Public and Commercial Services Union

Protecting our future - defending jobs, pay and conditions

1. Foreword
2. Protecting public services
3. Pay
4. Pensions
5. Health and safety
6. Equality
7. International
8. Commercial sector
9. Social and economic
10. Personnel policy
11. Campaigns and organising
12. PCS structure and services
13. Rule amendments
14. NEC attendance record

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Foreword

2007 was a particularly busy and important year for PCS members. Many continued to struggle to deliver high quality services in the context of job cuts, rising workloads and uncertainty about the future. The year began with a large ‘yes’ vote in our ballot for a national campaign of discontinuous industrial action in the civil service and related NDPBs, and ended with the government finally agreeing to enter into serious talks.

Our national campaign in defence of jobs, pay, working conditions and services reflected our determination to represent and protect the interests of our members. Our focus on organising, and our careful management of union funds, meant we were able to deliver a wide range of innovative and effective campaigning activities. Some of this campaigning was made possible by our new Political Fund which began operating on 1 April.

When industrial action became necessary, we were also able to deliver two very successful national strike days and further strike and non-strike action by some of our groups.
Our campaigning has been helped by the solidarity offered by many of our members in the Commercial Sector. In what can be a difficult sector to organise in our activists have made important progress, winning new recognition agreements and some good pay deals.

As part of our work to secure a fair deal for all our members we intervened in the May elections via our Make Your Vote Count initiative and stepped-up our work among members of the various national parliaments and assemblies.

We continued to play a high profile role in the wider trade union movement, using our presence at the TUC Congress and our membership of the TUC General Council to press for united action in defence of public services and fair pay for those who deliver them.

Campaigning against inequality, discrimination and racism remained priorities. This report outlines our many activities in these areas, including our response to the government’s Discrimination Law Review and our anti­fascist work.

On pensions, members voted by a large majority to endorse the arrangements for new entrants that we negotiated with government.

We continued to work with a range of campaign groups committed to defending public services such as Defend Council Housing, the National Pensioners Convention and Keep Our NHS Public. At a European level we are working with other unions to have legal measures implemented that will help to defend public services from privatisation.

2007 was a year in which PCS members stood together, determined to defend themselves and our public services. We have a record of campaigning to be proud of. We would like to thank our representatives and activists at all levels of the union for their hard work and support. It places us in a strong position to make further progress in 2008.

Mark Serwotka, general secretary

Janice Godrich, president

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Protecting public services

For most PCS members in the public sector 2007 was the year of our national campaign against compulsory redundancies, low pay, privatisation, deteriorating working conditions and compulsory relocations.

At every opportunity throughout the year we continued to press for meaningful talks with the employer in order to reach a fair settlement in relation to our national demands:

• No compulsory redundancies • No compulsory relocations
• A national pay system which is fair and guarantees an increase of no less than inflation
• No more outsourcing without negotiation and agreement
• Adequate resources and decent working conditions
• No cuts to the civil service compensation scheme

2006 had ended with an announcement of compulsory redundancies in DEFRA and DTI. After consulting with our activists at Regional Forums, and with government still refusing to negotiate, the National Executive Committee (NEC) decided to ballot the majority of our members employed in the public sector to support a campaign of discontinuous industrial action that would begin with a one-day national strike.

A large ‘yes’ vote in the ballot was followed by a hugely successful strike on 31 January supported by 200,000 members. This was followed by further strike action on pay by members in the MoD and Passport Service on 30 March.

With the government still refusing to engage in serious talks a further one-day strike, supported by a similar number of members, took place on 1 May.

Innovative campaigning

As part of our national campaign the union has developed a number of innovative campaign initiatives with the aim of increasing political pressure on the government. This work has been assisted by our new Political Fund, which members voted to establish, and which came into being on 1 April.

Our ‘Make Your Vote Count’ (MYVC) campaign was a great success. During the May elections PCS activists across the country contacted thousands of candidates asking them where they stood on our campaign demands. Did they support the job cuts and office closures – especially those taking place in their towns and cities?

The large majority of candidates supported our demands and shared our concerns about the damage being inflicted on public services. 79 per cent of Labour Party candidates disowned the government’s cuts agenda, showing how unpopular and out of touch Ministers had become on this issue.

Delegates to our 2007 conference agreed that if our national dispute remains unresolved MYVC should play a key role in our campaigning in 2008.

A further innovation was our ‘Alternative Queen’s Speech’. Shortly after the Queen’s Speech in Parliament on 6 November, members of the union and the media assembled in Westminster to hear Mark Serwotka and John McDonnell MP, Chair of the PCS Parliamentary Group, outline what the Queen’s speech to MPs should have contained.
Mark and John condemned the recent Comprehensive Spending Review which had announced £30 billions in cuts across central government departments.

They called for an end to such cuts and to privatisation, and for measures to redistribute wealth that would make available the resources needed to fund high quality public services and fair pay for those who work hard to deliver them.

Consulting with members

In the run up to and during our national campaign the NEC has placed great emphasis on consulting with members about how the campaign can be made more effective. Our Annual Delegate Conference in May decided that the NEC should consult with members throughout the union about future campaigning options, develop recommendations on the basis of what members say, and then hold a consultative ballot on whether those recommendations should be implemented.

During the summer we held the biggest ever consultation exercise with members in our history. Over 25,000 members attended up to 3,000 meetings across the country. These meetings discussed the national campaign and what the options were for taking it forward.

The high turnout and strong ‘yes’ vote in the subsequent national consultative ballot demonstrated that members remain determined to win a fair resolution to our dispute. Members voted for a further national one-day strike if the government continued to refuse to take part in meaningful talks, or if further compulsory redundancies were announced.

Members also voted to escalate the dispute by requiring all those groups and national branches involved in the campaign to develop action plans that would maximise industrial disruption to the employer.

Standing ready, not standing down

In November the tremendous unity and resolve shown by members during 2007 resulted in a significant step forward. After months of refusing to do so the Cabinet Office finally agreed to enter into serious negotiations about our demands. At the time of writing those talks are ongoing.

However, we have made clear to government that our members stand ready to take further action if they refuse to agree a fair settlement or if a major attack on our members, such as an announcement of further compulsory redundancies, takes place.

The Third Sector

We stepped up our campaigning against government attempts to increase private sector involvement in public services by contracting work to charities and not-for-profit organisations (the so-called ‘Third Sector’).

A report for the government by David Freud has argued for greater involvement of the Third Sector in the delivery of core welfare services already provided by our members in the DWP. In 2007 we made a number of written submissions to government in which we made clear there is no evidence that Third Sector organisations do or will out­perform the public sector.

The audience at a packed fringe meeting at the Labour Party Conference heard Mark Serwotka, Peter Hain and David Freud debate the future of welfare services, with Mark making the case that properly resourced and publicly-owned services are the best way to protect the interests and needs of clients and staff.

Call and contact centres

An increasing number of our members work in call and contact centres. We organised a very well attended national call centre forum in 2007 where members had the opportunity to discuss their concerns about job content, deskilling, targets and pay. The forum has begun work on developing a ‘Call and Contact Centre Charter’ that will reflect our members’ priorities and the changes they want to see.

Single border agency

PCS has serious concerns about the effectiveness and practicality of government plans to establish a new single agency to control UK borders, and the potential impact of these plans on the jobs, pay and working conditions of our members.

These concerns were made clear in a number of written submissions to the Cabinet Office’s review of the issue. At the time of writing our representatives in Home Office, Revenue & Customs and FCO are seeking assurances from management in relation to their shared bargaining priorities.

PCS reps in the affected areas are organising briefings, members’ meetings and a media and parliamentary strategy as part of our campaign.

Continuity of employment

An issue of growing importance to some of our members is the loss of full continuity of employment they can suffer if they transfer between NDPBs, departments and agencies. Work to tackle the complex legal and policy issues this problem raises is taking place in consultation with some of our branches and the Cabinet Office.
We are also in discussion with the new departments created by recent machinery of government changes about their relationships with their NDPBs.

Scotland

The change of government in Scotland in 2007 has presented the union with new challenges and opportunities for those members employed in organisations under the remit of Scottish Ministers.

Campaigning against job cuts, low pay, poor working conditions and privatisation remain key priorities. As a result of our MYVC campaigning in Scotland we recruited a number of newly elected MSPs to our Scottish Parliamentary Group.

At our meeting with the new Scottish First Minister a commitment was given that no compulsory redundancies would be imposed in those departments, agencies and related organisations under the control of Scottish Ministers. Furthermore, any savings made in excess of the ‘efficiency’ target two per cent will be reinvested back into public services. We will be working to ensure that any so-called ‘efficiencies’ do not result in a deterioration in working conditions.

Wales

Throughout 2007 we continued to build and raise the profile of our union in Wales. In addition to playing a full part in our national campaign, members have developed and agreed an All Wales PCS Strategic Plan for the year ahead.

A key priority will be a focus on developing an organising culture across our membership to increase member participation in campaigning and decision-making. As part of this process a new organising and education committee for Wales has been established and a successful annual PCS Wales Organising Conference took place in October.

While the Welsh Assembly, and its related funded bodies, is not covered by the so-called ‘efficiency programme’ being imposed by the UK Treasury, we have been campaigning against the impact of voluntary early retirements and redundancies on workloads and service quality.

We are also campaigning against the impact of large scale job cuts and office closures in departments such as HMRC. As part of this we have stepped-up our work among members of the Welsh Assembly, highlighting the threat that low pay, job cuts and office closures poses to the Welsh economy.

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Pay

Campaigning against the government’s unfair limit on pay increases across the public sector has been central to our work on pay in 2007. Our conference agreed that breaking this limit will require our groups and national branches to co-ordinate bargaining in accordance with our national campaign demands.

Unfair pay cap

While inflation averaged 4 per cent in 2007 the govern­ment sought to impose a 2 per cent cap on basic pay rises. This meant further cuts in real pay values for more members, particularly those on their pay maximums. Actual basic rises were often below 2%, including examples of zero offers. Out of our 200 bargaining areas in the public sector, in only one (DFID) were we able to recommend a pay offer to members. In a number of areas senior managers openly admitted that their pay offers were the direct result of Treasury intransigence.

These outcomes were followed by members rejecting offers, often followed by decisions by management to impose them. This took place on a much larger scale than in earlier years. Decisions to impose were also taken in relation to multi-year offers, notably in DWP and the Home Office, provoking an angry reaction.

Ballots in a number of other cases were also taking place at the time of writing. All of this made clear that the government’s public sector pay policy is completely unfair and unsustainable, with cuts in real pay values affecting more and more members. In many areas these cuts in the real value of pay have been taking place for a number of years.

Delegates to our conference made clear that the demand for annual basic increases to keep pace with the cost of living must be met. Our opposition to regional pay was reaffirmed, as was the need to work together and co-ordinate action on all pay problems in the context of our national campaign demands.

Joint action on pay

Conference also agreed that achieving the maximum possible unity among all trade unions representing workers in the public sector will make a major contribution to successfully challenging the government’s unfair pay policy. To this end we successfully moved a motion at the TUC Congress in September calling on the General Council to convene a meeting of interested unions to discuss coordinated industrial action. In addition we directly initiated discussions with leaders of all the public sector unions about united action and campaigning.

We will continue to argue for unity against low pay in 2008.

National pay coherence

National talks with the Cabinet Office on tackling the many problems generated by delegated pay bargaining, which had been taking place for 4 years, had effectively stalled by early 2007. Few concrete proposals for making real progress were forthcoming from the Cabinet Office.

In November, thanks to the pressure generated by our national campaign and our calls for a more meaningful dialogue on pay, the government offered fresh talks and a new focus on reaching acceptable outcomes with the establishment of a ‘Joint Group on Pay and Conditions’. Amid signs that a more practical and positive approach was being adopted, the new Joint Group began examining the following issues on a civil service-wide basis:

• The existence of wide pay differences for equivalent jobs.
• Handling equality concerns and unjustified differences (including any differences based on location).
• The unwieldy number and structure of bargaining units. Our aim is to significantly reduce the number from the present number of 200.
• Standard conditions on a civil service-wide basis for annual leave, maternity/adoptive leave (and other family leave), and working hours.
• Features of pay systems, including improvements to pay progression and problems with performance related pay.
• Adopting a more flexible approach to Treasury control of pay offers, including basic increases related to the cost of living.

Further updates on the talks will be given when there are significant developments to report.

Equal pay and age discrimination

Using legal pressure when we can has been an integral part of our national campaign. With the assistance of a dedicated lawyer our work on generating equal pay and age discrimination claims has been stepped up. By the end of 2007, 79 tribunal claims have been made and a further 222 were ready. These claims involve members from seven different organisations. More claims are being considered.

Performance related pay

Our conference reaffirmed our continuing opposition to linking appraisal and pay. A survey of PRP practice and related problems is being conducted across the union, the results of which will help to inform new guidance to be published in 2008. We will continue to make the case against PRP in our talks with government and management at all levels.

Low pay and the minimum wage

Our policy is to campaign for a national minimum wage of £8 per hour. This demand was included in a submission by the union to the Low Pay Commission, along with our views on the need for more and better enforcement of statutory minimum pay requirements. The content of conference motion A15 will be used to advise on some aspects of our standard pay claim.

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Pensions

2007 saw the culmination of negotiations on a range of changes to civil service pension arrangements.

Nuvos

The most significant change was the creation of a new scheme for new entrants after 30 July 2007 (known as ‘nuvos’). Nuvos is a defined benefit, index linked, whole career scheme which had a range of benefits similar to those in ‘Premium’ but with an improved accrual rate.

At the time this scheme was negotiated we made provisions for additional tax free lump sums (for all) and added pension for over 60’s from October 2007. From March 2008 changes will be implemented relating to added years for classic and premium members, as well as a new arrangement on partial retirement which will enable members to access pension benefits and carry on working.

From the same date members will also have the ability to accrue up to 45 years reckonable service in the scheme.

At the time of writing negotiations were still ongoing about revised governance arrangements. We continue to oppose the government’s longer term intentions on cost sharing and capping of employer contributions.

Following an extensive round of regional briefings, 98 per cent of members voted to endorse the new arrangements in July.

Civil Service Compensation Scheme (CSCS)

No proposals arising from the Cabinet Office review of the CSCS have been received by the union. PCS and Prospect launched a number of Employment Tribunal cases on aspects of the CSCS which we believed ran counter to the provisions of the Age Discrimination regulations. The hearings on these cases have been listed for April 2008.

Commercial sector pensions

The union has been vigilant in cases where members have been transferred into the private sector. Our officers have been advised to ensure they are involved before transfer and that pension issues are resolved at an early stage. The Fair Deal in its revised form has greatly assisted in this matter and has been publicised throughout the union. The union continues to provide actuarial and legal support to our negotiators.

State pensions

Via the TUC we have been involved in responding to consultations concerning government reform of the state pensions system. In addition to affiliating to the National Pensioners Convention (NPC) we have provided financial support for their important policy and campaign­ing activities. We have also taken part in and supported a number of public events organised by the Convention and will be actively supporting their campaigning in 2008 to mark 100 years of the state pension.

PCSPS and CSCS amendment schemes

In March amendments were laid to the PCSPS to clarify a number of technical issues. In July the ‘nuvos’ provisions were laid along with revised tax free lump sum arrangements. In October changes to added pension and WPS ‘debt’ were made. The health standard requirement was removed from 1 January 2007.

The CSCS was amended in March and July to introduce new arrangements on re-employment.

Other issues

The Cabinet Office launched a review of civil service pension delivery. Two meetings of PCS representatives from the civil service pensions administrators, the NEC Pension Strategy Committee and others were held during the year. The PCS Pensions Officer and CCSU Secretary met the consultant during the review period. Guidance on ill health, injury benefit and related matters was made available on this website.

Associate and Retired Members (ARMs)

Our Associate & Retired Members embarked on a fundamental review of its relationship with other structures within the union. We hope this will see a significant raising of the ARMs profile throughout the union. Recruitment leaflets posters and guidance were updated during the year and issued through branches and regional offices. We published four issues of the ARMs Newsletter during the year.

ARMs played a full and active part in activities at the NPC and Pensioners Parliament, where in conjunction with our campaign team and Pension Service Group we had a display stand and made a significant intervention in the debate. The union is also affiliated to the Public Service Pensioners Council (PSPC) and subscribes to Help The Aged, Age Concern and PARITY. ARMs, at both regional and national level have played an important part in the organisations and have been present at many national, local and regional campaigning events.

The 2007 Forum was held in Blackpool in June and followed the Annual Pensioners Parliament. We were pleased to welcome Dot Gibson (NPC Vice Chair) to our Forum. A summary of the Forum was included in the ARMs Newsletter and on the PCS website. We acknowledge the tremendous amount of commitment by many members of ARMs to its work and its support of PCS national campaigns.

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Health and safety

To highlight the impact of continuous change and increasing workloads on members and workplace relations we organised a National Inspection Day.

Research by the union revealed a picture of rising stress levels in many workplaces. The results support our argument that managers should be tackling the preventable causes of absence, such as stress, rather than penalising staff for being made sick by workplace pressures. We will be using our research in discussions with management to press for real improvements.

Our ‘Report It’ campaign continues. New guidance on bullying has been issued to our representatives, in addition to material on the sources and appropriate management of upper limb disorders and back injuries. It is important our members are aware there is a legal framework for how conditions, such as RSI, should be handled.

The Health & Safety Forum is planning to collect information on how the absence of a maximum workplace temperature may be impacting on the health of members. If the evidence shows this to be a significant issue that existing law is failing to tackle effectively then we will press for change.

PCS representatives again attended the Hazards Conference. Additional funding is being sought to increase the size of our delegation in 2008.

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Equality

2007 has been another busy year on equality issues with the creation of the new equality commission, the continuing work to tackle under-representation within PCS and developments in public sector equality duties.

We have continued to seek greater involvement of the Cabinet Office in a central coordinating role for equality issues within the civil service. We have also submitted a bid to the Union Modernisa­tion Fund to support a project on training and developing equality reps at branch and regional levels.

Equality and Human Rights Commission

The new Equality and Human Rights Commission come into being on 1 October with responsibility for gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, age, religion and belief and human rights. We have continued to negotiate on behalf of PCS members transferred from the former equality commissions and to lobby and campaign for increased resources to tackle the expanded remit.

Discrimination law Review

Developing our response to the government’s Discrimination Law Review was a significant area of work for us in 2007. The Review was concerned with reforming the legal framework for equality in the UK.

PCS supplied a detailed response which was in line with our agreed policies and legal aims. Widespread criticisms have caused the government to reconsider its approach. We now do not expect a draft bill to be published during this session of parliament.

Tackling under-representation

Our Equality Co-ordinator has continued her work to support PCS regional committees and groups, to build networks in order to increase the involvement of black members in PCS activities and on decision making bodies. Work is also ongoing to improve the recording of equality data on our Commix membership system. Among the data we want to be able to record is information on sexuality and transgender status.

Our disability regional network groups continued to meet and build their structures and activities.

Women

2007 marked the 40th anniversary of the 1967 Abortion Act. Following the decision of our national conference to affiliate to Abortion Rights, information about campaigning activities has been circulated to branches.

We have continued to highlight the need for better support at work for parents and carers. Work with the ‘Working Families’ charity in this area has included negotiating for full pay during periods of maternity, seeking legal cases to pursue in relation to pregnancy-related discrimination in sickness absence schemes, and survey work to identify the needs and concerns of members with caring responsibilities for dependants.

We have also continued to raise awareness on the issue of violence against women and to campaign for a national domestic violence strategy and for appropriate workplace policies.

PCS Proud

Proud is the voice of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-gender members in PCS. It also performs the vital role of educating members and branches about tackling discrimination in the workplace and producing guidance on addressing homophobic bullying and harassment.

Proud has continued to raise awareness of the unacceptable levels of discrimination and violence against Trans people around the world and has been active in campaigning for improved immigration and asylum rights for people fleeing persecution because of their sexuality or gender identity. This was the focus of the annual Proud Seminar in November which included speakers from Amnesty and the UK lesbian and gay immigration group.

Disability

PCS has continued to work to challenge the decision to remove Access to Work funding from ministerial government departments, including through involvement in the project group evaluating the effectiveness of Access to Work. We have built strong alliances with organisations of disabled people and other trade unions to support this work.

Issues relating to the provision of reasonable adjustments continue to cause concern and PCS is working to produce best practice guidance and an outline agreement for trade union sides to use in their discussions with employers.

There are early signs of potential problems with the Disability Equality Duty in relation to monitoring and employment compliance. We await the first round of annual progress reports with interest.

In seeking to develop arguments for punitive penalties for those wilfully breaching the Disability Discrimination Act, PCS will be issuing guidance to all case handling reps about the circumstances where punitive or exemplary damages can already be claimed under current tribunal procedures.

Black members

PCS has been actively promoting a series of events to mark the bicentenary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. Throughout we have been keen to emphasise the contributions made by black abolitionists and the resistance of Africans to being enslaved. As part of a wider agenda we are supporting the TUC call for an annual memorial day and for meaningful reparations.

We have also continued to support the Justice for Jay campaign to assist the family of former PCS member Jay Abatan to identify the circumstances of Jay’s racist murder and the subsequent police investigation.

The black members’ forum has also been addressing the rise in Islamophobia. A presentation has been developed to highlight this issue and to tackle the stereotypes and myths that surround the Islamic faith.

Following a decision at ADC 2007 to affiliate to Inquest a speaker was invited to address the forum and an article about Inquest’s work in highlighting deaths in custody and supporting family campaigns appeared in PCS View.

Public sector equality duties

With new duties coming into force for disability equality in December 2006 and for gender in April 2007, we have been doing significant work through our equality forums to ensure that government departments and agencies are meeting their legal duties – particularly in relation to job cuts and relocation issues.

In September, the Commission for Racial Equality published a report highlighting the continued failures of major government departments in relation to their race duties for employment. We are pursuing this with the Cabinet Office and the new Equality Commission.

We are also supporting a legal challenge against the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (formerly DTI) over failures to conduct impact assessments of proposed redundancies. We are also exploring action against DfT over equal pay audits under the gender equality duty.

Fighting fascism

Our work to counter the divisive forces of fascism, racism and the far right continued throughout 2007. This has involved working closely with Unite Against Fascism and Love Music Hate Racism.

The ruling in a case taken by ASLEF to the European Court that unions could ban BNP activists from membership is to be welcomed. We are highlighting to our branches how they can address concerns about BNP activists within their memberships. We have also continued to press the Cabinet Office for further discussions on banning civil servants from membership of far right political parties.

Much anti-fascist and anti-racist work in 2007 was focused on the local council and other elections in May this year. We took this opportunity to further disseminate the arguments against parties of the far right. Additional work to oppose the BNP will be needed in the London elections in 2008.

Gender representation

PCS rules require that delegates to TUC conferences elected at our annual conference should reflect the proportion of women in the union, which currently stands at 60 per cent. The table below shows the target figures and actual outcomes of the elections held at our 2007 conference.

The NEC will continue to work towards the increased representation of women and other equality groups by reminding branches of the need to ensure delegations to conference and their nominations are reflective of our membership diversity.

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International

2007 saw a growth in our international work, particularly in relation to working with other unions to defend public services across Europe, and in continuing to develop our campaigning against injustice and poverty in Africa and Latin America.

Defending public services in Europe

As an active member of the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU), PCS was involved in the EPSU-ETUC campaign for a European legal framework to resist the incremental marketisation of public.

Trades Union Congressservices. As part of this campaign we worked toward collecting the 1 million signatures needed to raise the issue in the European Parliament.

In addition, we have been working with EPSU to develop an EU-wide Social Dialogue for the national public administration sectors which will provide unions with opportunities to influence employment and reform policy.

PCS expressed solidarity and support for trade unions in France, including our counterpart Force Ouvrière, when they organised strikes and demonstrations against the attacks on the pay and jobs of public sector workers by the Sarkozy government.

Palestine

PCS continued to campaign on Palestine, taking part in the ENOUGH! coalition set up to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the occupation. We joined the demonstration and rally of around 20,000 people in London in June, and the lobby of the Westminster Parliament in November.

Mexico

A movement against state violence and corruption has been taking place in Oaxaca, Southern Mexico. This began with a strike by teachers in 2006. In November PCS hosted a public meeting which was addressed by speakers from the education workers’ union and the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca. The film Oaxaca: Mega March for Justice was also screened.

Global poverty and justice

PCS continued to work with War on Want as part of the Make Poverty History campaign, taking part in the ‘Global Call to Action Against Poverty’ in 2007. We continued to focus on trade justice, debt cancellation and ending ‘conditionality’ – which imposes privatisa­tion in developing countries as part of debt relief.

In May 2007, the Court of Appeal rejected the UK government’s bid to stop the Chagos Islanders from returning home but have since won leave to appeal. PCS has been working with the Chagos Islands Community Association to mobilise support for their campaign.

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Commercial sector

In 2007 we continued to build our organisation and influence in this important sector. Pay and off-shoring were among the most important issues.

Bargaining

Once again we have been able to secure above inflation pay rises for the majority of our members in the Commercial Sector. We have also reintroduced pay progression in parts of EDS against all expectations and improved starting pay for our lowest paid members in a number of different workplaces.

We have won multi year pay deals in EDS and Capita and creditable settlements in Siemens, Capgemini and Fujitsu. We have also successfully implemented the Two Tier Workforce Code in Haden which has substantially boosted starting pay. The reintroduction of pay progression in the IT industry is helping to address the pay gap between men and women in that industry but there remains more work to be done.

Campaigning

Last year many so-called experts were predicting that thousands of our members’ jobs would be sent ‘off­shore’ generating massive job losses. Our campaigning work in Parliament and with employers has helped keep the number of jobs off-shored in the Commercial Sector down to less than twenty. A great success, but we know it is a battle we will have to return to in the future.

We have also been campaigning to improve skill levels across the sector to protect jobs and pay in the future. We have signed a joint skills pledge with Working Links and started work on joint skills projects with Fujitsu and EDS.

We are also working with Unionlearn, Investors in People and others to develop a new skills standard for public services which will provide training for some of our lowest paid and most vulnerable workers.

Organising

We have secured improved recognition agreements with Fujitsu and Working Links. Plus we have reached a breakthrough agreement with Haden which provides full collective bargaining for all staff on the contract and recognises PCS for future central government contracts they may win. We are also set to agree a full collective bargaining agreement with Capita for the Filestores Contract.

Despite substantial job losses in the IT industry we have managed to maintain or increase our membership in this demanding sector especially among standard contract staff.
We have continued to organise effectively in the Alliance and Leicester Building Society and Atradius.

Communications

We have increased our level of locally produced communications and improved the quality of our magazine Commercial Break.
However we remain dissatisfied with our communications effort overall and aim to launch a new communications strategy in 2008 including making better use of electronic/ web based communications.

Training

We continue to use the Commercial Sector Forum to bring local representatives across the Commercial Sector up-to-date with developments in employment law and best practice.
We are also mapping the training profiles of representatives in the Commercial Sector, with a view to better tailoring the courses we provide.

This will continue to be a priority in the coming year, and we aim to ensure that we can improve the skills of all those who represent members in the Commercial Sector.

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Social and economic

Delegates to our Annual Delegate Conference voted for the union to campaign on a range of important social and economic issues in 2007.

Keeping services public

PCS continued to support the Defend Council Housing campaign, raising the need for affordable, decent and environmentally sustainable housing at TUC Congress, and in the form of a submission to a recent government consultation. In particular we emphasised the importance of affordable housing for young and low paid workers. Our Young Members’ network has been involved in joint campaigning with trade unions and the community in several areas of the country to defend council housing.

As part of our campaigning against privatisation in any area of the public services, we are active supporters of the NHS Together campaign. PCS members attended their national rally in London on 3 November. In addition, our branch secretaries have recently been sent copies of a pamphlet on health privatisation produced by the Keep Our NHS Public campaign group. We have also been active with other unions in the Public Services Not Private Profit campaign in arguing for properly funded and publicly owned transport services.

To assist in the campaign for a properly funded comprehensive education system we have offered support to the main education unions and requested relevant materials for distribution to PCS members. An article on the issue is planned for a future edition of our View magazine.

We have been involved in the campaign led by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions against the planned imposition of compulsory water charges on all house­holds in Northern Ireland. As a result of the campaign the plans have been suspended by the NI Assembly. PCS will continue to press for the plans to be abandoned.

Maternity pay

Our demand for full maternity pay for 39 weeks is one of the issues we are pursuing in the context of our negotiations with the Cabinet Office about securing greater coherence in pay and conditions.

Other issues

PCS has made clear our opposition to the renewal of Trident to the Secretary of State for Defence, and will work with the TUC to ensure that union campaigning on this issue prioritises protecting the jobs of those PCS members affected by potential cancellation.

We have given support to the campaign to defend Yunus Bakhsh, a leading Unison health activist who has been suspended from his job. We will continue to offer support until he is reinstated.

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Personnel policy

Personnel policy activity in 2007 was focused on supporting the national campaign to protect jobs and services by developing knowledge and resources for activists on well-being at work topics.

Personnel Policy Forum meetings have welcomed delegates from the Equality Forums to a number of events designed to broaden the input from across both the civil service and the commercial sector areas of the union.

These events have combined views from external speakers with case studies and lively debate of particular PCS concerns on issues such as work and job design and work-life balance. Further joint working has taken place to address members’ concerns such as atypical working patterns and caring responsibilities.

We are currently collecting information from carers and their representatives about the issues that they face in the workplace, their knowledge of and their ability to secure their rights at work and their priorities for action. This information will be fed into an NEC discussion paper on how to improve support and provision for carers’ needs.

Materials supporting all four strands of the original Well-Being at Work campaign (Health & Attendance Management, Learning & Skills, Performance & Appraisal and Work Life Balance) are now available on our website. Further resources will continue to be added.

In bargaining at national level we have used the demands from the four strands to argue for coherent well-being policies, supportive workplaces and improved management practices. The importance of training managers to manage a diverse workforce was emphasised in discussions with Government Skills. We are also continuing to monitor changes to facility time and are providing our representatives and negotiators with advice when appropriate.

The importance of line managers in personnel policy implementation has been a consistent theme throughout the Well-Being discussions. The revival of the PCS professional and managers’ advisory (PMA) group created an opportunity to produce resources to help members in these roles enhance their own skills and confidence to resist attacks on good practices.

Changes to structures at the Cabinet Office together with the union’s focus on the national campaign have resulted in limited progress being made on some of the issues raised at our national conference. However, the union will continue to highlight at every opportunity the importance of maintaining and improving those conditions of service that contribute to our members’ well-being at work.

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Campaigns and organising

During 2007, the campaigns and communications team, working closely with the Protect Public Services Unit, supported our national campaign in defence of jobs, pay and services. This included supporting the two days of national strike action in January and May, overseeing the summer of consultation which saw 25,000 members attending meetings to discuss taking the dispute forward, and using both the press and parliament to seek a resolution to the dispute.

The team has also supported many other campaigns across the union including:

• Two days of strike action in December 2007 in DWP over the imposition of the 2007 pay offer; in HMRC a sustained 18 month industrial action campaign in opposition to new working methods resulted in an agreement with the employer which members voted overwhelmingly for; strike action in DfES/DIUS over the compulsory transfer of 10 security officers to the private sector; and strike action at the National Museum Liverpool in opposition to derisory pay awards.
• Equality and equal pay in the Department for Transport, where we are seeking a judicial review against DfT for the way it applies its gender equality duty and submitted equal pay claims for members in DVLA. We also launched the Lets Keep VOSA safe campaign, against the privatisation of the work of the Vehicle & Operator Services Agency, and the Defend Jobs, Save Lives campaign in the HSE, which has so far seen a minor victory with management not invoking mobility clauses.
• Successfully campaigning for staff in the Child Support Agency to retain their civil servant status rather than become public servants when they are transferred to the new NDPB, the Child Maintenance Enforcement Commission.
• Campaigning against regional pay in the Ministry of Justice, where we secured an agreement from management that protects pay rates for all existing staff pay rates. However, from 1 August new staff will be paid at a lower rate. A priority in 2008 is to abolish this deeply unfair and unjust difference.

One of the most innovative and high profile campaigns of 2007 was the launch of our Make Your Vote Count campaign, a direct intervention into the Scottish Parliamentary, Welsh Assembly and local government elections held in May. The campaign aimed to seek the views of candidates from all political parties on our national campaigning issues as well as issues affecting our members at local level.

The campaign was a big success, challenging over 5,000 candidates, with over 2,000 responding. Three-hundred-and-fifty-three Make Your Vote Count branch co-ordinators were appointed and 32 candidate Question Time events were held across the country. We received congratulations from a number of other unions for taking a fresh approach to political campaigning.

In the prestigious press and PR awards we were highly commended for the best use of electronic communication for our YouTube broadcast and DVD urging members to vote ‘Yes’ in the January 2007 ballot for national industrial action. We were also commended for the way we explained why we were taking strike action on 31 January to the general public.

The judges particularly liked the way our message was ‘articulated by a good cross section of clearly impassioned members’. The union was also commended for our Ripping the Heart our of Public Services campaign in the best campaign section. It was described as ‘professionally run’ and a ‘creative approach to engaging members’.

Organising and learning services

We continued work on implementing our National Organising Strategy in 2007. We increased the number and coverage of distributors and lay officials recorded on our Commix membership system. The union continued to assist groups and branches to collect data on membership density levels. This data will help to improve our organisation and support our bargaining objectives.

We are working to clarify the detail of our subscription procedures. This will enable us to resolve the problems experienced by our part-year appointed members.

A thorough examination and review of our education programme for reps is being conducted. The review will consider how to improve the content and delivery of our training to ensure our reps have the skills and knowledge they need.
In recognition of the specialist nature of professional counselling services advice on what counselling involves has been produced in conjunction with the TUC.

Our network of Union Learning Reps continues to help members obtain access to training and formal qualifications. We are providing guidance to ensure this work is fully integrated into our wider organising and campaigning work.

Work to strengthen our Young Members Network and integrate the Young Members Charter into bargaining continued in 2007. We are now moving to elect Young Members’ reps at all levels. The Organising and Learning Department are also supporting the development of regional equality networks and assisting the Commercial Sector Review.
The national union is providing full support to our branch in the NHS Pensions Division following a decision by the employer to refuse to recognise our members on NHS terms.

Parliament and press

Once again it was a busy year for the PCS Parliamentary Group at Westminster, holding seven formal meetings in 2007 and many more parliamentary drop-ins and meetings with ministers. At the end of the year the group had 70 MPs as members.

In addition a series of ministers attended the parliamentary group meetings. These included Peter Hain MP, then Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, to discuss DWP pay and redundancies, and Gillian Merron MP, minister for the civil service, to discuss civil service pay and job cuts. We also held separate meetings with ministers, including then Chief Secretary to the Treasury Andy Burnham MP to discuss civil service pay coherence. In 2007 the group tabled over 100 parliamentary questions. During the 2006­7 parliamentary session we also tabled 22 Early Day Motions on a range of issues such as pay, privatisation and job cuts.

In the press PCS continues to punch above its weight among trade unions, gaining significant coverage for industrial stories and frequently called to comment on issues facing the civil service and public sector. The union is mentioned on average 700 times a month across local, regional and national media and in months with major strike action is regularly mentioned more than 1,000 times. During the year over 100 reps from across the county received media training helping to further boost our media profile.

Communications

We continued to professionally design and produce magazines for over 20 different groups and sections of the union, in addition to our all-member magazine View. New magazine titles for 2008 will include a magazine for black members and members of the PCS public sector group.

2007 saw the first full year of Activate, the magazine for PCS activists. Six full editions were produced in 2007 in addition to a conference special. Activate+, on the PCS website, has also been expanded to include more extended and in-depth articles. Our survey of Activate readers generated very positive feedback with activists saying that they felt it was a magazine by and for people like them. Issues raised by the survey will be addressed in early 2008, which will also see Activate incorporating Organise, our newsletter for organisers.

The intended re-launch of the PCS website during 2007 was delayed because of work generated by our national campaign and our new campaigning initiatives. However, by the end of 2007 work was well advanced to ensure the website will be re-launched by the time of our 2008 conference. The new website will address issues such as ease of navigation, out of date accessibility, a difficult to use content management system and lack of user friendly features such as a properly functioning search engine. The website will also continue to be developed as a campaigning tool.

Environment and green issues

Throughout 2007 PCS has been keen to assert that the environment and green agenda are important issues for trade unions. A joint PCS management and staff working party (with GMB involvement) has been considering how we can restructure our internal operations in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner.

Our conference set out a number of actions for the union to take to develop a green industrial agenda, provide resources for group and branch bargainers and support wider campaigns. Work to progress these is underway and resulted in a successful Green Forum held on 6 December in London. All branches were invited to provide a delegate and over a hundred did so. The event contributed to developing our thinking in relation to developing and supporting environmental activism at branch level.

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PCS structure and services

Commercial Sector Review

Our 2007 national conference voted to instruct the NEC to conduct a review of the role of the Commercial Sector within PCS. A Commercial Sector Review Team was then established to take forward the necessary work. The review will identify where and how we can grow as a union. We will also look at how we can improve liaison within the union to handle privatisations and transfers in more effective consistent ways.

Our wide ranging review will be taken forward in three stages: fact finding about the current position in terms of membership and organisation; using this data to take forward the recommendations called for by our conference; and detailed planning and commencing the implementation process.

An interim report with emerging recommendations will be put to the NEC, with a full report to our 2008 national conference and the Commercial Sector Forum.

The Review Team wants to conduct the review thoroughly, recognising its strategic importance to PCS. It will start to take shape early in 2008 with work on some elements completed before our next conference. However to do this job properly we will need to continue the work well into 2008.

Full-time officer review

In carrying motion A94 our 2007 national conference reaffirmed its view that extending elections beyond the level of senior full-time officers, and bringing the pay of our full-time officers more into line with the pay of our members, could be important means of continuing the development of PCS into a more democratic, accountable and effective trade union.

Prior to conference the union had completed a detailed review of the complex organisational, democratic and management issues raised by extending elections and changing pay. This involved conducting a consultation with our branches. Following this our conference decided that further consideration needed to be given to the issues identified by the review and the consultation.

Motion A94 also noted that our priority must be to ensure that work in this area does not inadvertently undermine our ability to achieve our national campaign demands.

Conducting such work in 2007 would have absorbed a considerable proportion of the time of many of our full-time officers and leading lay activists. This would have diverted resources from what is currently our over-riding priority: the successful resolution of our national civil service/NDPB dispute.

The NEC therefore decided that given the number and complexity of the industrial challenges we currently face, and given the result of the consultation with branches, the large majority of our members would expect the union to focus its time and resources on making real progress toward achieving our campaign demands. The NEC agreed that the additional work called for by motion A94 should await the conclusion of our national dispute. This decision is being kept under review.

Legal services

We continue to represent many members, their partners and dependent children who have suffered personal injury and we have recovered substantial sums. Our 2007 national conference endorsed a report from the NEC which contained a series of recommendations on how we should improve our handling of legal and personal cases. The NEC will continue to monitor their implementation.

Our representatives receive advice, support and guidance on handling personal cases through the ‘Resources For Reps’ part of the PCS website. This contains various guides including a dedicated personal folder, Labour Research’s Law at Work booklet, details of training courses, and the Employment Law Scheme with Thompsons Solicitors where designated and trained union reps can directly access legal advice and support.

We now provide training on the handling of Employment Tribunal cases in line with conference policy. We supply all Labour Research Department’s booklets directly to branches and are preparing to re­issue a revised personal case folder and produce a legal advice contact card to each member in 2008.

Credit union

Work to establish a PCS Credit Union has continued throughout 2007. Conference received a detailed report explaining the work done and setting out the necessary processes up to a launch date in 2008. While a good level of interest has been expressed by members, the crucial task during 2008 is signing up members and identifying volunteers to run the Credit Union. Work in preparing the campaign for this was being finalised at the end of 2007.

PCS+

Membership services offered under the PCS+ badge continue to be well received and used by members. They provide a useful income derived through commissions and advertising. A revised and updated ‘Essential Guide’ will be sent to members with the February edition of View magazine. This guide sets out all the services and discounts available. Copies of current edition are available from your Branch Secretary.

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Rule amendments

The PCS Rule book was amended to take account of changes agreed by our 2007 conference. A ballot was held on removing PR16 and appendix C, with an overwhelming vote in favour.

Motion A26

Introducing a revised Supplementary Rule 10.

Motion A273

Replacing Supplementary Rule 6.37 introducing NEC support for 30 branch-elected observers to ADC.

Motion A29

Removing Principal Rule 16 referring to Appendix C,replacing Supplementary Rule 3.14, inserting new Supplementary Rule 9.19, removing Appendix C and associated amendments, relating to subscriptions.

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NEC attendance record

In accordance with PCS Rule 7.22, the following table shows the attendance record of NEC members at NEC and NEC committee meetings between 1 January and 31 December 2007.

The figures in brackets show the number of occasions on which the NEC member could have attended. Absence from NEC meetings could be due to other urgent union business, sick leave or domestic leave. 

Attendance record of the national executive committee

Name	NEC	Committees
Janice Godrich	22(24)	4(9)
Dave Bean	20(24)	9(10)
Sue Bond	21(24)	11(11)
Kevin Kelly	20(24)	19(26)
Glenys Morris	23(24)	10(13)
Ian Albert	20(24)	8(11)
Rod Bacon	5(11)	1(1)
Mark Baker	18(24)	1(2)
Alan Brown	21(24)	5(8)
Paula Brown	7(11)	0(0)
Moira Campbell	8(24)	0(0)
Christine Chorlton	24(24)	9(9)
Martin Clements	8(11)	0(1)
Steve Comer	14(24)	6(16)
Tony Conway	20(24)	3(4)
Alan Dennis	18(24)	-
Joy Dunn	18(24)	2(3)
Mary Ferguson	12(24)	1(2)
Derrick Gartshore	16(24)	2(7)
Cheryl Gedling	23(24)	3(5)
Kevin Greenway	22(24)	3(4)
Zita Holbourne	24(24)	6(6)
John Jamieson	9(13)	2(3)
Martin John	20(24)	2(6)
Neil Licence	20(24)	2(3)
Marion Lloyd	18(24)	2(5)
Dominic McFadden	23(24)	1(5)
Kevin McHugh	13(13)	7(9)
John McInally	23(24)	2(2)
John Moloney	10(11)	0(1)
Chris Morrison	14(24)	4(6)
Andrew Reid	24(24)	2(2)
Dave Richards	7(13)	2(5)
Victoria Steeples	23(24)	2(2)
Graham Taylor	14(24)	4(13)
Hector Wesley	24(24)	1(2)
Paul Williams	9(13)	1(3)
Rob Williams	15(24)	2(4)
Danny Williamson	12(24)	0(2)
Garry Winder	18(24)	2(7)
Sevi Yesildalli	14(24)	1(4)