Public and Commercial Services Union

PCS met recently with the MoD to discuss the latest position with the DII programme, specifically proposals for Increment 3a and High Grade Messaging (HGM).

Increment 3a COEIA

The MoD had been through the COEIA process for Increment 3a. This looked at which option would provide the best method to deliver 3a taking into account both cost and capability.

The main options considered were: DII (F) original scope (ATLAS); enhanced legacy (value for money benchmark- vfmb) and a hybrid of DII/F and legacy.

Of the options, the DII/F original scope while providing the best capability was deemed too expensive. The enhanced legacy/vfmb was viewed as not providing the benefits of a single information infrastructure and would be too expensive. The hybrid option was the one chosen, as it would be less expensive than the full scope option with minimal loss of benefit.

In reality under the so-called hybrid option, well over 90% of the work will go to ATLAS, with only a very small percentage of legacy work remaining in the MoD, mainly some cadet IT systems.

PCS expressed its disappointment that once again most of the work would go to ATLAS, despite their poor performance over Increment’s 1 and 2. We believed that greater consideration should have been given to making a viable in-house option or to make greater use of the hybrid alternative.

The MoD’s response was that an in-house option simply couldn’t deliver the benefits of DII/F and any enhanced legacy model would actually be more expensive.

Increment 3a timetable

ATLAS will submit their best and final offer in June. This will then go forward for IAB, ministerial and Treasury approval by the end of June.

If this all goes to plan it is expected that the contract will be signed in July, with vesting day on 1st November 2009. Formal consultation on the TUPE transfer would then begin in July.

At the moment 200 civilian and 150 military posts are in scope to transfer. Those affected have been told. Increment 3a covers the remaining fixed roll out, covering mainly RAF sites, and also Cyprus and Gibraltar.

High Grade Messaging (HGM)

Part of the original DII contract had been to design and deliver a HGM solution. This solution had now been designed and ATLAS was asked to give a price for delivering the new service.

The MoD says the new service will meet all key user requirements including: new desktop-to-desktop capability; sharing of attachments and provide a guaranteed action process. HGM would be a multiphase project dealing with: fixed domain; maritime and deployed and top secret.

The current timetable was for a business case to be put forward Summer 09, contract award October 09, vesting day March 10 with roll out commencing in 2011 with HGM phase 1 full operating capability in 2012.

The MoD accepted that any proposals would have to be put through the COEIA process and a vfmb developed. However their view was that the working assumption was that the service would be transferred to ATLAS.

If this went through there would be obvious implications for current messaging staff. At present it was estimated that 290 civilian and 160 military posts were in scope. However it was estimated that any future messaging service would only require 200 posts.

This raised the prospect of some COMMCEN closures and staff surpluses (this would be separate to the current COMMCEN rationalisation programme).

There was also the issue of whether or not all staff affected would be in a TUPE transfer situation. Since HGM would be a completely new service it could be argued that staff currently working in messaging should not transfer, particularly if they were to face redundancy post transfer. The Mod said they would need to establish the legal position but believed that some TUPE transfers were inevitable.

Concerns over HGM Proposals

This was the first time PCS had heard the HGM proposals. We immediately expressed our concerns about the implications for messaging staff.

Based on the current proposals large numbers of messaging posts would disappear and there would be COMMCEN closures. This would mean the prospect of redundancy for many messaging staff, particularly if they were TUPE transferred to ATLAS who may not have any need for many existing messaging staff with the new HGM service in place.

We also questioned whether this would in fact be a TUPE transfer situation. If staff were to be transferred and then immediately made redundant then they shouldn’t be TUPE transferred. If a new messaging system was also going to be put in place it could be argued the old service was ending rather than being transferred.

PCS also stressed that any proposal would first have to go through the COEIA process and be subject to a vigorous vfmb benchmark.

The MoD assured PCS the COEIA process would be followed and that we would be consulted. On the implications for messaging staff, they said they were still working up more detailed proposals on how the new service would be delivered. They would then have a better idea of the impact on current staff and the TUPE implications. This would then be discussed with PCS.

Next Steps

PCS is extremely disappointed that it looks likely further large chunks of MoD work are going to be handed over to the private sector and that hundreds of MoD staff now face a very uncertain future.

Many of those staff who transferred to ATLAS as part of Increments 1 and 2 have already seen their jobs disappear and have taken redundancy. A small number have been made compulsorily redundant.

PCS believes it is completely unacceptable to forcibly transfer staff into a redundancy situation. We will be meeting shortly with the MoD to discuss the possibility of allowing staff due to transfer as part of 3a, who may face redundancy, to be allowed if they wish to look for jobs in the redeployment pool prior to transfer. We will also be pressing for a reinstatement service to be introduced to allow people to try and re-join the MoD.

The current proposals for HGM are very worrying. We will wait for some more detailed proposals, but PCS will not prepared to accept any proposal which could see hundreds of messaging staff made redundant.

PCS will also continue to highlight the problems and costs of DII and the potential job losses through the media and our parliamentary group.

Further briefings will be issued when there are any major new developments. To help us get information out to affected members, it would be helpful if PCS had a list of members currently in scope for Increment 3a and HGM.

It would be appreciated if members in scope for Increment 3a and HGM email their names and contact details to Pam Waithe at pamwai@pcs.org.uk