Public and Commercial Services Union

 

Conference agrees that the establishment of PCS regional equality networks have proved to be vital in increasing the participation of members in all aspects of union activity and recognises the important work already carried out by the five networks at all levels.

 

It has been mentioned numerous times by PCS representatives the importance of the Young Members Network and the relevance of young members work within PCS. The future of our union depends on the recruitment, development and retention of our young members.

 

Therefore conference notes with concern that there are times when ordinary members not elected to a union position are denied reasonable time off to attend regional network meetings. Furthermore, they are restricted and unable to assist in any projects or campaigns the equality networks undertake. It is in complete opposition to what the networks were set out to achieve when ordinary members are excluded from development opportunities and may subsequently be unable to influence changes in their workplaces on behalf of their union. Conference believes that in order to progress this important work PCS should be looking outward to include all members, even those without an elected position.

 

This Conference calls on the NEC to:

1.      Enter into negotiations with the employer, with a view of reaching an agreement that permits reasonable paid time off for members to attend any of the five equality regional network meetings.

2.      Encourage branches to provide sufficient time off for their members and representatives who have signed up to any of the five equality networks in order that they can attend the regional network meetings.

3.      Ask branches to keep records of members that attend regional meetings so that branches can establish and keep a closer link with local network members considering becoming activists.

Conference notes the commitment within PCS to promote Equality and Diversity issues within the union and to be seen as an exemplar organisation. Conference agrees to build on this commitment by creating and supporting a mechanism for equality proofing goods services (and the consequent marketing) offered via PCS by its partner organisations and businesses. This would help ensure that information circulated to members does not contain wording or images that conflict with PCS Equality policies.

 

Conference instructs the NEC to:-

1.      Agree which full time officer has responsibility for this,

2.      In consultation with the PCS Equality committee, set required standards for goods, services and associated marketing materials

3.      Ensure that the goods and services provided by PCS reflect the diversity of PCS members,

4.      Arrange for all marketing material to be benchmarked against the standards, prior to issue,

5.      Reject any goods, services or marketing materials that fail to reach the required Equality standards.

 

This to be started by Sept 2010 and be operational in 6 months.

 

This conference notes:

 

·       the comprehensive and persuasive findings set out by Professors Wilkinson and Pickett in their book “The Spirit Level”, showing that more equal societies – those with a narrower gap between rich and poor – are more cohesive, healthier, suffer fewer social problems and are more environmentally sustainable;

·       that the UK is a deeply unequal society, characterised by a wide and deep range of social problems and this inequality affects PCS members irrespective of whether they work in the civil and public or private sectors;

·       that, as an example, the Whitehall Studies found that morbidity and mortality rates in the civil service are in sharp inverse ratio to grade.

 

Taking into account the overwhelming scientific evidence of the ill effects of inequality (in terms of morbidity and mortality rates, well being, crime, social trust and other social factors) this conference recognised that need to campaign for a radically more equal Britain, and that that begins, but is not confined to, our work as trade unionists representing large numbers of low paid workers.

 

Therefore, this conference instructs the NEC to:

 

·       Invite Professors Wilkinson and Pickett to present their findings to a national PCS forum to which representatives from the bargaining units will be invited to (such a forum could discuss other union business as well);

 

·       Invite Professors Wilkinson and Picket to present their findings to an official conference fringe meeting during ADC 2011;

 

·       discuss with the Equality Trust (founded by Professors Wilkinson and Pickett to promulgate their ideas and to campaign for a more equal society), other trade unions, and labour movement figures such as John McDonnell MP, how we might work together to forge a radically more equal Britain and take joint initiatives to this end;

 

·       To encourage awareness amongst branches and members of the importance of the findings set out in “The Spirit Level” (e.g. by sending out suitable branch briefings; with permission reproducing material from the Equality Trust onto the PSC website);

 

·       To campaign within the civil and public sector for policies that seek to redress the effects of inequality on our members;

 

·       To support those campaigns that seek a more equal society in terms of income distribution.

 

This Conference notes that in 2009 Motion A47 was passed to highlight the continuing existence of inequality in the civil and public sector.

 

This Conference censures the NEC for their lack of action over Motion A47 in the past year, and instructs them to elevate the campaign over the following year. This is particularly pressing considering the ongoing threat to many family-friendly and equality-focused policies in place in the Civil Service.

 

Conference instructs the NEC to take immediate action over the points raised in A47, and to regularly report back to branches on the progress being made.

 

This Conference instructs the NEC to approach management to enter into negotiations to put an end to any terms and conditions that result in the creation or perpetuation of a two-tier workforce.

 

Conference recognizes that any terms and conditions that are accepted in this way would have a disproportionate effect on Young Members as a group.

 

 

 

This Conference instructs the NEC to approach management to enter into negotiations to put an end to any terms and conditions that result in the creation or perpetuation of a two-tier workforce.

 

The NEC should instruct PCS negotiators not to accept any terms and conditions that have a disproportionate effect on any particular groups of members e.g. young members, women, ethnic minorities, and to ensure all proposals are subjected to Equality Impact Assessments.

 

 

Pension schemes for workers are under attack by the bosses by reduction of benefits or by closure of final salary schemes, not forgetting the millions of workers who do not have access to an occupational pension. The TUC should by means of its Pensioners Committee be leading the counter attack and campaigning that the State Pension should be paid at a rate above the Official Poverty Level, to ensure that people can live in dignity in retirement.

 

Since December 2008 there have been four meetings of the Pensioners Committee cancelled, in effect, closing down its work and therefore denying the TUC Equality Commitment of matching the five strands of the Equality Bill. It is an act of Age Discrimination by the TUC for the Pensioners Committee not to be properly constituted as are the other four Committees.

 

This Conference therefore instructs the NEC to mount a campaign within the TUC, along with other sympathetic Unions to have the Pensioners Committee given equal treatment in the same manner as the other Equality Groups including a TUC Annual Conference for Retired Trade Union Activists.

Conference notes the ongoing discrimination in the PRP system for the non Senior Civil Service and the utter indifference of Ministers and Mandarins to that discrimination.

 

Therefore this Conference instructs the NEC to:

 

·       pursue legal and political challenges to that discrimination in each and every bargaining unit;

·       lodge formal complaints to the EHRC whenever PRP is based on a performance management system that throws up statistically significant differences in box markings by grade and/or ethnicity and/or gender and/or non-disabled/disabled and/or full time/part time;

·       lodge formal complaints to the EHRC whenever PRP is awarded in any bargaining unit without proper compliance with the equality duties that public authorities are required to comply with;

·       campaign for the EHRC to play a much more vigorous enforcement role with regard to Government departments and their agencies;

·       publicly name those Departments and agencies which breach their equality duties, and thereby the terms of their delegation under the Civil Service Management Code, and seek the withdrawal of their delegation by the Cabinet Office;

·       make this work an integral part of the NEC’s implementation of motion A47 passed at the 2009 ADC

1) This conference notes that:

 

·       the Whitehall studies showed that there was a health gradient running through the civil service which means that generally the lower the grade the higher the average sick rate and death rate;

 

·       statistical analysis of report markings in DfT (C), CLG, Home Office show year on year staff from ethnic minorities, lower grades and generally part timers get proportionally fewer top appraisal markings than their relevant counter parts (e.g. white staff);

 

·       other have shown that promotion rates varies between equality groups in some bargaining units; the same is true of the awarding of disciplinary penalties and dismissals; this variation is also found in the awarding of special bonuses;

 

·       the degree and quality of equality monitoring in the civil services varies greatly between bargaining units and that compiling the data by bargaining unit, and refusing to aggregate it, hides the true extent of inequality across the Civil Service.

 

2) In any event this conference strongly suspects that many, if not all, bargaining units in the civil service show significant variation between equality groups in terms of report markings, promotion rates, special bonuses, disciplinary penalties, dismissals and other HR processes; this variation generally to the detriment of ethnic minorities, part timers, lower grades and those with a disability.

 

 

3) Therefore this conference instructs the NEC to:

 

·       produce an annual report on inequalities within the civil service. This report will aggregate equality and sickness data from as many bargaining units as possible to give a civil service wide picture; to analysis this data and to make recommendations based on this analysis.

 

·       ensure as much media publicity around this “State of the Civil Service” report as possible;

 

·       to send all MPs the report and seek parliamentary debate on it; to publish the report on the PCS website and issue it to our members; to discuss the findings of the report with the EHRC and to seek meetings with relevant Ministers to discuss the data, associated recommendations, and take any other actions felt necessary by the NEC to tackle the inequalities shown by the report.    

 

We are, now, entering an important era in terms of Equality and Diversity as we face serious issues concerning the Equality Bill that is being debated in Parliament. The mainstream of Equality issues at work are in danger of being underminded for, at least two reasons.

 

Firstly, all the Equality Commissions for Disability, Race, Gender and Sexual Orientation are being merged in to one body with the streamlining of their valued services. No doubt, we could also see a long term erosion of services from the Government for discriminated sections of society.

 

Secondly, with the massive cuts in the Public Sector, all work related equality bodies will be dominated by the interests of private employers. Therefore, funding for the vital support services of these sections of employees could be easily cut. Unlike the Public Sector, private employers will easily argue the case for not being able to afford Reasonable Adjustments, particularly during any economic recession.

 

In addition, we have witnessed many government departments in the civil Service avoiding Equality Impact Assessments before redeploying and compulsorily relocating members of staff.

 

Conference instructs the NEC to campaign for the re-amending of the Equality Bill to prevent all employers from dodging the anti-discrimination regulations.

This Conference recognises PCS’ commitment to promoting equality and to ensuring that the union’s representative structures reflect the diversity of its membership. However in Wales where approx 20% of the population are welsh speakers, no equality measures are in place to ensure that this group is represented on the various Wales committees within PCS.

 

Conference therefore calls on the NEC to take the necessary action so that welsh speakers are recognised as a separate group for equality audit purposes in Wales. Furthermore Conference calls on the NEC to take steps to ensure that welsh speakers are given a voice on the various committees within PCS Wales.

 

This conference notes the proposals in the new Equality Bill regarding provisions for socio economic duties in order to prevent discrimination on basis of class. This duty will require public sector organisations to have due regard to when exercising decisions of a strategic nature so as to reduce the inequalities of outcome which result from socio-economic disadvantage.

 

This conference believes that this does not go far enough and that public sector employers should also take socio economic status into account when designing and implementing internal policies and procedures.

 

 

This conference instructs the NEC to negotiate with the Cabinet Office a central policy

 

which provides for a duty for government departments to ensure that they prevent direct and indirect discrimination against staff on the grounds of their socio economic status.

Conference notes that diversity information has been collected in the civil service for many years. This has been with union support as it assists with the application of progressive measures within the workplace. However, very little information is collected on social background, even though this is increasingly being seen as often the most significant factor in determining someone’s life opportunities.

 

Conference also notes that Britain continues to be one of the most unequal countries in the world, so we welcome the recent work associated with the Fair Access Panel, the Equality Bill and the National Equality Panel in their attempts to clarify and improve the situation. Civil service unions have a long history of supporting investigations into social inequality and measures to counter it, going back to the Whitehall health studies started in the 1960s.

 

As an additional step to assist in monitoring inequality in the civil service and wider society, this Conference proposes that PCS negotiators – at the UK and departmental levels – should enter into talks with management to determine the most appropriate means for monitoring social background. Clear information on this, which has previously only been collected on an ad hoc or inconsistent basis, could then be used as the basis for tackling the sort of inequalities and unfairness likely to be demonstrated by such data collection.

Conference notes that the Civil Service is committed to promoting & ensuring equality, and valuing diversity. The Civil Service Commitment is not to unlawfully discriminate on any aspect of employment, and to give every employee the same opportunities whatever the background. The Civil Service is also committed to making sure staff work in a safe, non threatening environment and are not subjected to harassment or bullying.

 

However, Conference also notes for example HMRC’s People Survey results with 12% of people still experiencing discrimination at work and 12% of people still experiencing bullying & harassment at work. Discrimination and Bullying & Harassment statistics are areas of concern for HMRC where improvement must be made.

 

Another example being, HMRC’s Resolving Issues including Bullying & Harassment guidance has procedural steps to be followed by management when a Grievance concerning discrimination or bullying & harassment is submitted. Currently the Department’s target timescales for a standard grievance are 5 weeks including appeal and for complex grievances 3 months including appeal. Unfortunately, most standard grievances are taking months to resolve and complex grievances can take 6 months to 1 year or more to resolve. The reason for the delay is two-fold, firstly due to HMRC’s efficiency programme and job cuts reducing HR resources and ability to deal timeously with cases, and secondly management not following HMRC’s procedures and often deliberately causing delays. This results in members who have put forward a grievance of discrimination or bullying & harassment facing further discrimination and bullying & harassment behaviours from management whilst trying to resolve their grievances.

 

These delays in resolution for members cause extreme stress often resulting in long term sickness absence. The Civil Service has a duty of care in terms of workplace stress under the Health & Safety Act 1974 and the Management of Health & Safety at Work regulations 1999 and must ensure that personal cases are dealt with swiftly & consistently according to each Department’s own policy & guidance.

 

This Annual delegate Conference instructs the National executive Committee to:-

 

·       Lobby the Government for the introduction of new enforceable legislation to ensure Management adheres to each Department’s own policies, procedures & timescales for resolution of Grievances concerning Discrimination and Bullying & Harassment. Further, that Management receive comprehensive training on Resolving Issues across the Civil Service, including Bullying & Harassment Guidance to make sure that Managers are well equipped and knowledgeable about policies, procedures & target timescales.

 

·       Campaign with the TUC, STUC, WTUC and other unions & membership

 

·       Use the Parliamentary group to raise questions or a private members bill

 

The desired outcome being the honoring of timescales for dealing with grievances as per departmental guidance and the ACAS code of practice.

 

A failure in adhering to correct procedures and progressing cases in a timely way will result in a breach for the Civil Service Departments with a penalty based on the severity of the breach, and include a clause which states the compensation will be awarded to any employee who suffers detriment as a result of this Breach.

 

The Civil Service must ensure these important areas of inclusion and fair treatment are dealt with correctly according to their own departmental policies, procedures and agreed timescales, and that personal cases of discrimination and bullying & harassment in the Civil Service are dealt with justly & equitably, and are not hindered by management with delays and roadblocks thus denying people in disadvantaged groups a fair hearing and allowing the continuance of discrimination and bullying behaviours in the Civil Service.

 

The Grievance procedures are supposed to be a fair process for an employee to follow in order to challenge the employer when he/she believes discrimination or bullying & harassment has taken place. Currently, the Civil Service is allowing Departmental Managers to delay decisions & actions, causing severe stress to members and is seen to be endorsing further discrimination and bullying & harassment behaviours. This is completely unacceptable.