Public and Commercial Services Union

The result of the HP DWP Pay Ballot is as follows:

• Papers Issues 1237
• Papers Returned 561
• Those in favour of the offer 491
• Those Against 69
• Spoilt Papers 1

This means that 87.5% of those voting were in favour of the offer therefore the offer has been accepted.

Members can expect pay increases to be effective from 1st June 2010 and be paid in September pay packets.

We previously communicated that we were aware of three main outstanding issues impacting members regarding pay - these issues were:

1. Individual pay offer letters have been received with an offer based on incorrect grade information - for example a recent promotion has not been recognised by HP on the system.
2. The pay offer has been made on incorrect salary information - for example, the calculation has been made on a higher salary that may include a shift allowance.
3. Those above the maximum - particularly those less than 2.55% above existing band maximums and who could be exposed to ‘leapfrogging’ by colleagues.

We have worked through the cases with HP where the offer has either been based on incorrect grade or salary information. We can report that HP have adjusted payment for individual members accordingly where appropriate.

We can also report that the 1% unconsolidated payment will be made consolidated for those less than 2.55% above the maximum of their range. These members have been written out to separately by HP and advised of this change.

We understand that the issue of pay for those above the max remains a concerns and amongst the many other problems we face, we will need to extend the maximums as a priority as part of the next pay negotiations.

Where members have been employed in challenge posts without due recognition at the higher grade, we will have to take these up as personal cases with the company and we will be raising the demand that members be made substantive in their current positions.

We already are taking cases forward on behalf of members and seeking to clarify the promotion policies being used by HP are indeed the correct policies. We ask members to come forward and ask for representation if you believe you are negatively impacted in a challenge post.

We also resolved a number of other issues as these became identified in recent weeks and we continue to press management on the outstanding cases that remain.

It is safe to say that a number of lessons have been learned from this campaign and your PCS representatives will meet soon to take this experience forward into our future work.

Our task now is to build on our achievements and ensure we gain something better for members who have not had the recognition from this latest deal. We will continue to press the company through collective negotiations and individual personal cases. While this campaign was far from perfect, it is still important to reflect on what our membership has been able to achieve.

We have:-

• Secured trade union recognition for the first time for our standard members.
• Achieved a pay award for all our members in DWP during a global pay freeze.
• Laid out the foundations of a job security agreement that will help protect the futures of all our members.

This is certainly not the end of our efforts but is the foundation where we now have an excellent opportunity to build on our success and work towards achieving fair pay for all our members across the account.

We will be restructuring our PCS branch network to ensure all members across the UK have every opportunity to play their part in helping our union become bigger and stronger than it is today. This will make our work in HP far more effective than it is today.

If you know of anyone who is not yet a PCS member, please encourage them to join. Better still, if you are interested in becoming a PCS rep and willing to help shape our new branch structures, please contact your local PCS rep or e-mail Ian Fitzpatrick - fizzy@me.com  

Paul Barnsley
National Offficer