Public and Commercial Services Union

The ATP proposals, announced on 22 October, clearly represent the biggest threat all of us have ever faced to our employment and conditions within Land Registry.

Our campaign is already receiving widespread support across the political spectrum, in the media and from interested groups. This bodes extremely well for what we need to do.

These pages will provide a regular update on all issues related to the ATP proposals and I urge members to visit on a frequent basis.

Our jobs and futures are clearly worth fighting for and, if all members play a part and we continue to recruit non-members, I am convinced that we can achieve success.

All the best,

Michael Kavanagh
Group President

Colleagues

PCS members and staff in general will no doubt, be in the process of digesting the unpalatable news contained in last weeks Accelerated Transformation Programme (ATP) announcement.

By now, members should also have seen the Chief Executives ATP DVD. In the DVD, Mr Collis says that he is "truly sorry" but this will be of little comfort for members (in all offices) who are threatened with the dole queue and equally for every other member, who still has the threat of further office closures and job losses (in 2012) hanging over their head.

The potential impact of these proposals on members in every office cannot be over stated, but it is important that all members remain confident that we can overturn these proposals through a united campaign with full membership participation and full support from the national union.

The LR board believes that there is no alternative to their proposals, but PCS believes there can be alternatives based on the return to a public service ethos rather than as a market responsive service provider. We will be exploring this in more detail during the formal consultation period. We simply do not accept that modernisation of Land Registry has to mean fewer offices, job cuts or privatisation.

PCS LR Group reps have met to discuss the proposals and how PCS should oppose them. This information has now been fed into our campaign strategy. The ATP business case is also being looked at by PCS in detail, which will enable us to challenge the assumptions and statistics during formal consultation. We believe that the 'facts' just don't stack up.

Members meetings will be held between 2 and 18 November where members will be balloted on rejection of the ATP proposals and in support for the PCS bargaining agenda of no office closures, no job losses and no privatisation of LR functions. We will however be prepared to negotiate the best terms for anyone choosing to leave the organisation on a voluntary basis provided this is not at the expense of our offices or other members jobs.

Please make every effort to attend your local meeting and please ensure that you vote in the ballot. The stronger the mandate from members, the more influence we will have during the formal consultation process.
Remember the ATP proposals are just that...proposals! Provided members remain united behind the PCS campaign we have a real opportunity to influence the outcome of these proposals.

Dave Lunn

(Acting) Vice President
PCS Land Registry Group