Public and Commercial Services Union

Introduction

Delegates to group conference 2008 endorsed the need for industrial action ballots on a range of issues. In addition, national conference endorsed separate, PCS-wide ballots on key issues. The group executive committee have unanimously endorsed a detailed strategy which seeks to bring together the major strands of campaigning and action, and the ballot timetables are outlined in this document.

National protocol ballot

Emergency motion 1, carried at national conference, covers two major issues. The first part deals with the ‘Protocol for handling surplus staff situations’ and the associated guidance on privatisation and outsourcing (the national protocol). The NEC has subsequently determined that a national consultative ballot on the protocol will take place from 6 August to 1 September.

HMRC job security agreement ballot

In addition, the R&C group are committed to consulting members on the HMRC job security agreement in line with a clear conference instruction. We will therefore ballot all members in HMRC on the departmental agreement from 13 August to 3 September.

R&C group conference EM14 (motion 25a) recognises that job cuts and office closures are the key issues facing our members, and that alongside supporting successful campaigns we must also seek to secure the protections for our members against the consequences of the cuts agenda.

Sections 1 to 3, covering strategy to manage staffing changes, career opportunities and consultation on WFCP and programme processes, constitute the formal agreement with the department. Conference duly endorsed the terms of the job security agreement, on the basis that the agreement is subject to membership consultation/ballot(s), with further membership consultation to take place following the completion of the outstanding areas for negotiations, to include a further series of steps to be taken by the department to avoid redundancy.

Any failure to comply with the agreement, such as the issuing of compulsory redundancy notices, any forced moves outside reasonable daily travel (RDT) or closing offices that impact detrimentally on staff or public service delivery will prompt a robust response with consideration given to a ballot of appropriate members. The agreement can therefore provide an important protection and is reinforced by the national jobs protocol.

Facilities time for national and HMRC agreement meetings

The NEC has further agreed that workplace meetings will be arranged during August to build support for both the national and HMRC agreement ballots. Facilities time has now been agreed centrally with HMRC to hold these meetings.

HMRC pay ballot

We expect a final pay offer from the department imminently. Achieving success at a national level and in accord with our members’ aspirations means that whilst we will continue to seek to extract as much as possible through negotiation, all offers below RPI (currently 4.6%) should be put to members with a recommendation to reject.

The current expectation is that we will run both the consultative ballot on the pay offer and any statutory ballot on industrial action from 26 August to 17 September.

VOA pay

Members in the VOA had their 2007 pay offer imposed on them following resounding rejection by PCS members, and have subsequently taken action over the last five months and remain in dispute.

The 2008 pay negotiations are still subject to formal remit clearance and the receipt of a final offer but members in the VOA will need to be balloted shortly on their 2008 pay offer.

National pay ballot

The second part of EM1 deals with pay as the primary focus of the national campaign, notably the changes that should be sought to the Treasury’s pay remit guidance, and the defence of inflation proofed pay increases. The fundamental objective of the national pay campaign is therefore:

• to secure changes to the remit guidance which allow consolidated increases to basic pay which at least match RPI inflation rates;
• decouple progression costs from the remit guidance
• scrap the link with performance pay
• oppose regional pay
• preserve the civil service compensation scheme

The NEC will meet in early September to consider both the extent to which any breakthroughs have been made in national pay negotiations and to decide the exact terms of a further statutory membership ballot on pay, but, as reported in the July edition of ‘Informed’, the provisional dates for this ballot have been set from 17 September to 8 October.

Office closures

A further round of office closure announcements were made in July, with the final round of announcements expected later this year. These last set of announcements affect members in some of the most isolated offices across the UK.

We do not believe that either the civil service as a whole, or HMRC in particular, will be able to continue to deliver a quality public service whilst pressing on with job cuts and arbitrary office closures. We remain vehemently opposed to the government’s efficiency agenda and we will continue to campaign and organise to defend local jobs in local offices. We will respond robustly if the department or the government fails to comply with either the HMRC agreement or the national protocols. If compulsory redundancy notices are issued, if staff are forced to move to offices outside reasonable daily travelling distances or if the department proceed to close offices that impact detrimentally on staff or public service delivery, immediate consideration will be given to a ballot of appropriate members.

Overtime

Sections 4 to 6 of the agreement, covering use of overtime, working conditions and outsourcing, do not constitute formal agreement between HMRC and PCS, but set out the department’s commitments to hold further negotiations on these issues. In particular this includes identifying options for replacing overtime with permanent posts or allocating work to potentially surplus staff.

Group conference resolution EM14 establishes a commitment to ballot for industrial action where overtime use is identified as masking job cuts, with a priority placed on seeking to conclude negotiations on overtime and reaching agreement where possible.

Overtime continues to be widely offered in the largest areas, notably across processing, in contact centres and in DMB, and in most areas there is no indication that the need for overtime to be worked will diminish. It remains increasingly untenable, therefore, for the department to continue to be offering overtime whilst cutting staff, and therefore the need to establish a formal overtime ban across the department is becoming critical.

The issue of overtime working in HMRC will be addressed with the department, where we will seek an immediate suspension of overtime working. Additional briefings will be issued separately from any statutory ballot for action over pay, reminding members to think carefully about the implications of working overtime, the impact that working overtime has on staffing, and reiterating our belief that overtime is being used by HMRC as a crude tool to reduce permanent staffing levels.

LEAN

Motion 55 from this year’s group conference, mirroring EM4 from 2007 conference, calls again for the cessation of hourly counts and the removal of performance boards from teams. We continue to press the case for movement away from hourly targets particularly, but if these objectives are not met the action called for is action short of strike action, in the form of an overtime ban and work to rule.

Contact centres and flexible working

EMs 9 and 6 from conference 2008, taken together with EM3 from conference 2007, form the basis of the group’s policy around protecting the FWH rights of staff on standard contracts and extending the flexibility arrangements for staff on PN103 contracts. Negotiations continue around the results and implementation of any aspects of the recently concluded review of FWH and flexibility arrangements for all contact centre staff. The GEC have agreed a set of negotiating objectives that both seek to preserve traditional contract arrangements and extend the scope of flexibility arrangements for all staff.

Privatisation of security guards

Negotiations in relation to the possible privatisation of security guards in 20 or so sites continue. Motion 59 from 2008 group conference opposes the decision of HMRC to seek to privatise security guards, and calls for a ballot of those members threatened by privatisation on their willingness to engage in action short of strike action in the form of walk outs.

Joint union action

PCS members in our own group, in the VOA, and across other parts of PCS have already taken action alongside local government union members. This followed action in concert with NUT and UCU members on 24 April. We know that UNISON, Unite, the NUT and Prospect are all committed to further action, and the case for the effectiveness of united public sector action will continue to be pressed by PCS, notably at the TUC in September, and the timing of PCS action will seek to maximise solidarity with other public sector unions.

Ballot dates

National protocol - 6 August – 1 September

HMRC agreement - 13 August – 3 September

VOA pay ballot - August (to be confirmed)

HMRC pay/ action - 26 August - 17 September
short of strike

National Pay/strike - 17 September - 8 October
action and action short
of strike action