Public and Commercial Services Union

The NEC met this week and agreed to call for further reports on the outcome of talks across all departments, about using efficiency savings for pay improvements. A special NEC meeting will take place soon to consider these reports, and other information on pay in 2009, to help shape the PCS strategy for pay and our campaign work on this. Decisions will then be taken at the PCS conference later this month.

HMRC contact centre dispute gets results

Members in HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have postponed planned industrial action after gaining a significant agreement protecting their working conditions.

10,000 members in HMRC were set to take action across the UK.

HMRC members were angered by draconian working conditions such as excessive individual monitoring, tightening of leave allowances and threats to flexi.

The agreement, which was reached following members determination to stand together and months of negotiations, covers the majority of their demands and include key gains such as a suspension of real-time monitoring. The numbers allowed off on leave have also been increased to allow those who want two weeks leave over the summer months to be able to do so. Flexible working hours have also been protected in the agreement.

GEC meet and agree to continue talks

The DWP GEC met last week and received a report of the negotiations with DWP management on pay and the separate talks on improving our terms and conditions.

On the issue of improving pay, further talks were planned with the DWP finance managers to identify the available savings available in the pay talks.

In the terms and conditions talks it was reported that a large number of possible improvements had now been identified. The GEC felt strongly that while progress was still being made, we could not allow the talks to continue indefinitely. We therefore needed to conclude the negotiations and get management’s final offer on the table so that members could start to benefit from the improvements in terms and conditions while waiting for progress on pay. These improvements are much needed now to reward staff in such a pressurised period.

The GEC agreed to meet again within two weeks.