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Annual report 2011

 

Foreward

This year has been dominated by the government’s cuts and the impact these will have on the public sector, those working in our commercial sector areas, and society as a whole.

Members’ jobs, pay, and pensions have been under attack like never before as part of a widespread assault on the public sector and the welfare state.

Members can be proud of the efforts made by our union in countering the cuts consensus in the 2010 election campaign and throughout the year. We have put forward a powerful and credible alternative which sets out the case against cuts in public spending. Public sector workers did not cause this crisis and should not pay for it – this simple fact informs all our campaigning.

The previous government attempted to serve up huge cuts in members’ redundancy arrangements through cuts to the civil service compensation scheme (CSCS). Thanks to members’ resolute industrial action and a strong legal action, resulting in victories in the High Court, the union managed to rebuff the previous government’s attacks.

However, the new coalition government has forced legislation through parliament which cuts our redundancy scheme and removes the need for union agreement to changes. Nevertheless, we believe there is a viable legal challenge to again defeat this crass move to make members’ redundant on the cheap.

We have worked closely, and deepened our working relationships, with a number of unions throughout the year. We now work closely with the nine unions of the trade union co-ordinating group (TUCG), and have forged an alliance with Unison to fight the cuts at local, regional and national level. We have also met with other unions including Unite and CWU to co-ordinate campaigning.

Local reps are the backbone of the union and we would like to conclude by thanking them for the vital work they do for members. We will both be addressing many branch AGMs in 2011 and would encourage all members to attend the branch AGM and to contribute your views.

Our organising and campaigning activity in 2010, plus the links we have built with other unions, has strengthened our ability to face the huge challenges that 2011 brings, which will almost inevitably include industrial action, and quite likely co-ordinated action, to defend members and the services they provide. 
 
Mark Serwotka      Janice Godrich
General secretary  President

Protecting public services

Public services in the UK are under serious threat from the coalition government’s massive cuts in public spending. Over the next five years the Treasury believes that at least 2,000 jobs a week will be cut from the public sector as a direct result of the government’s spending cuts, amounting to over half a million jobs. Many of these will come from the civil service and the vital public services that civil servants deliver.

It is now the key and central concern of PCS to oppose the destruction and selling off of key public functions and services. As such, we have developed a major national campaign against the cuts that draws attention to the destructive effect they will have on the nation’s social fabric – as mandated by motion A1 of our 2010 annual conference – and also promotes a positive alternative programme of economic growth and social justice, as laid out in conference motion A122.

PCS believes the government’s spending cuts are being driven by an ideological hostility to the public sector, and are economically damaging and dangerous. We support the analysis of many leading economists who are clear that public spending cuts and public sector redundancies on the scale now envisaged risk destroying the shaky economic recovery, thus plunging Britain into a further period of recession.

Given the scale of the public spending cuts outlined in the October 2010 spending review, PCS also fears there will be a massive extension of privatisation and outsourcing, meaning a race to the bottom to deliver social and welfare services that make a profit rather than to respond to individual and social need.

The spending review also confirmed government plans to develop a new right for public sector workers to form employee-owned co-operatives and mutuals to take over the services they deliver. This will almost inevitably act as a Trojan horse for eventual privatisation.

Even before the coming to power of the coalition government, a wide variety of civil service bodies were already identified as ripe for privatisation or to operate on profit-making commercial models, a move which invariably paves the way for privatisation. The coalition government has since confirmed the privatisation and selling off of core parts of the Land Registry and the Forestry Commission.

As a result of cuts to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the British Museum is considering plans to close early to the public in order to provide private functions for corporate clients while a 36% cut in the budget of the Royal Parks will mean major reductions in services and access. The budgets of many regional museums and galleries have been brutally axed and bodies such as the UK Film Council, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council and the Theatres Trust have been abolished.

The sale of parts of the Forestry Commission as well as privatising the Met Office, one of the world’s leading research organisations on climate change, is part of a wider programme of privatisation and scaling back of environmental protection bodies such as British Waterways, Natural England (which faces the possible sell-off of minority and/or majority stakes in national nature reserves to private concerns), and the Environment Agency – a programme which has led to protest from both PCS and the Campaign to Protect Rural England.

In the Department for Work and Pensions, ministers have reneged on a pledge to redeploy Jobcentre Plus staff delivering the former pathways to work programme, and there could be further privatisation of services to the long term unemployed. In the Ministry of Defence there is a serious possibility that defence training will be privatised, and defence supply is also targeted for future privatisation.

The UK Hydrographic Office, currently a public sector trading fund, is undergoing a status review with the likely result that it will be partly privatised. If this went ahead, only an estimated 80 or so of the existing 1,100 staff would remain in the public sector. The Royal Mint, having already been “vested”, is now in line for possible privatisation, although PCS is fighting a major anti-privatisation campaign.

Within HMRC the Aspire contract was extended in March 2010 to run to 2017, meaning that more tax processing will be off-shored to India.

It has also been announced that HMRC will expand the use of private debt collection agencies to collect £140 million of existing tax revenue. Both PCS and consumer forums have been very critical of these agencies. Motion A27 highlighted these and similar concerns with reference to the British Council’s off-shoring of IT jobs, and the union is developing new campaigns to oppose off-shoring and defend the

integrity of civil service jobs within the public sector. Motion A6 addressed the costs of contracting out and the poor returns from doing so, concerns which the national executive continues to incorporate into all our anti-cuts campaigning work. The Cabinet Office’s Commission on Ownership, announced by Tessa Jowell in December 2009, has not been continued by the new government.

PCS believes the best way to defend public services, and to deal with the economic crisis inflicted on the country by the banking sector, is not to cut jobs, but create them. If the government cuts jobs that will only worsen the deficit as there will be more unemployed, who will then spend less and pay less tax. There are better ways to address the deficit, not least collecting the £120 billion of tax uncollected, evaded or avoided each year by major corporations and the super-rich, which amounts to nearly three quarters of the total deficit.

The government also owns over £850 billion in bank assets accrued as a result of the bailout of the financial sector. With political will these assets could be used to invest in public services and renewable energy, and to tackle poverty and social exclusion.

PCS’s ‘There is an alternative’ campaign seeks to bring these messages together and to popularise them among the trade union movement and the wider public. PCS is also at the forefront of initiatives to bring all public sector unions together to defend the welfare state, and has signed a mutual accord with the public sector union Unison to campaign together to protect the public services on which this country relies, pursuing joint action and campaigns to ward off spending cuts, pay freezes, cuts in benefits and increases of pension contributions.

Campaigning and communications

Campaigns

Campaign materials were produced to support the successful ballot and the strikes in March 2010 to defend the civil service compensation scheme. Campaign materials were also produced to support a ‘yes’ vote in the winter 2010/11 ballot to reject the coalition government’s compensation scheme and support the national campaign.

A comprehensive range of materials were produced to support activists in their fights against cuts. These materials, which were themed, ‘There is an alternative’, were aimed at persuading members and the public that there is a strong and economically sound case against public spending cuts.

Our pamphlet ‘There is an alternative’ was launched at the TUC, and helped to shift the terms of the debate. The publication has since been emulated by many other unions, and branches have ordered more than 100,000 of the pamphlets and tens of thousands of the associated leaflets.

The campaigns and communications department has continued to support group campaigns across the union in response to the government’s cuts agenda.

Revenue and Customs group campaigning continues to feed into the wider tax justice campaign, using the cuts there to demonstrate the false economy behind cutting staff that bring in more revenue than is saved by job cuts.

In the Department for Work and Pensions a campaign on behalf of members on fixed term appointments has received terrific support in parliament with over 125 MPs supporting a motion calling for them to be made permanent.

The Land Registry group ran a high profile campaign that saved the majority of offices threatened with closure. Local campaigning, frequent ministerial meetings setup through the parliamentary group and a well attended lobby of parliament were key to its success.

Other campaigns include the ‘Justice under the hammer’ campaign against cuts and court closures in the justice sector, a ‘Save our cultural assets’ campaign in response to Department for Culture, Media and Sport cuts, and a high profile Identity and Passport Service campaign in opposition to office closures.

Make Your Vote Count

Our Make Your Vote Count campaign was undertaken for the first time during a general election. Some activity also took place in local elections where there were BNP and other far right candidates standing for election. No BNP candidates were successful in any of these elections, many lost their seats.

As part of our general election campaign we selected five target constituencies per region/ nation based on: the incumbent’s majority, PCS membership level, government or party profile, specific local industrial issues, and whether the BNP was standing. We sent out more than 29,000 letters to members encouraging them to get involved in our campaign.

Branches were asked to appoint or elect a co-ordinator to identify workplace issues to challenge candidates on, alongside our pledges.

Branch co-ordinators also encouraged members to send an email to their candidates using the interactive tool on our website and then published the responses to members. Over 2,600 emails were sent to candidates using this interactive tool.

Political campaigning consultation

In line with motion A40, branches were consulted on how standing and supporting candidates in elections might work in practice. A consultation booklet and DVD was produced for branches, over one in seven of which responded to the consultation. The January national executive (NEC) agreed a final report, which will be published online and sent to branches. The NEC will put a further motion to this year’s annual conference based on the outcome of the consultation.

Communications

We continued to publish View for all PCS members, Activate for PCS activists and produced 22 different magazines for PCS’s groups and associations. Website usage increased exponentially during 2010. There have been more than 10,000,000 page views in 2010, an increase of just under 96% from the same time period last year. In October alone 158,000 different users visited the site. Over 7,500 have signed up for our e-newsletter, our Twitter account has more than 2,300 followers and continues to rise, and 1,800 are members of our Facebook group.

Press and parliament

PCS retained a high profile in the media during 2010. At a national level the strike action in March attracted a high level of media interest. During the summer and the conference season, PCS ensured that the media was used effectively to argue for an alternative economic strategy.

The general election saw a significant number of our parliamentary group MPs leave parliament. John McDonnell continued to chair the group and Elfyn Llwyd, John Leech and Caroline Lucas were appointed vice-chairs. The number of members of the group increased to its highest ever level, with over 70 members. The group was prominent in the parliamentary progress of the superannuation bill and provided effective opposition to the bill.

The year also saw an increase in the level of regional and local media activity, with activists and regional offices highlighting the regional effect of the cuts. Our campaigning in parliament was made significantly more effective by the thousands of members lobbied their MPs using e-actions from our website.

Organising

During the year the priorities for organising have been the implementation of the national organising strategy 2010 and supporting the national campaign. A full report on the work around the national organising strategy will be provided to conference 2011.

To support the national campaign there have been three main strands. Work has been done in supporting groups and regions to develop their
organising action plans. A key objective in these plans being to increase density and identify and develop new activists to ensure our organisation is in place to face the challenges that government policies have created.

The second strand was the development of a series of courses to support both new activists and more experienced ones in terms of the campaign. These new courses have been offered both as short modules or combined into a single campaign course. Areas covered vary from skills such as public speaking and campaigning to more factually based modules such as the PCS alternative.

The third strand was to mobilise support for the various activities such as lobbies and demonstrations which form part of the national campaign. As part of this links have been built with other unions and community organisations to maximise support for joint campaigning to defend public services.

Work is also being carried forward on organising in a hostile environment to ensure we are prepared for any attacks on areas such as facilities and check off if they occur. In particular plans for joining by direct debit online have been put in place and strategies for working with departments who have low membership levels which might threaten recognition are being prioritised.

The department is also working with research to see how facilities are currently allocated and to develop advice on good practice. While working jointly with campaigns we are looking at how use can be made of IT and social networking to provide other methods of communication.

During 2010 we have also been successful in building membership and gaining recognition in a number of areas including the Gambling Commission and the Commission for Employment and Skills. A major campaign with Mitie has secured recognition and the commercial sector is currently working with organising to develop a number of new areas.

Work to build the young members’ network continues with many of our young members playing an active role against the cuts. Materials specifically targeted towards young people and the campaign was produced. A successful forum was held at the beginning of the year and young members’ week in September was used to mobilise young people around the national campaign. Work is also being done in conjunction with teaching unions to support teaching trade unionism in schools.

This year has seen the integration of the work of bargainers and organisers into the role of industrial officers. Training has been provided to ensure that the bargaining and organising agenda are closely linked which is crucial in the climate we are now working.

Organising continues to work closely with the learning team to ensure the provision of suitable training to develop and train both new and existing activists.

Jane Brooke

PCS is giving the maximum support to victimised PCS branch secretary Jane Brooke from the Land Registry in Weymouth, including full legal backing (motion A44), following Jane’s dismissal. An employment tribunal heard the case in January 2011. We hope the tribunal will expose the unjust actions of management, including the misuse of covertly acquired video surveillance in a flawed disciplinary process, to victimise Jane and other PCS members. We expect to be undertaking further press and campaigning work about the wider issues arising in this case after the hearing.

Civil service compensation scheme

Earlier this year the government announced that it would impose cuts in the civil service compensation scheme (CSCS). We pursued a dispute on three fronts: legal action, national industrial action, and political campaigning.

PCS members took three days of strike action in March 2010 – 8 and 9 March, and then a third day to coincide with the budget on 24 March.
 
The new compensation scheme terms came into force on 1 April 2010. The union pursued a judicial review of the government’s imposition of changes to the CSCS without the unions’ agreement.

At annual conference 2010 in motions A660 and A9 endorsed our national executive’s (NEC) approach so far and laid down a strategy for
future action.

A total of 176 MPs signed up to early day motion (EDM) 251 before the general election was called.

Members took part in high profile political campaigning during the general election period.

In two judgements in May and June 2010, the High Court ruled that the government’s attempt to introduce detrimental changes to the scheme was unlawful and would remove accrued rights.

On 23 June 2010, PCS suggested a return to the negotiating table. Instead, on 8 July the government introduced a new superannuation bill,

which aimed to cap civil service redundancy pay and remove the need for redundancy terms to be agreed with the recognised unions.

During the summer talks took place, albeit conducted under the threat that legislation would be used to cap redundancy pay, should agreement not be reached. PCS fully participated in these talks, through the Council of Civil Service Unions (CCSU).

On 24 September the Cabinet Office issued a final offer, with marginal improvements on the proposed scheme. All the CCSU unions formally agreed that the offer was not acceptable.

The minister Francis Maude declared that he would seek an agreement with five unions – Prospect, FDA, POA, Unite and GMB – representing a minority of civil servants and break off talks with the CCSU. This meant PCS, which is by far the largest civil service union, was excluded from further negotiations. POA subsequently rejected the proposals.

Also, the government laid amendments to the bill, which changed the 1972 Superannuation Act so that agreement of unions, about detrimental changes to accrued rights, would no longer be needed.

The other unions, representing only 20% of staff, entered into a separate agreement with the government, even while CCSU discussions were taking place.

On 4 October a formal offer was received by CCSU. Following consideration, both the PCS and POA national executives decided that the offer was unacceptable and wrote to the minister calling for further talks.

A further period for talks was agreed. The minister told the House of Commons that he would “strain every sinew” to reach an agreement on the scheme, with all six unions. PCS wrote to him stating that its NEC was meeting on 26 October and, following that meeting, would set out proposals for reaching a satisfactory outcome.

On the 26 October the minister attended the PCS parliamentary reception. PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka informed Mr Maude that PCS would be submitting further proposals. The minister welcomed this and confirmed that if the CCSU approached him he would be content to re-open talks.

PCS set out in detail to the CCSU its proposals on 1 November. On 9 November, the CCSU wrote seeking discussions to cost proposals to cap redundancy pay, at a level which would provide sufficient resources to guarantee accrued rights to those in a redundancy situation.
However, the minister responded by stating that the window for talks had closed.

The government refused negotiations over a plan put forward by PCS to better protect the lowest paid civil servants who face the threat of losing their jobs as a result of spending cuts. Instead it is protecting the highest paid, at the expense of staff on low and medium incomes.

Building on the support for EDM 251 before the May election, 186 MPs signed EDM 301 in the current parliamentary session.

The Treasury has imposed a cost envelope – a total amount of money that would set the parameters of any agreement. The details have not been explained. We believe, however, that the costs have been calculated on the basis of the large numbers of jobs the government plans to cut.

The two largest unions PCS and the Prison Officers’ Association, representing over 60% of all civil servants, balloted members and recommended rejection of the government offer. In both unions 90% of members rejected the government’s imposed scheme.

PCS now intends to challenge the scheme under human rights legislation.

Council of Civil Service Unions

During 2010 it became clear that there was need to modernise and democratise the structure of the Council of Civil Service Unions (CCSU).

PCS has, with the other national civil service unions (Prospect, FDA, NIPSA and POA), been reviewing the arrangements by which they both work together and engage with the civil service at a national level. 

Agreement has been reached with the constituent unions to dissolve and discontinue the CCSU, and meetings to seek to agree new arrangements were held at the start of 2011.

These changes and potential developments do not indicate any change in the agreements which existed between the CCSU and its constituent
unions and the civil service, nor to the longstanding joint working arrangements between the unions and management in departments.

At the time of writing discussions were expected to focus on a formula for union-based bargaining via a committee which would have a primary role of ensuring liaison and co-ordination among unions on matters of common interest.

Charles Cochrane, secretary of the CCSU, retired at the end of 2010 after many years of outstanding work for the civil service trade unions.

Pay

On 22 June, as part of the emergency budget, the chancellor announced a two-year pay freeze for all public sector employees, which includes PCS members in the civil and public services, earning more than £21,000 a year. Those earning £21,000 or less would receive at least £250 in each of the two years.

In 2010 this meant for many PCS members, no longer covered by a multi-year deal, there has been no pay negotiations – only discussions around a nationally imposed policy. No discussions took place with unions before this policy was announced and in many areas very little discussion took place at a local level about how the pay policy would be applied.

For many members, including those in the Department for Work and Pensions, not only did they have their pay frozen but they also did not receive their progression payments either, resulting in a double whammy which significantly cut their pay in real terms. In other areas, such as the Department for Transport and most of its agencies and in part the Home Office, negotiators were able to secure contractual progression payments for members. For those members in multi-year deals the pay freeze will commence in 2011.

Because of the way in which the £21,000 was calculated to include location allowances, members in London were disproportionately affected. Some smaller areas even tried to avoid paying the minimum £250 payment but we managed to enforce this and in numerous areas achieved a higher amount for those on £21,000 or less.

Our members in the commercial sector have also faced derisory, below inflation increases and in some areas have mounted successful industrial challenges to this. A pay forum for the commercial sector is scheduled for early in the new year and they will be discussing the establishment of a standard national pay claim similar to what we produce for our public sector members.

PCS has held numerous parliamentary briefings and drop-in sessions for MPs where we have highlighted the issues of low and unequal pay.

Also, we have continued to argue for common national pay for all civil servants to eliminate the huge gaps in pay between members in different departments.

As part of our objective to introduce national pay and contractual minimum to maximum progression in five years or less, PCS has pursued a number of strategic legal cases which have sought to strengthen our negotiating position on these issues.

Most notably we are pursuing an equal pay claim by executive officers in the DVLA, who are claiming parity with driving examiners in the Driving Standards Agency. We have won the first stage of this claim which allows PCS to make the comparison. Should we be successful this would be a significant move forward in our progress towards achieving national pay for civil servants.

PCS is also exploring using legal avenues to challenge discriminatory bonus pay systems and have written to the Equality and Human Rights Commission urging it to intervene on this issue.

We have also been fully involved in the Will Hutton review which was commissioned earlier this year to look at fair pay. We expressed concern at the limited remit in the terms of reference and our fears were confirmed when the interim report was published on 1 December.

It has focused on the narrow issue of introducing a 20:1 ratio for pay within the public sector which would not allow anyone to earn more than 20 times more than the lowest paid member of staff. This fails to address the real problems with civil service pay. Throughout the process we have sought to broaden the scope of the review to address the severe inequalities and problems of low pay within the civil service.

PCS has worked closely with the Fair Pay Network, which has campaigned on issues such as the living wage with other unions and community organisations. We have written to the government urging it to agree that all directly and indirectly employed government workers in London should receive at least the london living wage.

In early 2011 PCS is planning a joint PCS/Unison survey of members’ finances. The survey will establish some basic information in terms of members’ incomes and what benefits they rely on, and from this information analyse the impact of the budget and the comprehensive spending review on our members’ finances. We hope that this will provide us with some powerful information to use both in negotiations and campaigning on pay.

PCS will also be considering a 2011 pay claim which will include some of the policies agreed at the 2010 conference such as opposing flexible starting pay and reducing hours to 35 hours a week.

Pensions

The Hutton inquiry

The union submitted evidence directly and also contributed to CCSU and TUC submissions to the independent public service pensions commission headed by Lord John Hutton. The union is pursuing a legal challenge to the proposed change from the RPI measure of inflation to CPI for annual increases.

Following the publication of Lord Hutton’s interim report in early October, we submitted further evidence and also took the opportunity, via the TUC, of meeting Lord Hutton. Government announcements in 2011 were expected to include an average increase in pension contributions of 3% and a possible raising of the pension age. Unions, including the NUT and UCU, are discussing ballots for industrial action over pension cuts, and the PCS national executive has called for unity and co­ordination in defending pensions.

Joint committee on superannuation

The joint committee on superannuation met three times during the year with the Cabinet Office. Issues raised by the union have included: age discrimination, partial retirement and abatement, the Fair Deal, the Hutton Report, pension increases, ill health retirement and the role of the scheme management board. As a result of conference decisions in 2010 we have been seeking compensation for those people outside the normal civil service compensation scheme arrangements, securing support from other unions to persuading government to increase the tax free allowance on compensation and pressing for the TUC to take a more robust line in matters concerning pensioners (motion 17 which was remitted).

Pensions administration

Recently the various pension admin centres (APACs) which were managed by a number of separate departments, were merged into a single organisation, and this is now part of the Department for Work and Pensions. PCS has been dealing with the impact of this change on members working in these areas, and we were able to secure two places on the new scheme management board for our nominees. In addition, we have two representatives on the scheme governance group, which will be considering the future valuation of the scheme.

Associate and retired members

Our associate and retired members (ARMs) continued with a review of its relationships with other structures of the union. We also published four issues of the ARMs newsletter during the year.

At the pensioners’ parliament with our campaigns team, Department for Work and Pensions and Revenue and Customs groups, ARMs had a display on the theme of protecting public services and hosted a small reception to draw attention to our jobs and services campaign.

The 2010 ARMs forum was held in Blackpool in June. A summary was included in the ARMs newsletter and on the PCS website. Many of our ARMs members continued to show a tremendous amount of commitment to our work and campaigns.

International

The union’s international strategy continued through 2010 – with the main focus of the national campaign in defence of jobs, pay, pensions and civil and public services reflected through the international agenda.

We have been active in Europe, promoting the union’s ‘There is an alternative’ campaign through Public Services International (PSI) and its European wing, the European Federation of Public Services Unions (EPSU), in addition to progressing social bargaining issues and legislative changes that affect PCS members. We continue to play a key part on committees, determining how both organisations operate.

PCS continues to be active and better represented across global union federations and European industrial federations through the international activities of groups playing a key part in the areas of taxation, air traffic control, driving standards and prisons overcrowding.

Conference motion A622 gave full support to the Greek trade union federations and our sister union Adedy, in their fight against the huge cuts in public sector jobs, pensions and wages under the banner of ‘austerity measures’. The international committee chair led a delegation of group, youth and equality network representatives to participate in the European Trade Union Confederation day of action against the cuts on 28 September, and the vice chair of the international committee represented the union at Adedy’s delegate congress in December, as part of the union’s efforts to establish links and develop joint working.

Work has been ongoing with the Stop the War Coalition and other organisations on the issue of Afghanistan (A67), and the union supported and participated in the ‘Time to Go’ demonstration on 20 November.

Parliamentary activity has been developed on the issue of universal jurisdiction (A68) through briefings .for the union’s parliamentary group. The union has campaigned, with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, to lobby MPs to make public their opposition to any changes in the law on the issue and sign up to EDM 108 ‘Human rights and the law’.

Continued progress of the union’s policy on Palestine and Gaza, has seen the development a boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) toolkit for members as part of the trade union movement call for a consumer boycott. We continue to work closely with other unions, the PSC and the TUC, which in 2010 agreed a resolution to take the BDS campaign to the next level following the attack on the aid ship Mavi Marmara bound for Gaza. The union continues to support national demonstrations and campaign for a free and independent Palestine.

Development awareness remains as a priority, despite the failure to secure a grant from the Department for International Development to undertake continuing development awareness work with members. A regionally-based pilot project using unspent resources from the International Development Learning Fund has been developed and will be launched in early 2011.

We will continue to work with War on Want, as part of the tax justice/havens campaign, promoting a properly-resourced and fairly administered tax system for the  benefit of the UK and globally.

Health and safety

An increasingly anti-health and safety climate has been generated by the political agenda to reduce regulatory burdens on businesses, attacks on health and safety legislation, funding cuts at the Health and Safety Executive, and much media propaganda undermining the principles of health and safety.

PCS has increased our focus on preventative strategies to ensure workplaces at all levels are safer, healthier and to protect members’ well-being. This includes progressing conference 2010 motions on repealing Crown Immunity to put the Crown on a par with other employers, lobbying for legal, work-related stress standards and proper enforcement. We have also considered how best to proceed with work on the remitted motion on monitoring workplace temperatures.

Work-related stress is one of the main health and safety issues for members, and the union has engaged with various national newspapers and research teams to publicise the situation our members face. New stress posters have been issued to reps with guidance on how to tackle work-related stress. Reps continue to negotiate for anti-stress policies and press for training for all managers.

Once again, a full PCS delegation attended the Hazards Conference, themed ‘Supporting life-saving representatives whatever the government’, which we sponsored. PCS has supported the Hazards campaign to challenge health and safety myths and to build broad-based and sustainable support to protect workplace health and safety.

Other issues covered by our national health and safety forum included identifying priority health and safety issues that can feed into PCS’s national campaigns. A watchful eye was kept on the implementation and effectiveness of the new sick note or ‘fit note’ and any detrimental impact on all members. Guidance was provided for representatives on changes of the ‘fit note’.

A joint investigation was completed, in liaison with other trade unions, of health and safety issues regarding the use of Tetra-Airwave safety equipment, there was also publicity of the New International Labour Standard on HIV and AIDS. The union supported Workers’ Memorial Day, European health and safety week and health at work events and local action, and encouraged safety representatives to complete the TUC’s eighth safety representatives survey.

Equality

Public spending cuts threaten to have a disproportionately negative impact on women, disabled people, black people, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) people. The cuts would further entrench the poverty and social deprivation experienced by disadvantaged groups.

PCS continues to challenge inequality and ensure that equality is integrated into our campaigns. We are a diverse union and that makes us stronger. Fighting inequality together will help stop in their tracks the far right’s attempts to blame minorities for the impact of public service cuts. PCS reps at all levels have taken up issues faced by all under-represented groups, ensuring relevance to all members.

PCS is putting pressure on departments to carry out and publish equality impact assessments to consider the likely effects of cuts on people in terms of race, disability and gender and remove any negative or adverse impact which amounts to unlawful discrimination.

The PCS equality reps project produced an equality reps handbook which includes a definitive national role for branch equality officers, and model facilities agreement, together with information on ways of identifying and removing barriers to equality, equality duties, equality impact assessments, relevant legislation, Make Your Vote Count and migrant workers.

In relation to motions A13 and A86, we have improved, published and disseminated information on how iMembership can be accessed.

Equality, communications and IT departments have issued further promotional material to activists and members to complete equality data to enable us to continually tackle deficits identified. Joining forms for national and regional equality committees/networks are being merged into a single form for newly-established democratic structures. Equality and campaigns have worked closely to ensure that all goods, services or marketing materials meet the required equality standards.

The equality bill became law in 2010, which brought together nine separate pieces of legislation simplifying the law. Our parliamentary group campaigned to strengthen the bill, to extend its provisions to recognise workplace equality reps and introduce mandatory pay audits and against the dilution of existing duties.

Disability equality

Discussions around ‘access to work’ across all government departments are ongoing in relation to motion A277.

Mental health

The disability forum made mental health a priority for 2010.

PCS has supported the ‘Rethink Don’t Count Me Out’ campaign. Currently the rules determining eligibility to serve as a member of a jury mean that people who have fluctuating mental conditions and have declared that they have been treated for mental health illnesses are not technically eligible for jury service. The ‘Don’t Count Me Out’ campaign seeks to change the current rules setting out eligibility to participate in jury service so mental health conditions are assessed on a capacity basis, rather than the blanket approach that has been encapsulated by legislation. The ‘Don’t count me out’ campaign was the subject of the PCS motion submitted to the TUC disability conference, and was carried. PCS also supported the Rethink guidance on managing mental health in the workplace guidance.

Disability History Month

This was the first year that there was formal recognition for Disability History Month, which ran from 22 November to 22 December. PCS has asked members to lobby their MPs to support EDM 986 submitted by Anne Begg MP.

A PCS booklet, outlining how the government’s cuts programme will adversely impact on disabled people, will be distributed to branches.

In addition PCS has participated in a disabled trade unionists oral history project.

Campaigning women

The annual PCS National Women’s Seminar theme was about campaigning and organising. PCS women looked at how to defend workers and public services against the current attacks from government and business vested interests in light of the lessons of trade union history.

PCS women have explored organising, campaigning and negotiating strategies to engage all our members in putting forward alternatives to
the damaging mainstream approach to dealing with the recession.

The national women’s forum has identified that working part-time is essential for many PCS members, particularly women. Improving and protecting rights and working conditions for part-time workers are therefore important concerns. PCS research shows that many part-time workers still feel undervalued and are subjected to derogatory comments and a lack of understanding about their decision to work part-time.

Race equality

PCS regional black members’ networks – democratic constituencies

To fulfil the terms of motions carried at ADC 2009, PCS undertook a consultation (Black Members Moving On – Next Steps) of PCS membership in March 2010 to seek endorsement and reaffirmation to organise in democratic constituencies for the PCS regional black members’ networks and establish the basis for a PCS race equality strategy forum.

The consultation resulted in a ‘yes’ vote that enabled the first round of formal elections to take place at regional level for positions on each of the regional black members’ networks. This process concluded in May. PCS now has elected officers running the regional black members’ networks. The networks have one elected representative who has a position on the national black members’ committee (NBMC) to perform the function as primary link between the NBMC and the PCS regional black members’ networks, with a view to supporting the work of the national executive and the NBMC.

PCS race equality strategy forum

Arrangements have been made for the first PCS race equality strategy forum to take place in 2011. The aim of that forum is to discuss proposals that should form part of the PCS race equality strategy. PCS regional black members’ networks are entitled to elect five representatives from their networks. The national black members’ committee will be in attendance.

Hands off our DNA

The national black members’ committee has continued with the campaign to put pressure on the government to change its blanket collection and retention of DNA in England and Wales. Despite rulings criticising the manner in which the government retains DNA in England and Wales, the government has not made any moves towards harmonising the DNA system to the way it is operated in Scotland.

The government has recently stated that it intends to introduce profiling in the way the police stop and search people. Such a move will not only further marginalise and criminalise black people, but will further erode civil liberties and increase the capacity for black people’s DNA to be collected.

PCS is currently working with research and public interest group Genewatch to try to reverse and improve outcomes regarding the retention and destruction of DNA samples. Work is currently underway with the National Black Police Association to produce cards for people to use if they believe they are stopped without proper cause by the police.

The national black members’ committee is organising a campaign to highlight the forthcoming freedom bill that has the capacity to bring about much-needed change to the way that DNA is retained and destroyed. The aim is to harmonise the retention of DNA in England, Wales and Northern Ireland as it is in Scotland.

Justice for Jay

Jay Abatan – a PCS member – was attacked on the streets of Brighton in 1999. For more than 10 years, the Justice for Jay campaign – which PCS has continued to support – has campaigned for an Inquest into Jay’s death.

In 2010 a coroner finally announced that an inquest would be granted. On 25 October, 2010 the Brighton and Hove coroner made a ruling of unlawful killing of Jay Abatan, and the police were ordered to reactivate the file with a view to ascertaining whether further criminal charges can be brought. The verdict is to be welcomed after such a lengthy campaign. PCS will discuss with the family how the union can continue to assist their campaign politically, and through fundraising.

LGBT equality

The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) group, Proud, continues to work closely with the equalities department to help implement the resolution on improving support to LGBT members. It aims to forge stronger links with other PCS union structures to tackle under-representation of LGBT people in PCS and build support for national and Proud campaigns and activities. For example, Proud submitted PCS LGBT members’ views on the impact of the spending cuts to put LGBT equalities at the heart of PCS’s equalities and campaigning agendas.

The annual PCS LGBT seminar provided further suggestions on taking union and Proud aims forward. Mapping work on other LGBT structures across the union is contributing to that work.

The profile of Proud and LGBT equality has increased with more articles and full-length features in View and Activate, stalls at many Pride events including UK Black Pride, and an active delegation at TUC LGBT Conference. Proud continues to review and improve its communications with members such as in creating an online forum to provide direct access and engagement with LGBT members.

Gender balance

PCS rules require that delegates to TUC conferences elected at our annual delegate conference should reflect the proportion of women members, currently 66%. This table shows the target figures and actual outcomes of the elections held at conference in 2010.

Conference Delegates Target Actual
TUC 14 7 6
TUC women 8 8 8
TUC youth 3 2 1
STUC 9 5 5
STUC women 5 5 5
STUC youth 1 1 1
Wales TUC 6 4 2
Wales TUC women 2 2 2

Social and economic

PCS has taken the lead in setting out an alternative to the coalition government’s policy of massive public sector cuts. In September we launched our pamphlet, ‘There is an alternative’, at the TUC and have used the media, members’ meetings and briefings to set out a clear alternative to the government’s cuts agenda.

Our economic alternative has built on the work of the tax justice campaign, which has again been prominent this year, and we have supported ‘The Robin Hood Tax’ campaign for a financial transaction tax. The union has supported the protests by UK Uncut and others which have highlighted the tax avoiding practices of some of the biggest high street names.

The union supported the 10 April demonstration to ‘Defend the welfare state’, and throughout the year has highlighted the essential role played by the welfare state, including the basic state pension and social housing. The Emergency Budget and CSR announced £18 billion in welfare cuts, and one of our motions to TUC again highlighted the government’s attacks on welfare – and the damaging effects of cuts and impact of privatisation on service delivery.

We have continued to work with campaigners on issues around housing, pensioners, carers, disability, lone parents and the unemployed to put an effective counter to the divisive politics of the deserving and undeserving poor. We are keen to involve Professors Wilkinson and Pickett, authors of the The Spirit Level, in a high-profile activists’ event that is being planned for summer 2011.

Through the general and local election campaigns in 2010, PCS worked closely with anti-fascist organisations such as Unite Against Fascism and Searchlight. The BNP lost 27 council seats across the UK and their leader was resoundingly beaten in Barking.

PCS members played a major role in the mobilisation against the BNP using Lunar House in Croydon as a backdrop for an election stunt – and we mobilised to counter EDL marches around the country throughout the year.

We continued our fight against the anti-union laws by supporting the Lawful Industrial Action (Minor Errors) Bill in Parliament, a private members bill sponsored by John McDonnell MP. Thousands of members lobbied their MPs to support the Bill through our website, and we supported a lobby of Parliament. However only 89 MPs (11 short of the requisite 100) voted in favour of the Bill and so it fell in Parliament. The union laws have continued to allow the courts to approve injunctions against the democratic wishes of trade union members on the basis of minor technical errors which could have had no effect on the ballot result.

Personnel policy

2010 presented a number of challenges to the personnel policy agenda. These were triggered mainly by the massive public sector job cuts announced by the government in the comprehensive spending review and the emergency budget.

Key among them was ‘Next Generation HR’ (NGHR). This promotes a new way of developing and delivering HR policies, aimed at bringing together delegated civil service functions into a single corporate HR function. It is due to begin in April 2011. Three priority areas are being worked on: HR policy, civil service learning and resourcing, which includes recruitment, redeployment and other related issues.

Although PCS has had some assurance about consultation on changes to members’ terms and conditions, it is clear that the initiative will have an impact on members’ jobs as it seeks to reduce by half the number of staff working in HR.

Our national executive has prioritised NGHR as part of our ‘There is an alternative’ campaign. The NEC has issued branch briefings, held a special meeting for reps and negotiators and worked with other unions to ensure that proper negotiations take place.

Negotiations on the work and well-being agenda continued in 2010. This included issues such as: equality and diversity; health and well­ being; learning and skills and sustainability.

While this area of work is likely to fall under NGHR in future, PCS will continue to highlight the fact that the well-being of civil servants is vital to the effective delivery of government and public services, especially during times of change and uncertainty.

PCS continues to negotiate on issues around government skills as instructed in motion A611.

The learning and skills agenda has been incorporated into NGHR under the heading civil service learning implementation project (CSLIP) and trade union liaison with Government Skills has continued, despite it not being relicensed as a sector skills council.
 
PCS has an agreement on apprenticeship schemes and commitments to the skills pledge and has been working hard to improve access to learning opportunities despite constraints on funding. We have also responded to a number of government consultations on education and learning. These have sought to encourage provision for people already in the workforce in order to update and enhance their skills.

Last year, the civil service launched its first ‘people survey’ as part of an employee engagement initiative to help understand issues around management policies.

PCS and the other civil service unions supported the survey which yielded an impressive return of 64%, with results that confirmed the concerns people have raised through the union. We are also supporting this year’s survey as the results give a useful insight into the priority areas that need to be tackled during this period of massive job cuts.

PCS is also working on a number of motions from our 2010 annual conference on statutory duties for redundancies, dismissals in ill-health, the fast stream, use of apprentices and rights for carers.

Finally, the constitutional reform and governance bill – coming 156 years after the Northcote-Trevelyan report to parliament first raised the idea of a Civil Service Act – became law.

It places civil servants on the same statutory footing as other employees. PCS and other civil service unions played an active role in joint Cabinet Office/CCSU negotiations to help ensure members’ existing conditions are fully protected.

PCS structures and services

Legal

An ongoing review of legal services led to PCS increasing the resources available for supporting members and reps with employment law cases in 2010. This included setting up a new unit to handle legal and personal case support.

We have continued to look critically at the support offered to members through our legal advice suppliers and have established new protocols to deliver the necessary independent legal advice required for compromise agreements. A report was issued to branches in advance of conference 2010.

Throughout the year we have published a series of articles in View, our national magazine, to raise members’ awareness of the need to make early contact with their PCS reps when they have a problem, and have distributed the updated Law 2010 guide from Labour Research to branches.

The PCS web pages pcs.org.uk/legal have been updated with advice on handling personal cases and the new legal unit continues to review how this advice can be supplemented to give reps greater support.

PCS has also continued to offer valuable assistance to members and their families who are injured or made ill at work.

We have looked at ways of raising the profile of these services to discourage members from taking cases to no-win no-fee solicitors and claim farmers.

We cooperated with our legal advisers in a mailing to members and are designing publicity posters for workplaces, as well as increasing the number of reports of successful cases in View and other PCS publications.

Government plans to limit access to legal aid and place tighter controls on conditional fee agreements have significant implications for access to justice and the services that we provide to members. We are closely watching developments and offering support in resisting these changes if they are unhelpful.

PCS credit union

PCS credit union’s full application for authorisation was completed and submitted to the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in October 2010. The comprehensive documentation that formed the FSA application was prepared by the project team to the highest professional standard to ensure it meets the rigorous safeguards with which all financial institutions have to comply.

Although we are in the hands of the FSA, it is anticipated that the launch date will be in early 2011. To date, more than 1,750 application forms have been received and more than 100 local co-ordinators recruited to undertake local promotion. It is confidently expected that this important member initiative will go from strength to strength.

Plus for PCS

Under the PCS+ badge, we continued to offer a range of membership services which were well received and used by members. These provide a useful income through commissions and advertising.

Our annual ‘Essentials’ guide was sent to members with the February edition of View and to new members with their membership card. Copies of the current edition are available from branch secretaries. This guide sets out all the services and discounts we offer.

Commercial sector

There were a number of significant industrial disputes in our commercial sector in 2010.

Hewlett Packard workers voted to take seven days strike action in February as part of our dispute with the employer over pay, job security and collective bargaining. Our campaign included political lobbying, media work in the United States and direct action at HP’s UK corporate headquarters.

Following talks convened by ACAS, members voted to accept a revised package that included a pay pot increased by over £1 million, a job security agreement for all PCS members working for HP and, for the first, time collective bargaining rights for non ex-civil servants working on the HP Department for Work and Pensions account.

In November, we balloted members working for Capita Filestores (another DWP contract) for strike action over a derisory pay offer worth just four pints of milk a week for workers earning £6.11 an hour. This dispute is ongoing at the time of writing.

We won significant increases in pay for members across the private sector in 2010. In HP, Fujitsu and Siemens we won pay awards of over 10% for the lowest paid as part of our campaign for a living wage of £15,500 for every member in the private sector. In Balfour Beatty Workplace our pay campaign secured a pay rise of £400 for each of the lowest paid members on the DWP contract.

We have also begun to increase democracy and membership participation in our union. In HP and Fujitsu revised group constitutions have been submitted to the national executive to provide elected structures. We have also created an activist-led IT sector sub-committee to co-ordinate our work with the eight major IT companies who signed a concordat with us in 2009.

In 2010 we also ran specially tailored training courses for new reps in the commercial sector for the first time.

We also ran a national programme of learning at work days in Balfour Beatty Workplace for the first time. This resulted in the recruitment of new members and reps at all these sites.

We have also contributed significantly to the award winning sector work by PCS with sector skills councils and are working with e-skills and asset skills to identify ways to support PCS’ work to develop within the IT and Facilities Management Sectors.

In Atos Origin we represented four Liverpool workers, with over 100 years service between them. These workers were TUPE-transferred to BT and then caught in a legal wrangle between the two companies. In addition to an employment tribunal case we provided financial, political and campaigning support to these members.

In October, we signed a recognition agreement with ISS covering 3,000 cleaners on the DWP contract.

We are actively seeking ways to deliver the instructions set out in conference motion A25/10 and plan pilots to facilitate a wider discussion about how we can build industrial power across companies providing services to central government. There are undoubted challenges in the private sector, but blaming the environment we find ourselves in is not an excuse.

We know that for every job cut in the civil service there will be one lost in the private sector. Defending members’ jobs and communities is the priority. Areas that are likely to be most impacted by the coalition government’s outsourcing plans are facilities management, the welfare to work programme and areas that can be grouped and packaged as ‘shared services’.

We also know the government is considering proposals to increase the role of the private sector overall. How we challenge this – in an organising and industrial sense – will be pivotal to the future.

Environmental issues

The green agenda in PCS continued to move apace in 2010. Following conference 2010 we built up a substantial body of policy covering climate change, renewable energy, green transport, bargaining to reduce emissions in government departments and the creation of a network of green reps.

We continued to work with a wide range of green groups and organisations. We are looking to work with the Campaign for Free Public Transport in furtherance of motion A120 that calls for a campaign for ‘free and green’ public transport.

Work continued with the Campaign against Climate Change (CaCC), as endorsed by conference motions A115 and A117. We supported a second edition of the successful One Million Climate Jobs pamphlet which was launched in the House of Commons in autumn 2010. We worked with CaCC to ensure it was circulated as widely as possible.

In 2010 we also supported the charity FairPensions. In one of the biggest demonstrations of ‘shareholder democracy’ the UK has seen we promoted their campaign to expose the activities of BP and Shell in Canada over the environmentally destructive Tar Sands.

In 2009 PCS became a partner in the Climate Solidarity project along with CWU, NUT, UCU and the climate change charity Climate Outreach & Information Network (COIN). Unfortunately the project had to close in 2010 after Defra withdrew funding. We are now looking to continue building on the activity begun under the project.

Central sustainability talks between CCSU and the Cabinet Office continues to make progress. A CCSU proposal that joint sustainability forums are set up at departmental level was accepted. The Cabinet Office circulated a recommendation to this effect and we are encouraging groups to act on it.

The number of green reps and activists continues to increase and we are planning a second green forum in 2011.

Annual report PDF

The annual report is also available to download as a PDF

  PCS Annual report 2011

Related documents

  2011 PCS financial report