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Forward defence programme statement

18 December 2009

Below is a letter from Alan Dennis (chair of the MoD civil service unions) to the defence minister, Bob Ainsworth regarding the recent defence programme announcement

I am writing to you on behalf of the departmental civil service unions following your announcement in parliament on the 15 December 2009.

We would wish to register our concern that, despite previous assurances, we were not provided with the required level of prior notice of the content of your statement – in particular of those elements that have a direct affect on the future employment of our members. Our concern is even deeper, given that it appears that the press was more informed about what was within your statement than either us or the staff affected.

As an example, it is totally unacceptable for those staff employed at RAF Cottesmore to find out that their establishment is closing from the media rather than from their employer. The fact that we, as the representatives of MoD staff, were only provided with nine minutes’ notice of the content of your statement gives the impression that we are not considered major stakeholders within the department – and by inference neither are the staff we represent.

As you will recall, I wrote to you in August this year concerning the department’s financial challenges, and in line with the points made in your response we have taken every opportunity to engage with appropriate senior officials on these as well as more recent related matters. It has to be said, however, that the level of detail in terms of tangible information emanating from such engagements is relatively minimal. This is particularly the case at TLB level, where some areas seem particularly reluctant to engage with us properly, despite the principles enshrined within the department’s consultation framework. Our ability to seek to influence and/or inform any future direction has been, on the whole, non-existent.

We are particularly concerned that the people aspects associated with the various initiatives in train are not being adequately addressed – if at all – by the department in any strategic way. As you will recall, we also made reference to this area in my August letter. Sadly, our experience to date is one of an ad-hoc and/or disjointed approach to these issues. For some time we have been calling for a concerted departmental approach, so that the people aspects can be managed in a properly joined-up manner, with the collective involvement of each relevant part of the department in conjunction with ourselves and our Industrial colleagues. This point was raised again by us in the informal talks held recently concerning the decision to instigate a review of the civilian workforce. Yet again, very little information was provided to us in advance of the chancellor’s announcement on this review as part of his pre-budget report or prior to Bill Jeffrey’s announcement to staff on 10 December 2009.

In order that we may move quickly to a situation where we are able to engage properly with the department and able to deal with the people issues that should be of everyone’s concern, we hope that you will take our concerns seriously and provide us with a personal commitment that the issues we have highlighted are addressed within the department as a matter of urgency.
 

 

Yours sincerely

Alan Dennis

MCSU Chair
 

 

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