Public and Commercial Services Union

But what’s on offer?

The ISU NEC have voted unanimously to accept an offer from the department in the European Operations subsistence dispute. PCS does not yet know the precise details of this offer but if it is a similar offer to the one PCS received then we are surprised and disappointed that the ISU leadership have accepted it.

Why PCS rejected the department’s offer

The department’s offer to PCS was derisory. In exchange for calling off our industrial action they stated that they would look to defer the cuts in subsistence until May, when subsistence for the single day and night shift would be removed completely and the overnight rate would be reduced to 45 Euros. We would have also had to agree in principle that we wouldn’t take further action to defend subsistence payments.

PCS asked if any compensatory payments could be looked at during the negotiations on integration. The department stated unequivocally that they weren’t prepared to consider this.

The department stated that negotiations on annualised hours working (AHW) would take place in the New Year and that the particular circumstances of European Operations would be taken into consideration.

However, and this is a crucial point, AHW is a system based around attendance. Staff are paid by their level of flexibility. The highest rates are paid to those who are prepared to change shifts at very short notice or be on call. In effect the department buy a certain level of flexibility from staff.

This has nothing whatsoever to do with subsistence and staff would get a rate commensurate with the level of flexibility they wished to give whether there was any dispute around subsistence or not.

So the PCS saw this as a complete red herring as there is no compensatory element involved at all. Subs would go in May and that would be the end of it. Furthermore, it presupposes that staff will want to move towards an AHW system and it seems clear at present that most staff don’t want to. The PCS position on AHW is clear: unless staff are offered something better we should remain with our current system.

PCS unwilling to sell out

PCS informed the department that we believed that this wasn’t a serious offer as it contained no compensatory elements and simply deferred the cuts in subs until May. The union hopes that the ISU have been offered something better than this. However if they have not then what they are recommending is a sell out and we hope that their members in European Operations will vote against the NEC’s recommendation.

The sense of solidarity in fighting these callous cuts has been magnificent up to now and we hope that this will continue.

This is not a time to capitulate to an ever more aggressive employer. It is time to fight!