Click the picture above. Do it now before it is too late!
The text below is aimed at branches, representatives and officers. However it highlights the massive task ahead to ensure PCS members stay members and can continue to get representation. The branch needs your help.
PLEASE SIGN UP TO DIRECT DEBIT.
Regions and branches should now take all necessary action to have every single member DD ready by the new target date of Friday 17 April 2015 at the very latest.
Following lengthy and detailed negotiations the DWP have now written to PCS confirming that that check off will be stopped. The Group Executive Committee (GEC) has kept branches fully informed throughout the talks and constantly asked regions and branches to give priority to getting all members DD ready. In the final stages of the talks the GEC successfully argued that because the 90 days notice had been given so late in December check off should continue until the end of March. The final collection of union subscriptions by check off will be on Tuesday 31st March 2015. This now gives us a little more time than we expected to get every member DD ready.
The first payment by direct debit will be on Friday 1st May 2015. We need every member DD ready a couple of weeks before that to give PCS HQ time to process everything.
The “justification” given by the DWP for the ending of the check off facility is that there is no statutory obligation for employers to provide this service and a sweeping reference to the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act. (see management's letter below). The truth is that the removal of check off is a political attack on PCS by the government. The government think they can silence PCS by removing check-off which they hope will disrupt our finances, and weaken the union’s ability to campaign against austerity and to organise to fight for better pay, jobs, pensions and conditions of service.
This attack by the Tories will fail. PCS in the DWP will lead the union in making sure that every member gets DD ready and every non member is asked to join the union.
A big task ahead
There has been good progress getting members DD ready in recent weeks. But there is still a very big job to do. PCS DWP members are now 44.45% DD ready. Nearly half the job is done.
But the rate of increase is currently far too slow at only about 2% each week. To have every member DD ready by Friday 17 April 2015 we need to increase this to at least an extra 5% of members DD ready every week. This means getting an extra 2500 members DD ready each and every week between now and 17 April (the two festive leave weeks have been excluded from these calculations).
The scale of the task is big but by building on the progress branches have made already the target of having all members DD ready by Friday 17 April is very achievable.
WITH THE HELP OF YOU THE MEMBER
