Public and Commercial Services Union

Reps and members will be aware that we reached agreement with Contact Centre management on 23 April on MIS, leave, FWH and flexibility, team meetings, investment time and log on.

The only issue remaining to be resolved between us in order to settle the dispute was that of Real Time Monitoring.

On that basis PCS and management agreed to an extension of our mandate for strike action while an audit of RTM took place in 3 sites (Bootle, Merryhill and Bradford) for two weeks from 4 May to establish what the problems were for individuals, and key principles and best practice on how RTM should be used in future in relation to individual members of staff. Management agreed to suspend RTM on other sites while the audit took place.

Outcome of audit

The audit showed that some interventions were not valuable to either the individual or the business, as people were being approached when they did not need help or support, for example when they were busy completing work in wrap which was required to follow up a call, and sometimes when they were in consultation with a team leader or others.

Stencils completed during the audit period indicated that a very high proportion of interventions were prompted when staff were in “wrap”.

Agreement reached

On the basis of this initial review (and both sides acknowledge that further work is needed on this issue) we have reached agreement that RTM will be reinstated from Monday 25 May on all sites, with the following changes.

• Existing trigger points for “wrap” interventions will be immediately raised to 8 minutes for staff working on Taxes, and to 6.5 minutes for staff working on Tax Credits. This reflects the different average wrap times for the two lines of business, but a further review will consider whether the trigger points for tax credits and other lines of business need to be increased. These triggers points cannot be reduced without agreement with TUS.
   
• Trigger points for intervention in relation to consultation will cease immediately.
   
• Interventions by managers based on RTM triggers will only be made using managers’ discretion, and in conjunction with a range of other indicators, and will be made at appropriate intervals to offer support and guidance to individual members of staff. This removes any requirement for managers to make an intervention every time they receive a call from Resources, regardless of whether or not this is appropriate.

We have also agreed that a further detailed review of RTM will take place over the next three weeks with full TUS involvement. This will look in more detail at how RTM is used in relation to individuals, establishing best practice and producing guidance agreed between TUS and Management for managers and staff.

RTM will be used in conjunction with the guidance on MIS which was agreed previously between TUS and Management and which has now been implemented on all sites, including the 3 sites involved in the RTM audit. Future amendments to this MIS guidance will only be published by agreement between us.

What happens now

Meetings will be held on all sites on a staggered basis from Wednesday 27 May, to allow both Managers and TUS to communicate this information to members.

15 minutes will be allowed for managers to talk to all staff, and 15 minutes for PCS reps to talk to PCS members. As it won’t be possible for all staff to be off the phones together at the same time, these meetings will be organised so that staff are covered in groups as previously, over a few days.

Exact details will be agreed locally. Local TUS also have the option of taking a further 15 minutes with members at a later date to give further explanations and receive views from members. Arrangements will be agreed locally at site level.

On Tuesday 26 May however, local reps and managers will have a 15 minutes discussion with team leaders to deal with any immediate issues which arise.

When the outcome of the further review of RTM is agreed, PCS will ballot all members in contact centres on the agreements reached on all the issues included in the dispute, including the final position on RTM.