Claimants and staff have a common interest:- an effective social safety net for all those affected by the crisis, and full protection for our members in providing the service
Workers and claimants are now facing the consequences of Tory austerity cuts, from health care workers having insufficient PPE and testing, to DWP not having the IT to enable staff to work from home safely, sufficient permanent staffing to process and pay benefits to and the lack of cleaning materials and protocols to maintain social distancing and safety in the workplace.
Given the enormity of the crisis in the DWP a left leaning leadership should want to ensure democracy involving elected branches, regions and the Group Executive Members. This being important to ensure members and claimant needs are fully understood and acted on. The response from the SV faction of DWP has been the opposite. The GEC was sidelined for example to one emergency meeting before Easter and with another only being taking place as part of the scheduled meetings for the year . In contrast the Yorkshire and Humber Region with BLN supporters have been organising weekly meetings and using social media to engage reps more frequently.
At the emergency Group Executive Meeting the lack of democracy was further highlighted when the SP and BLN supporters motion was ruled out of order by the SV Group President on the grounds that it mentioned the death of a DWP member – too sensitive an issue. That ruling was really cover in our view to prevent a discussion and debate on key demands and details to hold them to account.
In fact their own recommendations only appeared 6 minutes before the meeting and was the first time most of us including the officers had seen the demands that the GEC was going to vote on. At the meeting BLN attempted to amend the recommendations but our amendments were ruled out as being too detailed. Only small amendments were allowed. When it came to the vote the Group President rather than allowing a decision on those amendments put their recommendations to the meeting for agreement which meant all amendments fell when their motion was carried.
Our demands clearly influenced the SV approach but SV did not go far enough. We wanted an additional 20,000 permanent staff and protocols developed covering the following points:
* A clear road map that lays out the immediate steps DWP is taking to enable every single DWP worker to work from home unless this agreed by TUS as impossible or in cases of domestic violence.
* An agreement that where a member of staff who stays at home cannot work, for example, due to childcare needs, they are placed on paid special leave.
* A definition of “key worker”, with the object of the union being to minimise the number of members counted as key workers, whilst taking account of the crucial work members of all grades and from all business areas may be able to perform in delivering front line benefits, as an emergency measure.
* An agreed list of critical tasks which require staff to attend an office, on condition that proper equipment is provided and the explicit commitment that staff remain on paid special leave in all cases where this is not adhered to.
* An agreed list of offices which should remain open to deliver crucial services to the vulnerable which cannot be delivered by staff working from home.
* A cast iron guarantee that DWP will not seek to use the Covid crisis to bring in agency staff, with all the dangers – including risks to health and safety – that this implies.
In absence of this protocol or until it is established, we also wanted the GEC to support branches with the task of conducting updated risk assessments across every building to ensure capacity limits are updated to take account of the need for social distancing.
We recognise the employer may not agree to those demands and consequently there needed to be a threat if the demands could not be met so we demanded Branches must be supported to serve Section 44 notices and prepare walkouts where social distancing is not respected and where consultation is not satisfactory to ensure the safety of staff.
We also pushed the GEC to bring outsourced contracts back in house must be a priority. This means supporting branches to recruit to the union staff from Interserve, G4S and other privatised services delivered in DWP buildings.
The BLN motion sort also to instruct Group Officers to keep the GEC fully informed about negotiations, including by the organising of telekits to ensure GEC members are able to play a full role in shaping the demands and strategy we adopt over the coming period. Where it becomes clear that our demands will not be agreed, we also demanded an emergency GEC should be called and Group Officers should propose our next steps. This should include consideration of responses under the Health and Safety at Work Act, the Employment Rights Act and strike action if necessary.
PCS Broad Left Network 