Month: Jul 2021

Martin Cavanagh, the union’s Group President in DWP, recently wrote a long screed calling for unity while in the same breath attacking Broad Left Network supporters on the executive committee that he chairs. Such hypocrisy is the common currency of the union’s leaders.

PCS Left Unity, the faction within the union of which Cavanagh is a member, seems to have perfected this technique, of sounding militant and like they’re taking the fight to the employer whilst doing precious little and having a go at anyone with a different point of view.

Look at the facts – they are weakening the union

Organising is crucial work for the union’s leadership. It includes recruiting and training waves of new reps, who will play the pivotal role in workplaces across the country, fending off attacks from the employer and mobilising members. Herein lies one of the biggest failures by Martin Cavanagh and his colleagues in PCS “Left Unity”.

In October 2018, the Department for Work and Pensions on its own had 82,675 staff (total number of bums on seats). At this time, the union had 1,516 union reps. This figure does not include non-rep roles such as distributors, learning reps or advocates.

In May 2021, the most recent month for which we have figures, the Department for Work and Pensions on its own had 91,784 staff. At this time, the union had 1,237 reps. These figures are already known to DWP, which publishes the number of union reps annually.

These figures are stark. In the period of these two-and-a-half years, during which Left Unity have had unchallenged dominance of the leading committees in PCS, including the National Executive Committee, the union has lost a fifth of its reps in DWP.

In a very short space of time, and despite massive recruitment in DWP, the current leadership of the union have presided over a hollowing out of the union. The figures indicating union density over this period indicate a similar failure on their part to build the union.

Broad Left Network supporters are furious about this. We know it doesn’t have to be this way. We’re in the offices. We know that members want to fight back, and we want the leadership of the union to give a strong lead, to move decisively against attacks by our employer.

This is precisely what the current leadership have not done for years now. Fiery rhetoric on Facebook is all very well, but it’s not leadership to repeatedly yell, “We support any group of members who want to go into dispute!” and then to do nothing to organise that.

It doesn’t have to be like this – we need a fighting, democratic leadership

The current leadership is messing about when it comes to safety in the workplace during the pandemic. They opposed giving a robust steer to members on the verge of walking out over safety, dampening the desire of members to fight and weakening the confidence of reps.

Instead of going out to members with a clear strategy to seek a mandate for action, following the huge recent threat to Jobcentre staff entailed by the radical scaling up to 15 face-to-face appointments a day, they went out with a consultative ballot weeks late, and no strategy.

Then, most recently, on pay, they spent most of their recent communications attacking the other civil service unions, FDA and Prospect, and absolutely none of the recent communications outlining a strategy to force the employer to cough up more money.

When it comes to safety, Broad Left Network supporters have not just argued for but practiced a robust approach to safety, including leading walkouts where necessary, by a vote of members, rather than insisting that each member bears the blame individually.

On pay, we see that Left Unity has caught up with the demands that BLN supporters were making last year. Our supporters were faced with arguments from the Left Unity leadership, that it would be wrong to campaign for the extra pay in DWP because of the pandemic. Whilst our members were being deluged with work.   

After carrying clear policy at group conference in June the Left Unity Group Pay negotiators still just sat down with management not telling members anything until the final offer was made. Another lost opportunity to bring pressure to bear whilst the talks were still ongoing.  It is no surprise that the outcome of the talks reflected exactly what had been threatened by the Tories in the Autumn Statement last year.

We urged an industrial ballot, underpinned by a host of campaign activities. These should include members’ meetings, lobbies of Parliament and model motions for other union branches and for trades councils to help organise public meetings.

Given that the NHS is very publicly moving into dispute with the government over the disgraceful 3% pay award that will be paid for by cutting services (i.e., no extra money will be given to the NHS), we are in an analogous position to other unions and need to link up with them.

We have proposed more. We need to build up a detailed picture of the ways in which our members have provided support to the most vulnerable. DWP use this to heap praise on the Department, we want this to benefit staff, through an appropriate pay award.

We think there is work to be done applying leverage to the Permanent Secretary in DWP, to force the submission of a business case to the Treasury to demand more money for a pay settlement, to deal with our 10% claim and demand for reinstatement of progression.

More than all of this, however, we need the support of branches and reps. The GEC must address the devastating loss of confidence it has inspired by its inability to do anything except write strongly-worded letters or whinge in all-members’ circulars.

When the GEC begins to look, sound and act like a campaigning, fighting, democratic union leadership, then we’ll see the number of union reps increase. We’ll see the density of the union in DWP workplaces increase. BLN supporters will keep working for that goal.

There is a clear warning in the Left Unity statement that management are gearing up to extend the return to the workplace for everyone.   But at the same time the GEC leadership rejected out of hand the practical suggestions that BLN supporters put forward to rebuild the Jobcentre safety “campaign” let alone offering a lead in building it further to cover all the members it now admits are facing the threat.

We know very well – as Martin Cavanagh admits – that a lot of what we are calling for is already the policy of the Group, sanctioned by the Group Delegate Conference. Our point is that the leadership aren’t doing this. They drag their heels. They talk down our chances. They are doing everything possible to avoid actually getting busy building a campaign or the union.

We deserve better.

On Monday 5th July 2021, the Prime Minister announced the relaxation of Covid restrictions in England. At first the message was that there would be an end to all restrictions in England but since then, the government has rolled back on some of those relaxations as a response to widespread public concerns. Nevertheless the message for workers in England is clear – you are expected to return to the office.

The devolved governments are responsible for setting their own policy for addressing the pandemic. Holyrood has generally taken a more cautious approach to that seen in Westminster and that is what we have seen again this time, although Holyrood has chosen to introduce some relaxations on a roughly similar timescale. The Senedd’s approach has been much similar to Westminster to the extent they could and have been accused of “riding the coat tails” of Westminster. But currently the Senedd is taking a more cautious approach, similar to the one being taken in Scotland, and have announced the retention of some safety measures like face coverings in public areas and continuation of the message to work from home wherever possible. This means that although the immediate response is that this is an English problem, in practice members throughout the U.K. will feel the impact over the next few weeks.

After the PM’s announcement, Jim Harra published a message on the Intranet that all HMRC offices in England would be open to staff from Monday 19th of July 2021. The original message gave a strong impression that staff would have to return to offices. A week later, after the UK Government was retreating from its original announcement, Jim Harra put out a second Intranet message in much more couched language, suggesting that staff would return to the office if they chose too.

Both announcements made reference to the right of staff to work from home for two days per week and that staff who choose to go into the office should continue to make use of that. That’s a great headline but the reality for many staff is that home working is still a privilege or even just an aspiration. There are all too common stories of part time staff being told the two days is pro rata for them, with barriers being introduced such as the need to undertake their full range of duties at home. Many staff are finding that the two days on offer is seen by their management chain as a maximum rather than a minimum.

To date the R&C Group Executive Committee (GEC) has been quick to say that these issues shouldn’t happen and to ask for the examples to raise in negotiations. This is small consolation for the members being given the message by their manager or the local branches finding themselves essentially sidelined and turned into a glorified mailbox for the GEC. This is made worse by the fact that the GEC is struggling to force the department to honour an agreement to allow staff to work from home for at least two days per week, when the bulk of HMRC staff have already demonstrated that they can perform their full range of duties at home for five days per week.

It is also worth noting that both Intranet announcements made reference to the fact there are different rules in the devolved governments. This reveals a view in the senior parts of HMRC that the Westminster position is the default or correct position and that the policies set by the devolved governments are somehow a deviation from that. They need to be seen as policies of equal importance to those developed in Westminster. This is clearly a problematic attitude that the GEC will need to get to grips with and fully address in the future.

GEC response doesn’t go far enough

Following the second Intranet message, PCS issued a members’ bulletin setting out the PCS stance. Broad Left Network members in HMRC welcome the PCS position that no member should be forced to return to the office at this stage. Covid cases are rising significantly due to the Delta variant, although hospital admissions and Covid-related deaths remain thankfully low in comparison to previous waves. However the impact of Covid has been shown to be debilitating with a range of long term conditions being grouped and given the name “Long Covid.” Long Covid is still very poorly understood, but its impact on its unfortunate sufferers has been devastating. Any increase in Covid cases will inevitably result in an increase in Long Covid cases. The evidence is clear that this is still a dangerous pandemic and generally the safest place for our members is at home.

Broad Left Network members are concerned that the PCS position doesn’t go far enough in protecting our members. We know that the heavily stats-driven areas, like the Customer Services Group, have been pressurising members to return to the office on the basis of under-performance, for example, where a member is unable to perform the full range of normal duties at home or where their manager feels they are not doing enough at home. This issue predates the current situation but to date it hasn’t been adequately addressed by PCS.

A newer and potentially more damaging development comes from HMRC’s Building Our Future (BOF) programme. This pandemic hasn’t stopped HMRC’s drive to shut offices and move staff into regional centres. This new relaxation of restrictions will more or less coincide with the opening of some regional centres.

Members who will be working in these new regional centres are being told they must attend a physical induction at their new office. Managers have been told to book all such staff on to induction events which take place when their team will be moved into that regional centre. This means that thousands of our members will be attending a new office at a time when the PCS position is that it’s too soon for a mass return to offices and that it should be the individual’s choice to return to a office. Let’s not forget too that the regional centres have all been placed in densely-populated, urban locations, meaning the vast majority of people in those offices will need to use public transport.

No matter how many measures are implemented in offices (more regular and thorough cleaning, social distancing, etc), no office can be completely safe. We also have members at risk of catching Covid on public transport and there’s nothing the employer can do to control that risk. The appropriate way to mitigate the risk is to ensure that our members aren’t put in that situation in the first place, which means maintaining home working.

Member safety must be paramount

The BOF programme may significantly undermine PCS’s position and yet this hasn’t been addressed in the recent members’ bulletin. Broad Left Network members call on the GEC to issue a clear statement that no member should attend a physical induction until they have had a meeting with their manager and furthermore, where that member has taken the personal decision that they feel safe to attend an office.

The R&C GEC should make demands that HMRC protect its workforce and the public by:

* No forced return to the workplace. Any return and on what basis only in agreement with the union

* Full safety measures to protect all members at home and in the workplace including supportive measures on mental health and stress

* Services to the public should continue to be delivered remotely as far as possible

Where work does need to be done in the workplace the R&C GEC must demand:

* Full risk assessment done with the union health and safety reps

* Keep all safety measures in place to stop onward transmission of covid in the workplace

* Minimise staffing levels to only levels to deliver essential work that cannot be done from home.

* Keep 2m social distancing at all times between everyone

* Additional cleaning of all touchpoint surfaces regularly through the day

* Ensure all indoor spaces are well ventilated with fresh air throughout the day

* Face coverings to be worn in all public spaces

* Flexibility for workers to travel when it is quietest

* Individual risk assessments for workers who are even more at risk with underlying health conditions, clinically extremely vulnerable workers and black workers. And for those not yet vaccinated.

* Full pay for all workers who need to self-isolate

* No use of sickness absence procedures to penalise those self-isolating

* No use of quick lateral flow tests to reduce self-isolation time

* Full support and reasonable adjustments for workers suffering from long covid

* Support transport unions’ demands for face coverings and social distancing to remain on public transport

On 21st and 22nd July 2021, the union’s Group Executive Committee in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) met to discuss significant issues faced by union members. Key issues included the general safety of staff as pandemic restrictions begin to relax, the specific safety dispute in Jobcentres and the recent final offer from DWP on pay.

Broad Left Network supporters believe in a fighting, democratic trade union that is led by and in the interest of members, so we take these meetings very seriously. Any papers due to be debated are scrutinised at length to make sure we put forward the best possible tactics, to build and win the union’s campaigns and to strengthen our branches. This is not an approach shared by the majority of the executive, part of a faction calling itself “Left Unity”.

Even before the meeting had convened, the disorganisation of the leadership was evident. Really important papers, containing detailed information of vital importance to building the union’s campaigns, were not even published until after the meeting had started. When they were eventually published, particularly the one around our recent ballot, it was clear no serious analysis had been undertaken on where we were strong, how to focus efforts and build our dispute.

When we finally got into the substantive debates, it was clear that a whole host of other actions – previously agreed by the June GEC meeting – had not taken place. Not a single branch has been given their turnout figures in the ballot. No meeting of the Campaign Committee had taken place, to discuss next steps. Even matters as basic as discussions with the PCS legal unit had not been meaningfully progressed.

The entire approach of the current leadership is to kick any serious action – never mind industrial action – on pay, and on safety, as far down the road as possible, in the hope that members will forget. This is why the leadership is dragging its heels even on the very basic actions they themselves voted through at the last meeting.  It also leaves branch reps to struggle on to defend members the best they can, rather than being part of a national campaign.

If branches had been given their turnout figures, and regional committees had been able to meet to discuss these and agree on a regional approach, it might have moved some areas closer to action. But of course, this would cause reps to wonder more, why the GEC weren’t leading such an approach – and it is precisely that question which the current leadership want desperately to avoid. It’s also time to publish the national turnout with a clear plan to build the campaign.

On pay, BLN comrades on the GEC argued for a robust response to DWP. The other unions, Prospect and FDA, argued that the available money should be awarded on a flat rate percentage, meaning more money for higher grades. DWP decided not to do this, not out of the goodness of their hearts but because they know staff are going to be angry about pay.

This anger is not limited to DWP or even to the Civil Service. As we have seen just in the last few days, the government has been forced to back down on a 1% offer to the health services, upping this to 3%, and the unions there are intending to ballot because they are arguing that even this is not enough.

Staff in DWP have been giving massive support to the vulnerable during the pandemic, some of us learning four or five new job roles often with only weeks in which to do so, in order to ensure the right person was paid the right amount of money at the right time. Members in DWP know we are worth a pay rise this year and are angry about not getting one.

The whole point of being elected to the leading committees in the union is that we are the reps who are responsible for coming up with the plan for how we are going to force the employer to concede more money, working together with branches, reps and members. The BLN approach has been to argue for building the widest dispute possible.

We know that in order to give us the pay rise we deserve, we will have to force the Treasury to put more money on the table. The union’s official policy is for a 10% pay rise, and for pay progression to get everyone onto the pay maxima or the spot rate within 5 years, including opted out members. We also want additional money to convert Fixed Term Appointments into permanent staff. There are thousands of FTAs in DWP, as yet un-recruited to the union, but who could be the strong right arm of a major campaign. Linking issues like this can galvanise members.

This “do nothing” approach by the “Left Unity” majority on the GEC was repeated for all of the substantive debates, most especially when it came to building the campaign to defend members in Jobcentres. One GEC member tried to argue that PCS is a “left-wing union in a right-wing country”, which is utter rubbish, but gives some insight into the bunker mentality of the union’s leaders in DWP, and the excuses they come up with for doing nothing.

At the last meeting of the GEC, BLN supporters were denounced for their “shopping list” of demands. Yet by this meeting, some aspects of that shopping list – such as making our opposition to Jobcentre micromanagement and targets a part of the Jobcentre dispute – had been added to the papers proposed by the current leadership.

 This is progress, but we have had to continually point out that their approach is not going anywhere near far enough. By the end of the two days, the GEC majority had voted down our three motions, refusing to even countenance additional elements to the campaigns on safety and on pay. The activities they have agreed cannot even charitably be described as a campaign.

Broad Left Network supporters have already begun, at regional level where we have supporters and a solid base amongst members, to move in the direction of disputes. We will be arguing that whenever branches get the turnout figures from the Jobcentre safety ballot, they should share regionally with other branches, to consider how sites at or near the 50% threshold could band together and could sustain a dispute, to leverage concessions on safety and working conditions from DWP.

Meanwhile we will continue to put pressure on the Left Unity majority on the GEC when it comes to pay, to lay out clear proposals on how to mobilise our branches and members. We need public campaigns demonstrating the role our members have played, to build pressure on DWP. We need to put pressure on DWP to go back to the Treasury. Most of all we need a strategy of industrial action, which is utterly absent from anything put forward by LU.

If you are interested in discussing any of our ideas, we hope you will get in touch and will consider joining the Broad Left Network, to fight for a democratic, campaigning union, and for the socialist policies and methods we need to win for members

PCS must continue to press that all the employers do everything possible to keep our members safe. Regardless of the Tories lifting the covid restrictions our employers still have the legal requirement to protect the workforce from harm. In the main this means continuing to ensure our members can work safely from home. Workers should only be in the workplace by exception where essential work cannot be done from home or where it is safer for a member to be in the workplace than at home. All these exceptions should be subject to union agreement. We must actively resist any forced return to the workplace. The consequences of contracting covid-19 remain severe – fatal in some cases and also with significant numbers developing long-covid with long-term chronic illness or disability. No-one should be put at risk just by going to work. The union needs to be prepared to explore every avenue to protect members including safety legislation for severe and imminent danger and balloting for strike action.

Health experts have pointed out that the best way to increase transmission of an airborne virus is to do just what Johnson has announced he is going to do – abolish physical distancing, universal face mask wearing and encourage people to gather together in under-ventilated spaces for prolonged periods. The Tories are setting up another colossal natural experiment which will put wave 3 of the pandemic into super exponential growth. Putting all the blame on us as they make it all about individual responsibility rather than properly implementing measures that keep everyone safe.

The learning to live with covid mantra just means the Tories are happy to accept that people will die and do nothing about it. This same phrase was repeated by the Welsh Labour Government Health Minister. The devolved Governments have the opportunity to take a safer track in dealing with covid-19 and we should ensure that the trade union movement brings pressure to bear on these politicians to not just follow in Johnson’s reckless footsteps.

Even government estimates are that there could be a daily rate of 50,000 covid cases by 19th July and 100,000 by 16th August. The more the virus is left to spread unchecked then the more likely it is to mutate. This could include becoming more resistant and make the vaccinations less effective against new variants.

Vaccinations alone are unlikely to end the pandemic – new variants and ones resistant to the vaccine could race through working class communities – where the population is already most at risk. A lot of emphasis is being placed on the vaccination levels however there still remains a significant proportion of people who have not had both doses. Even assuming that approximately 20% of unvaccinated people are protected by previous SARS-CoV-2 infection, this still leaves more than 17 million people with no protection against COVID-19. Given this, and the high transmissibility of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant, exponential growth will probably continue until millions more people are infected, leaving hundreds of thousands of people with long-term illness and disability. This strategy risks creating a generation left with chronic health problems and disability, the personal and economic impacts of which might be felt for decades to come. Even those who have had both jabs can still contract covid, spread the virus and become ill.

Whilst hospital admissions are at a lower rate than in the previous waves – any increase will put additional pressure on totally exhausted NHS workers. Our health service was already stretched before the pandemic let alone after 16 months of battling the pandemic. There is incredible demand now on already stretched health services to deal with all the backlog that has been delayed because of the pandemic.

The latest Health Foundation report identified that working age adults in poorest areas of England were almost four times more likely to die from covid-19 than those in wealthier areas. The Impact of austerity cuts – poor health, increased financial insecurity and strained public services made the UK more vulnerable to the pandemic and higher death rate. As well as fighting to protect the safety of our members PCS should also revitalise the campaign for the Alternative to address underlying wider problems which impact on members health, safety and welfare.

It is vital that the trade union movement must demand that measures are kept in place to keep the number of new cases low on top of the vaccination rollout. Our members face the danger of working in confined indoor spaces in the workplace and on public transport which are the riskiest areas to contract covid, combined with all the issues associated with low pay- living in areas with poor and overcrowded housing and services cut to the bone.

We must demand an improved and effective track and trace system delivered by the public sector. It is important that the guidance keeps pace with the full range of symptoms and how the virus impacts on different age groups to help with early identification of cases and better opportunity to stamp out outbreaks,

Self-isolation must continue to be used as this is the only effective way to break transmission. There must be no reliance on lateral flow tests to give a false sense of security to people which can directly result in increasing the risks of transmitting the virus. Whilst the Tories have thrown £billion at their Operation Moonshot and put too much faith and over-reliance in these quick tests, the US Food and Drug Agency has advised these tests should be thrown in the bin or returned to the manufacturer because of the spurious performance claims.

Whilst the Tories are rushing to dump all the safety measures, employers still have a legal duty to protect workers from harm. They must risk assess the workplace and trade unions must ensure that employers take into account that the risks associated with covid-19 are still severe with life-threatening or long-term debilitating consequences from contracting the virus. Employers should still be working with the union health and safety reps to eliminate the risk of contracting covid and preventing the onward transmission in the workplace

1 in 5 of those who have tested positive for covid reported that they had been affected by long covid. Latest reports suggest that an estimated 1 in 8 will contract Long COVID. This is having a huge impact on workers with two thirds affected with a consequence on their ability to do day to day activities.

PCS should make demands that employers protect their workforce and the public by: –

• No forced return to the workplace. Any return and on what basis only in agreement with the union
• Full safety measures to protect all members at home and in the workplace including supportive measures on mental health and stress
• Services to the public should continue to be delivered remotely as far as possible.

Where work does need to be done in the workplace PCS must demand: –

• Full risk assessment done with the union health and safety reps
• Keep all safety measures in place to stop onward transmission of covid in the workplace
• Minimise staffing levels to only levels to deliver essential work that cannot be done from home.
• Keep 2m social distancing at all times between everyone
• Additional cleaning of all touchpoint surfaces regularly through the day
• Ensure all indoor spaces are well ventilated with fresh air throughout the day
• Face coverings to be worn in all public spaces
• Flexibility for workers to travel when it is quietest
• Individual risk assessments for workers who are even more at risk with underlying health conditions, clinically extremely vulnerable workers and black workers. And for those not yet vaccinated.
• Full pay for all workers who need to self-isolate
• No use of sickness absence procedures to penalise those self-isolating
• No use of quick lateral flow tests to reduce self-isolation time
• Full support and reasonable adjustments for workers suffering from long covid
• Support transport unions’ demands for face coverings and social distancing to remain on public transport.

As well as putting demands on employers we must build to actively mobilise our members to resist any attempts to force anyone back into the workplace or remove safety measures in workplaces. This means using all avenues, including H&S legal rights to protect members from serious and imminent danger and balloting for strike action. It is vital this is done by working closely with, supporting and fully involving branches in standing up to the employers. All branches should be encouraged to discuss what they can do to build resistance to potential attacks on our members’ safety and how they can organise holding members’ meetings. Something which has been so lacking in the DWP safety campaign, along with a lack of urgency from the leadership to act to mobilise the weight of our members behind the campaign and the negotiators in talks with management. Whilst the government has been driving to push members and the public back into jobcentres and branches have been left to fend for themselves.

Any threats to PCS members should be responded to straightaway and quickly mobilise public ways to involve members in demonstrating our opposition to any drive to bring members back into the workplace.

Whilst robustly defending members rights to work safely at home as protection from the pandemic, PCS must also be cautious about the bosses’ agenda in moving to contractual hybrid and home working as a cost-cutting exercise.

It is also clear that the fight for safety must also address the impact of austerity which has been a major contributing factor in the high covid-19 death rate which has swept through working class communities.

The fight for safety needs to include the wider demands for job security, decent pay, reversal of cuts to our services, affordable good quality housing, shorter working week with no loss of pay. As well as resisting any attempts by the Tories to make us pay for the pandemic.

In order to win our demands (see below) and more it is key that we build a vibrant campaigning union. We must articulate the demands and our pressure on the employer. But the way to do that is to campaign and build the union. It is our members collective action that wins concessions.

Home Working

It is clear that HMRC has moved onto the front-foot regarding members returning to offices, given the increased comms and team meetings that have been issued and organised to discuss this. The recent Pay & Contract Reform Agreement (PACR) confirmed that HMRC can work from home for at least two days per week – and whilst this will form part of our contracts moving forward, there’s no reason for us to settle for this. Indeed, at a point when so many Civil Servants are working from home full-time, the national union’s call for two-day per week home working to be rolled out across the entire Civil Service is a massive step backwards.

It should be noted that the home-working aspect of PACR was not a gain won by PCS, but rather a mechanism required by HMRC to deal with the fact that in some (if not all) Regional Centres, there are simply too many staff for the building capacity – and this is why we shouldn’t settle for it. Members in HMRC have demonstrated for over a year that they can work effectively from home for five days a week and beyond this, most members find it easier to work from home, save money & have far more control over their work-life balance.

The BLN calls for all HMRC members to be able to work flexibly and decide where it is best for them to work. This includes moving staff between roles where a person wishes to work from home but their current role doesn’t make that possible.

Pay

Whilst the PACR delivered pay rises for a number of members, many members towards the top end of their pay scale did not receive anything substantial, but still lost a plethora of valued terms & conditions – these members have been abandoned. Whilst the NEC has been keen to point out the difficulties in beating the Tories’ undemocratic strike ballot threshold, the NEC also vehemently argued for a pay policy which meant that prior to Covid, when a majority of PCS members in HMRC voted in favour of strike action over pay, this action was not authorised by the union. As a result, PCS in HMRC went straight into pay talks with one hand tied behind its back, losing our most important piece of leverage.

BLN activists have argued against the NEC’s pay policy since its inception two years ago. We put forward a national campaign not just about pay, but also taking up many of the issues that affect members, this potentially could have engaged members and delivered a ballot over the undemocratic threshold. In two years the NEC has delivered nothing over pay, save for one Westminster debate. The BLN believes that a national campaign is necessary to deal with pay across the Civil Service, but is not so short-sighted as to block groups which can take industrial action from doing so.

The BLN demands that we have fully-funded pay rises which are not linked to detrimental changes in terms & conditions. The NEC pay campaign has been an abject failure and it’s clearly time for a completely new campaign which trusts in the strength of members to deliver the action required to achieve a fair pay rise for every single member.

Terms & Conditions

Whilst the issues surrounding changes to T&Cs were quiet as we approached the implementation date of 1^st June, the damage done by PACR is now becoming apparent. The department has basically used the GEC to destroy a myriad of protections that members have fought to retain for decades. This includes the loss of the MIS Agreement, attacks on Alternative Working Patterns, changes to allowances, loss of control over shift patterns, the introduction of mandatory unpaid overtime & loss paid breaks.

The GEC was not honest with members about the extent of the damage that PACR would do and worse still, the GEC did not even seem to be aware of a variety of these problems until after it voted to recommend the deal to members. Unfortunately, the deal is now through and we need to deal with the consequences.

We can however have our cake and eat it – there is nothing to stop our group fighting to win back each and every term and condition lost as a result of PACR – and indeed, given that it was a failure on the part of the union to prevent this situation from arising, we have an obligation to do this for every member. This includes seeking contractual improvements for members that were essentially left out of any contract reform such as the Surge Rapid Response Teams.

More importantly, the group has two years until this pay deal ends – we absolutely cannot be put in the same situation again. We have two years to get this group organised and ensure that in two years, HMRC does not come back to the table to either attack more T&Cs, or to reintroduce another pay cap.

Outsourcing & Contingent Labour

Austerity has meant that HMRC resource is cut to the bone. Minimum staffing levels are maintained across the department. This has made us ill-equipped to handle changing priorities, such as Brexit. HMRC has attempted to crisis manage this situation through a reliance on outsourcing and temporary staff. Yet time and again these decisions have created knock on problems as the department underestimates the complexity of the work undertaken by our members and the private sector finds itself unable to perform the roles correctly while maintaining a profit. When the private sector needs to make a choice between a good service to the public and profits, profits will always be their choice.

Outsourcing also cuts across our ability to defend our members. This has been particularly stark in CDIO where many staff have been employed by RCDTS Limited – a private company wholly owned by HMRC. RCDTS chose to follow civil service processes when it’s convenient to do so, but argues that its staff aren’t civil servants when PCS presses for recognition rights and consultation.

HMRC is increasing outsourcing as part of the move to Regional Centres. In house security guards are being privatised; private companies will be responsible for administering room bookings. This is able to happen because there’s never been a group wide campaign to raise awareness of the true impact of BOF and to put forward the alternative of in housing in a serious way.

Members of BLN will continue to argue that the GEC must launch a campaign group wide to resist the further imposition of outsourced & temporary contacts:

• Making the case for permanent staff and outsourced staff to be brought into HMRC.
• Fight for an agreement with HMRC on fair workloads and training, accounting for time needed to receive and embed training.
• Identify HMRC responsibilities by work stream and the staffing levels (using fair workloads) necessary to accomplish those responsibilities.
• Press HMRC to put a business case to HMT for funding to achieve a fully staffed HMRC.
• Support that business case with group materials to agitate public opinion about of tax lost due to tax avoidance that isn’t tackled because of under staffing.
• Make the case to show that in housing provides the best outcome for HMRC staff and the public generally.

Diversity and equality

HMRC token gestures to fight discrimination in our workplaces is not enough. All policies must be subject to review to root out unequal practices that go against common principles of fairness. All policies must be applied consistently in HMRC Groups. It simply isn’t good enough for a Group to act as if it is the employer and to subject the staff in that Group to different policies and practices. All members are entitled to be treated fairly by HMRC as the employer.

Equality and accessibility must be a fully integrated part of all PCS organising, bargaining and campaigning. Austerity has hurt all workers, but it has hit women, BAME, LGBTQ+ and disabled workers even more. The Tax Justice campaign must be re-launched to help fight all cuts to public services and an alternative fought for fully funded public and local services including HMRC. With well-paid, highly trained staff is crucial to the union’s equality agenda.

The BLN call for a campaign to demand time in work to attend union meetings and participate in the union. Many Members are unable to attend meetings outside of working hours due to other commitments. This is doubly true for members with caring responsibilities. This discrimination has gone overlooked for too long and must be challenged.

Winning on these demands

In order to win these demands and more it is key that we build a vibrant campaigning union. We must articulate the demands and put pressure on the employer.

Too often demands are put forward by the GEC with no connection or communication with branches. It isn’t surprising that HMRC feels no pressure to deliver when even affected members aren’t aware of what’s been called for on their behalf.

The way to apply pressure to the employer to win is to campaign and build the union. It is our members collective action that wins concessions.

If you believe in our programme, please join the BLN and help deliver the wins that our members deserve.

The newly elected DWP PCS Group Executive Committee, had its first meeting on the 24^th June against a background of thousands of our members being bullied into returning to the workplace – all because the government wants to start putting public pressure on the unemployed. This is outrageous given we have all proved that our work can be done safely from home.  Another example of the Tories putting the economy before workers’ lives, let alone the claimants who are being forced to come into the jobcentres too. There has also been increased pressure for work coaches to see claimants in an unsupportive and frankly dangerous way, such as:

• Forcing claimants into the office when meetings could be done over the phone;
• Cramming in too many appointments into too many desks;
• 10 minute ‘tick box’ interviews meaning insufficient time to go into the individual needs of the claimants;
• The use of ‘ghost diaries’ to increase numbers being seen in the office; and
• The promotion of Kickstart interviews to18-24-year-olds to get them off the books and into schemes rather than proper jobs.

Abject Failure of GEC Leadership – Branches Left to Support Members Themselves

The Left Unity leadership’ response has been woeful. This was the same before the elections and is getting worse now they are all safely re-installed into their positions. Not only has their response following the membership ballot been pitifully slow, not meeting until the 24^th June, some 3 weeks after the ballot result displays not only a lack of urgency but an abject failure to support members facing management’s disgraceful tactics.

The union’s group conference was a huge, missed opportunity to agree how the union was going to do the basic job of sticking up for members in our workplaces, following the 74% yes vote in favour of action. And collectively support and mobilise branches to build confidence and consciousness of the membership to vote yes overwhelmingly to win a statutory ballot to put safety first.

Broad Left Network supporters argued for clear demands and a clear strategy to build support in the workplace to increase the pressure on the employer to ensure safety is given the priority it should have both in the workplace and at home.  Demands that include:

1.No forced return to the workplace. Any return and on what basis only in agreement with PCS

2. Full safety measures to protect all members at home and in the workplace including supportive measures on mental health and stress.  

3. Work coach discretion about how members support individual claimants and by what method, with safety paramount.

4. End micro-management and harsh implementation of ED – quality services to the public and equality must be taken into account.

5. Permanent DWP jobs for those on Fixed Term Contracts and Brook Street agency contracts.

But yet again the Left Unity leadership have chosen path of ‘hot air bluster’ with management and failed to recognise the need to mobilise branches and members behind the negotiators to build pressure to collectively win the dispute.   Effectively branches and members have been left to fend for themselves. 

Hold BEC and Members’ Meetings – Don’t Kick the Can Down the Road!

The Broad Left Network believes that now is the time to hold Branch Executive Committee meetings and agree to call a series of members’ meetings to put clear demands to members and build for a collective response against the employer’s attacks on our members.  However, yet again, this GEC are ‘kicking the can’ down the road twiddling their thumbs whilst our members are under attack. Why not galvanise the membership and use the collective strength of our union to turn outwards and demonstrate the members’ anger and use this to build the pressure to back up any talks with the employer? That is what management would fear.  BLN believes branches and regions should discuss and agree our demands and put demands on the GEC to act in support of our members on the vital issues to improve working conditions and protect safety. 

Same Old Left Unity – Lack of Democracy

It’s a new GEC but still the same old Left Unity. No democracy and no transparency. Advisory Committee posts were handed out to their friends without any discussion and no information about which branches had nominated which candidates. To stifle discussion, the basic rules in the Committees “Standing Orders” are not adhered to with detailed papers being issued at the last minute rather than the standard time of at least 5 days in advance. Whilst it is not always possible to get reports in on time this GEC leadership rarely if at all gets any reports in 5 days before.  Instead Left Unity operate a mantra of knowledge is power and deliberately leaves sharing reports until the last minute. These are not the actions of a left wing, democratic union leadership.

Building the Left

BLN will continue to work to build a collective response involving branches.  We would ask all those on the left to join with us on this.  BLN supporters on the GEC were the ones putting the leadership under pressure at this meeting. We believe a united campaigning left union can make a difference to the membership as a whole and look forward to building campaigning links with all reps who want to see the union take a fighting stance and take members’ interests forward.

Join BLN – For a Fighting Campaigning Democratic Union

If you would like to join the BLN and build an alternative to the GEC leadership, please email pcsblnetwork@gmail.com