.

This means that those workers who are lucky enough to have an employer who is willing to refer them to a physio or other type of therapist is no longer going to find themselves issued with a big tax bill. But a big budget cut to the Health and Safety Executive’s parent ministry, DWP, may well mean even further cuts in the HSE budget on top of a 35 per cent cut over the last four years.

But it is the government’s plans for a staged increase in the state pension age to 70 that will be guaranteed bad news for many.

Life expectancy at birth for males in Kensington and Chelsea (one of the richest boroughs in the country) is 85.1, and 89.8 for females. In Glasgow, men’s expectancy is 71.6 and women’s is 78. That means that Glasgow men die 14 years earlier than their well-heeled Kensington and Chelsea counterparts.

Average pay for men in the London borough in 2011 was over three and a half times that of a man in Glasgow (£87,516 compared to £23,356). So if the pension age is raised to 70 the average Glaswegian man might expect to be able to claim it for just over a year.

According to TUC head of safety Hugh Robertson: “It is not just a geographical split. It is also a work one. How many construction workers are going to be able to continue until they are 70? Those that have not succumbed to the much higher rates of cancer that plague construction workers will almost certainly have had to stop working long before then because of musculoskeletal disorders like back, hip or knee problems.”

Government cuts heighten flood dangers

The following details have been supplied by the TUC:
Cuts to essential Environment Agency (EA) jobs will dramatically reduce the country’s ability to respond to floods and other extreme weather emergencies, unions have said.

The warning, coming as large stretches of the country remained flood affected, has received support from MPs. Conservative MP Anne McIntosh, chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) Select Committee, this week warned: “Recent flooding events reinforce our concerns about cuts to the Defra budget. It is a small ministry facing massive cuts. Ministers must clarify how further budgets will impact on... the ability of the department to respond to emergencies.” She noted that EA, the frontline flood defence body funded by the environment department Defra, is set to lose 1,700 jobs by October, on top of 1,150 jobs lost since 2009: a total of 23 per cent of the workforce.

UNISON said the job cuts were “potentially catastrophic” in the wake of a series of devastating storms that have caused enormous damage to the UK's flood defences.  UNISON national officer for EA, Matthew Lay, said: “Staff in the Agency have worked day and night to keep communities safe and prevent flood damage, and work tirelessly to support those devastated by the aftermath. The government can't have it both ways, praising the sterling work of members in the Agency but at the same time imposing further damaging cuts.”

Prospect deputy general secretary Leslie Manasseh said his members in EA management were being “forced to focus on how to make cuts, diverting them from their vital work providing flood warnings, repairing damage, maintaining flood defences and planning ahead for future crises of this nature.”

GMB national officer Justin Bowden said frontline staff would be affected, adding: “The public need to know that job losses on this scale will impact directly on flood risk management, on flood defence operations teams managing flood defences and carrying out river maintenance to enables flows to be conveyed away, enhancing the river's ecology and supporting fish stocks.”

Public Meeting is Deffence of the NHS

The following has been supplied by Blackpool Against the Cuts:

Public Meeting is Defence of the NHS 

Wednesday 22nd January - 7.30pm

The Ruskin Hotel, Albert Road, Blackpool
Guest speaker: Dr David Wrigley, plus other speakers.

Please make every effort to attend.

We need your support.

 
Blackpool against the cuts
The NHS has always been funded by us the tax payer and maintained by generations of health workers.

The Health & Social care act has started to privatise local health care.

Now the NHS is to be parcelled off to private equity companies whose only interest is a healthy profit.

A third of GPs’ on GPp consortia’s are either on the board of private companies or have a conflict of interest.

Huge cuts are closing A&E departments.

Essential and basic services are being undermined across the uk.

The previous government funded new hospitals via PFI so the NHS will have to pay over £50 billion for hospitals worth £8 billion for the next 30 years.

Private sector firms involved in PFI will benefit from a 540% return on initial investments.

The NHS is facing a decrease in funding, staff are facing job cuts, wards are closing and patient are facing delays.

PFI has put a stranglehold on the finances of many hospitals making it difficult to balance their budgets.
 
This Con-Dem Government is killing our NHS and allowing greedy corporate vultures to feed on the carcass.  Don’t let this happen, please come to the meeting and find out how you can help. 

FTA Redundancy Compensation

The following details have been supplied by PCS DWP Group:
Do you know any ex-FTA Members that this might apply to?

In February 2013 PCS took DWP to an Employment Tribunal (ET) to secure redundancy compensation for our ex-Fixed Term Appointment (FTA) members who were dismissed without compensation when their FTA contracts were ended after two or more years of qualifying service. PCS won the tribunal and redundancy compensation payments have now begun to be paid to these ex-FTA members.

Hundreds of ex-FTA members have already claimed their redundancy compensation and are receiving their payments. However we believe that there is still a large number of ex-FTA members who have not yet claimed their redundancy compensation. As DWP will not pay the compensation unless the ex-FTA members apply for it, we need to do everything possible to ensure we contact as many of the ex-FTA members as possible and encourage them to apply.

Criteria
Do you know any ex-FTA members who satisfy the criteria for redundancy compensation.The key criteria are:

• The FTA must have had at least two years of qualifying service. Please note that qualifying service excludes any periods of unpaid absence or unauthorised absence and this particularly impacts members who were employed for exactly two years.
• The FTA must have been dismissed at the end of their contract and not have resigned or left for another reason.
• The FTA must not have been re-employed in another government department within 28 days of their dismissal from DWP. If they were reemployed in another government department between 28 days and 6 months of their dismissal any compensation would be reduced.

The compensation available is calculated as one month’s pay for each year of service. As the civil service compensation scheme uses the figure of £23,000 to calculate the minimum salary of staff, this means that two years of qualifying service is worth at least £3,833 in compensation. This figure increases for any FTA who had longer than two years service.

Contact FTA Members
PCS wants to ensure that as many of our ex-FTA members receive the compensation payment that they are entitled to. PCS DWP Group office has contacted every FTA who had registered their interest with us and hundreds of these FTA’s have now been paid their compensation. However we believe there are still a large number of ex-FTA members who are unaware that they may be entitled to compensation.

If you know an ex-FTA members who has not been contacted previously by PCS and who may be eligible then please contact the Branch Office.

TUC BLACK WORKERS’ CONFERENCE 2014 - NOMINATIONS TO PCS DELEGATION

The following has been supplied by the PCS Equality, Pay and Policy Department:
The TUC Black Workers’ Conference will be held on Friday 11 April to Sunday 13 April 2014.

The venue will be TUC, Congress House, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3LS.

PCS uses ‘black’ in the political context to encompass members from African, Caribbean, Asian, Chinese, Arabic etc, backgrounds.

The timings of the conference sessions are as follows:

Friday 11th April, 2pm – 5.30pm

Saturday 12th April, 9.30am – 5.30pm

Sunday 13th April, 9.15am – 1.00pm

PCS delegation
PCS will send a delegation to the conference. The complement of the delegation will be NEC members, the NBMC Secretary, nominees standing for election to the TUC Race Committee and branch nominees. The total number of the delegation will be eight. Eligible branch members are entitled to self nominate. An application form (here) MUST be used when applying for consideration. Applicants should also fill in and return the equality monitoring form here.

Branch Secretaries are therefore asked to bring this circular to the attention of eligible members.

Roles and responsibilities
TUC Equality Conferences are important. They provide opportunities for PCS to build support for the union’s campaigns. The Equality TUC Conferences are not primarily a learning event. Conference business is concerned with the debating of policy motions submitted by affiliated unions.

All selected candidates are expected to participate fully in conference proceedings by speaking on at least one motion or ask a question about the progress of adopted policy reported in the TUC Black Workers Conference annual report. Delegates are required to attend for the full duration of conference.
 
PCS delegation meeting
There will be a pre conference PCS delegation meeting on Friday 11 April 2014. The meeting will be used to support delegates and advise on any developments or policies and answer queries relating to the conference.

Selection criteria

• The criteria for selection of delegates will be:
• The need to achieve a wide mix of union groups and employers
• The need to have a reasonable geographical spread
• The need to encourage more people to take an active role alongside existing experience.
• A representative mix of based on gender, sexual orientation, age and disability.

Supporting statements
In considering applications, great weight will be attached to the reasons given for wanting to be a delegate to this important event. So applicants should spend some time outlining their reasons.

Deadline for receipt of nominations
Please ensure that nominations are emailed to Pav Alam National Equality Officer at pav@pcs.org.uk by the closing date of Tuesday 14 January 2014 (mid-day). No nominations will be taken after mid-day on 14 January 2014.

Accommodation, travel and subsistence
Accommodation will be booked in for the PCS delegation. Accommodation, travel and subsistence will be paid from central funds.

To save on costs, it is expected that delegates who live within daily travelling distance of London will travel daily to attend the conference. Accessibility requirements should be discussed with the Equality Department in advance of the conference.

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact Pav Alam on 020 7801 2683. Fax details can be given, mailing address for applications is:

Pav Alam
PCS Equality, Pay and Policy Department
Public and Commercial Services Union
160 Falcon Road, London, SW11 2LN.

Legal Challenge against non payment of Workforce Management Redeployment Package

Just a brief update regarding the legal challenge against the employer’s decision to not pay members Workforce Management Redeployment Package travelling time (or TOIL), or additional family costs due to the closure of the majority of the DWP Norcross site, despite members being asked to/ having to travel beyond their reasonable daily travelling time.

On Wednesday 18th December 2013 an Employment Tribunal Preliminary Hearing took place on behalf of a number of PCS members who had come forward for the legal challenge (who had provided the relevant information and lodged claims with the employer for WMRP).

The ET is now scheduled for 10 days in November 2014 and covers the unlawful deductions from wages and also Equality Issues (Disability, Gender Discrimination etc). At present work is ongoing about further and better details.

If anyone wants any further details or wants to join the challenge then please contact the Branch Office.

NW UAF: Euro 2014: Nick Griffin Must Go!

The following has been received from NW Unite Against Facism:
Over 70 people attended the North West UAF Regional Conference in Liverpool on Sunday 2nd December, which was supported by North West TUC, Unite the union, CWU, UCU NW Region and Lancashire NUT.

The conference pushed forward the campaign (launched last year with the support of NW TUC) to kick the Nazi BNP leader out of his North West MEP Seat at the 2014 European Elections. The campaign is also supported by RMT North West & Wales. Griffin will only need around 8% of the vote to hold onto his seat. Many speakers talked about the potential of the fascists to exploit the growing economic crisis.

The Conference was opened by Paul Brant (Deputy Mayor of Liverpool) who joined Glyn Ford (former MEP & UAF European Officer) and others in a session on ‘Stopping the far right in Britain & Europe’.

Workshops followed, one featuring veteran anti-fascist & 43 Group founder Morris Beckman – delegates took inspiration from Morris’s session, talking about how we need to learn lessons today about unity and on the need to oppose the fascists when they take to the streets.

The other workshop featured ex-Liverpool FC player Howard Gayle of Show Racism the Red Card, and Louise Baldock, Liverpool City Councillor, on ‘Tackling racism in football’. Howard said that “The stereotype now with Asian players is very, very similar to the racism against black players in the Seventies,” and that “if they banned migration, there would still be the same problems we have.”

The second plenary was entitled ‘First they came..’ after the famous Pastor Niemoeller quote about victims of the Nazis. The session looked at different targets of racism, and speakers included Carol Duggan, aunt of Mark Duggan who was shot and killed by police in Tottenham last year, Jonny Weinberg of the Muslim-Jewish Form and the Inter-Faith Network For Manchester, and a speaker from Cairde Na hEireann.

The last speaker talked about the fascists’ recent attempts to attack the Irish community in Liverpool, and about the need to take a principled stand against anti-Irish racism.

The final session showed the breadth and strength of support for UAF’s ‘Nick Griffin Must Go’ campaign – speakers included Billy Hayes (General Secretary of the CWU), Steve Rotheram MP for Walton, Avis Gilmore (North West TUC and Regional Secretary of the NUT), Manchester City Councillor Afzal Khan, Daren Ireland (RMT North West & Wales), Pura Ariza (Regional Secretary, UCU), Dave Kitchen (NASUWT) and Dave Owens (PCS NW Committee), Paul Jenkins (NW UAF), and Weyman Bennett (Joint National Secretary, UAF). The session was chaired by high-profile Labour Party member and Trade Unionist Theresa Griffin (no relation!). Theresa stood against Nazi Nick in the North West European elections in 2009.

Arlene McCarthy MEP for the North West sent a message of support to the Conference: “Nick Griffin must go not only because of the racist and divisive views of his Party but because he isn’t doing the job he was elected to do…His interventions at home and in the European Parliament are about spreading his homophobic and racist views rather than representing the interests of those who elected him.

This is what we have come to expect from Nick Griffin. No constructive engagement or representing the interests of our region, no solutions to the current economic crisis, no action on jobs for our constituents – instead a single issue agenda to spread homophobia and racism. Griffin must go.”

Delegates attended from across the North West, and included delegations from trades unions, members of different political parties, and people of no political affiliation – all united in a determination to remove Nazi Nick.

The conference encouraged people to hold ‘Nick Griffin Must Go’ Days of Action. The Statement supporting the campaign is supported by a number of MPs, MEPs, Councillors, trades unionists, faith groups and others. To get involved contact northwest@uaf.org.uk

Work test not fit for purpose

The following details have been supplied by the TUC:

The PCS have called for the scrapping of the Governments assessment system for disabled people claiming benefits. The union says that the work capability assessment is not designed to support people into employment, but to cut their benefit entitlement.

This follows the publication of an independent report into the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) which found "considerable dissatisfaction" among disabled people and highlighted the need to treat people with dignity and respect as a particular area for improvement. This is the fourth review of the WCA and it makes 37 recommendations including simple ones such as allowing claimants to see what is being written about them, adjusting the layout of interview rooms, better listening skills and the avoidance of inferring answers not provided by interviewees.

PCS however claims that the assessments are not fit for purpose and should be scrapped. They believe that there is mounting anecdotal evidence showing people are being found "fit for work" so denied employment and support allowance and put onto jobseeker's allowance. They are then denied that because they are not able to start work or meet the conditionality requirements of JSA. 

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "No one joined the employment service to administer a system designed to harass people and take benefits away. Our members want to support people into work and claim the benefits to which they are entitled. But, consistent with the government's approach to social security, these tests are not designed to help people and they should be scrapped." Sanctions for disabled people claiming ESA have increased by 156% in the last year and last week the appeal court upheld a ruling that the tests discriminate against claimants with mental health problems, learning disabilities and autism.