I say I say I say, when is Voluntary Participation Industrial or Political Action?
An all Members Briefing asked members to not participate in the DWP People Survey.
Senior DWP management have protested that distributing the briefing by Departmental email was a breach of the Employee Relations Framework.
The ERF forbids Industrial or Political materials to be circulated.
The PCS DWP Group Executive Committee have pointed out that the members briefing does not refer to industrial action and although the Staff Survey is a national government civil service wide policy participation is voluntary.
The GEC does not accept that campaigning against a voluntary policy breaches the Employee Relations Framework.
However, the GEC believes it is important that PCS activists in the DWP reps are not placed in difficult circumstances when distributing PCS briefings to members.
To help overcome any problems a prominent new link has been set up at the top of the DWP page of the PCS website headed "Boycott the 2014 People Survey" at:
http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/department_for_work_and_pensions_group/index.cfm
Clicking on the link takes you straight to all DWP GEC briefings on the People Survey.
