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DSDA (OEP) announcement: Privatisation, job cuts and site closures on the way

Members will by now be aware of the Chancellor's pre-budget statement in parliament and had a chance to read the chief executive's announcement that followed it.

There can now be no doubt that all our members jobs in DSDA are under threat through outsourcing, downsizing and site closures. In the week prior to the announcement, PCS held all members’ meeting at Bicester, Donnington and Ashchurch to brief staff on the threats they face and to launch a major campaign against the shortsighted policy of disposing of defence assets in order to bail the government out of current economic crisis.

So what does this mean for you?

The CE announcement states:

“The OEP is a long-term programme, one that will look very carefully at how DSDA can operate more efficiently, and at best value to defence and the taxpayer over the next 20 years. Efficiencies will be delivered through a combination of internal improvement; estates development, land sales and value for money benchmarking of internally provided services.”

The first sentence reads very similar to the rhetoric used about FDSCi, which was supposed to deliver the defence storage and distribution solution for the 21st century.

It was acknowledged then, when the in-house option won a competition against private sector firms, that MOD civil servants were the best equipped people to deliver that service and that an executive agency of the MoD was the correct business model.

Nothing has changed in the interim, other than DSDA has cut over 2,000 jobs and closed the Stafford and Llangennech sites. Now they are proposing further job cuts and site closures, when in reality services have already been cut to the bone and there are serious concerns about whether the MoD can deliver to the frontline.

Our union is willing to work with the dept to identify efficiency savings; however we would start by addressing the £11 million of non-compliant, off contract spending in the previous financial year, much of which went on manpower substitution to carry out work previously done by civil servants.

The announcement then goes on to say:

“There is no doubt that the future will see us all face some significant challenges, but also some great opportunities, particularly with the potential for long-term investment in Bicester and the growth in jobs that this will bring.”

Members, particularly those based at Bicester should be aware that if the proposals under OEP are implemented in full, parts of the Bicester site will almost certainly be sold off to release funds to the treasury.

Whether any of these monies will be available to reinvest in the DSDA business is questionable, with the public sector deficit at record levels. DSDA will lose its Agency status and become a business unit of the Joint Support Chain, retaining only a small management structure, possibly based at Abbeywood.

Extracts from the OEP asset portfolio

The report points out that DSDA has just been through a major efficiency and transformation programme and we would argue that what is needed now is a period of stability to allow the Agency to bed in. We have heard the argument put forward by the DSDA management board about the lack of money available for investment in IT and infrastructure.

We would point out that this was known at the time when the in-house option won the competition under FDSCi and is common throughout the MoD. We do not believe that outsourcing is the only answer to the problem of lack of investment. We believe that other options – based on protecting our keeping the work in-house – must be explored in more detail first.

The portfolio says that the MoD should: “begin a competitive dialogue with the private sector to be considered against a robust, internal value for money benchmark.” Our union will seek to participate in that process. However the trade unions have had little if any opportunity to influence the direction that the OEP has taken so far.

We have been presented with a fait accompli, where outsourcing is the solution and the project has been designed to deliver that answer. The report goes on to say that they haven’t ruled out further outsourcing of work that is currently identified as critical to defence at a later date.

The OEP also identifies synergies between DSDA and DSG and the recommendation is that this work should transfer to DSG. We do not necessarily object to this move and see it as an opportunity to influence DSG in the direction of travel, something that did not previously exist under DSDA.

We will be working closely with our colleagues in the other MoD trade unions to keep the Ashchurch site open and to retain work there. Local PCS activists will be launching a campaign with the full support of the GEC and our national officers.

Next steps

DSDA are now beginning the process of preparing the business for outsourcing by 2014. An OEP implementation board has been set up and will hold its first meeting in the next few days.

At this meeting our union will make it known to DSDA and the JSC that we cannot support the direction of travel that they wish to take and will be putting the case forward to keep as much of the work in-house as possible. We also have an outstanding failure to agree with the JSC Whitley over lack of consultation over OEP.

The PCS DSDA sub-committee (formerly the FDSCi campaign committee) has been re-launched and has met twice chaired by the PCS DSDA lead, Ian Craven. The sub-committee will continue to meet over the coming months to draw up an action plan and campaign strategy. Local action groups have been set up at Bicester and Ashchurch to campaign against site closure.

From the initial site visits that our union has made, it is clear that PCS members are quite rightly outraged about the decision to sell off their jobs and close sites, especially after the pain that many of them have already gone though under FDSCi and coming at a time when the government are attempting to slash redundancy payments.

Our union’s priorities are clear:

  1. To keep work in-house
  2. Job security for PCS members
  3. An agreement on a long-term financial settlement for DSDA
  4. No forced relocation or collocation of our members’ jobs.

We welcome feedback and suggestions from members on how you would like us to take the campaign forward on your behalf. For further details please email John Wilson at wilsonj105@mod.uk or call John on 01785 787108.

It is also vitally important that we represent as many members as possible within DSDA going forward. All members are therefore encouraged to speak to their colleagues to ensure that they understand that PCS will be campaigning to safeguard their future and that we need their support.
 

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