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The coronavirus crisis continues as does the pressure on our members and the claimants who rely on  us. Maintaining the service and the safety of staff are the major concerns of the union which have dominated meetings of the DWP Group Executive Committee (GEC).

Serious Incident Protocol Needed 

The most recent GEC meeting was 21/22 April. At this meeting Broad Left Network (BLN) supporters put forward proposals for a serious incident protocol (similar to that put forward in HMRC). This would lay down clear standards to protect staff and trigger an office/site closure if safeguards are not met. Such a proposal would form the crucial part of a comprehensive agreement which we believe should also include:-

* A clear plan that enables every single DWP worker to work from home unless it is agreed by the TUS as impossible or in cases of domestic violence.

* Full union consultation on all the planning being done to deliver services to the public.

*  Agreement that where a member of staff who stays at home cannot work, for example, due to childcare needs, 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. 

* An agreed list of critical tasks which require staff to attend an office.

* An agreed list of offices which should remain open to deliver crucial services to the vulnerable.

* Continue to oppose the recruitment of agency staff and demand that management directly recruits permanent staff 

In absence of this protocol or until it is established, we argued that branches must be supported 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. This is particularly important in the context of DWP having the ability to redirect staff from office to office at will. Such redirection must be the subject of consultation at all levels and must be agreed before it happens. 

It’s a major criticism that 8 weeks into the virus crisis that many concerns remain unresolved and with no agreement in sight. Despite this fact our proposals were rejected by the Socialist View GEC majority saying they were doing most of these things – which we believe is not the case. Or they said could place individual members at risk of management reprisals – which we reject as we have always been clear that collective action is our best protection.

More Staff Needed 

We argued that even with all of the measures above there is an urgent need for further permanent recruitment and that a staffing demand of 20,000 permanent staff be immediately reiterated to DWP senior management.

Stop Office Closures 

We welcomed the temporary step back from office closures taken by DWP, but believe the office closure programme should be fully cancelled.

No To Outsourcing 

 The bringing of outsourced contracts back in house must be a priority along with supporting branches to recruit to the union staff from Interserve, G4S and other privatised services delivered in DWP buildings.

Special Leave Claim

BLN supporters raised the demand that staff working at home or in the workplace should receive some recognition for all their hard work and proposed a claim for 2 weeks  paid special leave.

A 10% Pay Increase For Public Sector Workers

BLN supporters raised this demand in as part of the approach to rewarding staff.  In the discussion SV supporters rejected this.

GEC Elections

BLN supporters believe democracy is important and that elections should be carried out to ensure a fresh mandate for the GEC.  SV majority say this is an NEC decision and it has been decided that the elections are postponed for safety reasons despite the use of electronic voting being available for the GEC elections.  

Using Technology and Email Addresses to Engage with Members

We raised the request for zoom accounts to be made available for all Branches that wished to use them. We were told we cannot afford these to be made available despite savings being made on travel and subsistence.  A cost of a zoom account starts from £11.99 per month. We also raised the request for branch officers to gain access to members personal email addresses and make the necessary changes with the Data Protection Officer to ensure GDPR compliance for PCS.  This was rejected.

Concluding Remarks

Broad Left Network supporters put forward proposals at the GEC on all the major issues of concern to DWP members. We had some success in moving the GEC but mostly faced outright opposition or ‘it’s in hand’ excuses. The GEC can and should do better in challenging management and using our collective strength in securing agreements which will give guarantees of safe working for members working at home or in the workplace.

Covid 19 poses a serious risk to all workers. This is especially true for those at work during the crisis, which is why we demand the highest Health and Safety workplace standards. 

The question facing us is how do we respond, if and when, despite local union reps best efforts, the employer has not done enough to ensure that our working environment is safe.

A clue to this is provided by PCS reps and members at Paisley Jobcentre on Friday 24th April. They had an outdoors union meeting (with proper social distancing arrangements in place) following an outbreak of Covid-19 in their office. 

More than twenty staff, whose numbers had already been drastically reduced by the need to keep home and safe colleagues with underlying health conditions, voted that their office was not safe to work in. After the vote members stayed out of the building for several hours while they waited for the union’s negotiators to get a deal out of senior managers.

National managers, however, were unwilling to budge. They insisted, despite the concerns raised by staff at the site and by Health and Safety reps, that a thorough clean had been conducted and that staff should return to work.

A compromise was eventually reached that allowed staff to go home on full flexi credits with the office closed for 72 hours. Local union reps were applauded for their work.

Union reps at Paisley acted decisively to protect themselves and their members. They correctly determined that the health and safety of members was paramount and collectively refused to work in a workplace they deemed unsafe.

Had the Paisley reps and members relied on advice and a lead from the union nationally they would have been disappointed and still waiting.

A PCS Briefing “Coronavirus – can employees refuse to attend the work place” has been recently issued. At the end of a lengthy cataloguing of bits of legislation on health and safety the Briefing concludes with a statement bereft of guidance and leadership -. “This briefing provides general information about statutory rights which are available to all employees in the UK. We are NOT advising you to do, or refrain from doing, anything.” 

Current health and safety legislation provide only limited protection. The anti-union laws are another obstacle.However the health and safety of union members must always come first.

The incident at Paisley highlighted the need for the DWP Group Executive to secure arrangements which give better protection to members. Something BLN members on the GEC have been arguing for.

Other areas have successfully achieved this. For example a “Serious Incident Protocol” has been negotiated by the PCS Group Executive in HMRC. It can be found here. It’s not perfect. The Government advise self-isolation if a member of your household has (or is suspected to have) Covid 19. Unfortunately, the employer refuse to apply the same standards to contact with a person at work. However, it has forced the closure of several HMRC buildings for periods of up to a week. The DWP GEC should negotiate a similar or better agreement for our members, and the NEC should try to get a similar or improved agreement to cover all our workplaces.

The NEC also needs to act more decisively to ensure staff (our members) and reps are in a safe place whether at home or in the workplace.

BLN members were active in the Paisley Jobcentre demand for a safe workplace and in the action supporting this demand. We have no hesitation in recommending reps follow their example.

PCS should demand of management that they make all the workplace adjustments needed to ensure workers safety. These include:

• Everyone should work from home unless their work is both critical and can’t be done at home.

• All staff with underlying health conditions, live with someone with underlying health conditions or have caring responsibilities must work from home or be placed on paid special leave

• Where office attendance is necessary, agreed social distancing of at least 2m in all areas of the office – no compromise on capacity.

• Thoroughly cleaned premises and equipment

• Hand sanitisers available at every point where they are needed

Where demands are not met to the satisfaction of reps and members a car park meeting should be held (with proper social distancing arrangements in place) to agree collectively how to respond. Stick together until a solution is agreed and accepted by members. Yes, unity is our strength in these difficult times. A lesson it seems the national leadership of the union has yet to learn. Our members’ safety is not for sale.

Preparing our union to withstand the attacks of the new Tory Government is urgent. PCS, alongside unions like the RMT, which are left fighting unions, will be key to ensuring the whole of the trade union movement is able to respond to the attacks which are coming. 

Johnson, in his victory speech, talked about being a ‘one-nation Conservative’ and promised increased spending on the NHS. This is difficult to believe. Many of us remember Thatcher quoting Frances of Assisi, promising to bring harmony and hope to Britain when she won in 1979.

Instead, she ruled ruthlessly in the interests of her class and attacked working people including Civil Service workers and their families. It was Thatcher who privatised huge areas of the Civil Service, broke up national bargaining by introducing ‘delegations’ and cut thousands of jobs in her attempts to reduce the power of the union.

Johnson will do the same. Already he has launched an assault on the rights of rail workers to strike. This, combined with the recent brutal anti-democratic court rulings against the postal workers’ union, the CWU, gives a glimpse of the attacks that are to come.

But if the Trade Union movement fights with a strategy that unites workers across trade unions then Johnson’s attacks can be defeated. The seeming strength of Johnson’s government can be shattered. In 1987 Margaret Thatcher had a majority of 102. Within 12 months the campaign of mass non-payment against the poll tax began and led to her resignation just a few years later.

Today’s Tory party is far weaker than it was then. It is bitterly divided, and Johnson has only been able to win by linking BREXIT with promises to invest in health, housing and education and falsely claiming he is standing up for ‘the people’.

His promise to “get BREXIT done” by 31January is impossible to achieve and the road is fraught with dangers for big business and the Tories. It is entirely possible that this will cause huge political problems for the Government. If the Brexit arrangements trash the economy, all the other promises on taxes and spending will become impossible to deliver. The worst estimates say that a No Deal exit could cause twice the damage of the banking crash.

These false promises will become apparent very quickly and provoke a response which the Tories didn’t anticipate. The relevance of the anti-austerity agenda promoted by Corbyn will be back in the minds of working people.

The Trade Union movement must prepare now. PCS should demand the TUC call an urgent ‘council of war’ to plan the fight back against Johnson’s attacks. In the here and now this means immediate support for the PCS, education, postal and rail workers currently in dispute.  But that also means giving the lead to quickly co-ordinate a campaign against the Tories to give a voice to working people. This must include demands for socialist policies. If the TUC doesn’t act then PCS must meet with like-minded unions to organise an effective and quick response.

Already politicians, commentators and the Labour right wing, are arguing that Labour’s poor result was caused by Corbyn’s left-wing manifesto. This is nonsense. If Corbyn had maintained the commitment that he gave in the 2017 manifesto that a Labour government led by him would recognise the referendum result, seek to negotiate a deal in the interests of workers the outcome might have been very different.  Supporters of the Broad Left Network moved an emergency motion at the September NEC that called for the TUC Congress, which was meeting the following week, to mobilise workers to fight for a general election, just as Johnson was losing crucial parliamentary votes. However, this was opposed and defeated by Mark Serwotka and his supporters, meaning that the mistaken approach of Jeremy Corbyn to instead limit himself to parliamentary manoeuvres with pro-Remain parties wasn’t countered.  

Even so, Labour got 10.2 million votes, the second time under Corbyn it has reached over 10 million votes, something that was not achieved by Blair after the 2001 election, or ever by Brown or Miliband. Had he won, and implemented his programme it would have changed the lives of millions of working people including PCS members.

The battle lines are now being drawn with Johnson, aided and abetted by his side-kick, the unelected, unaccountable Cummings, planning their overhaul of Whitehall which will impact all PCS members and the communities we serve. Let’s not forget it was Cummings who lectured that a permanent civil service belongs in the history books!

The agenda for PCS members is already set. Fair pay, a return to national bargaining, investment in the key services we provide and an end to office closures, job losses and pension cuts. In short this means a fight to preserve a permanent, properly trained and rewarded Civil Service. We must also step up our campaigning to stop climate change.

The Broad Left Network will have a vital part to play in the struggles ahead. We must hold the current PCS leadership to account. Marion Lloyd won a tremendous vote in the General Secretary election, as did Bev Laidlaw, who came third. The NEC must take into account the views of those members, who include many key Union activists. They want:

• A return to a member led union
• A joined-up strategy to rebuild PCS which links bargaining to organising
• A fight back against office closures to save jobs, with PCS Groups and National Branches fully consulted and
• Lay structures (the activists who are PCS members), and not full-time officials, directing the best use of union resources.

The Broad Left Network will be standing candidates in the PCS 2020 elections with a programme to counter the Tory attacks and fighting to defend our members interests. Attend the event we have called on the 18^th January in Manchester. Join us in this struggle by joining the BLN.

The decision by the Tory Prime Minister Boris Johnson to suspend parliament lays bare how quickly the Tories and their supporters will ditch democracy when it suits them. This move is nothing more than an undemocratic manoeuvre designed to over-rule elected MP’s and force through either a Johnson Brexit deal or no deal at all.  Ironic, given the Prime Minister has been elected by less than 0.25% of the electorate.

The PCS Broad Left Network believes that Jeremy Corbyn and the whole of the Trade Union movement need to urgently launch a mass campaign to force an immediate General Election.  It is crucial that we grab the moment and build on the demonstrations which took place in the wake of Johnson’s announcement.

PCS has a pivotal role to play in this and the union must now use the opportunity it gives to lead the call for a General Election and the return of a Corbyn led government on an anti-austerity programme. The fact that the current General Secretary Mark Serwotka is the President of the TUC should be used to pivotal effect to the advantage of not only PCS members but for working class families the length and breadth of the UK to mobilise workers and build support for the demand for an immediate General Election. The TUC congress in less than a fortnight could become a real call to arms for this demand across our movement. The intervention from PCS could be decisive and needs to be the subject of discussion at the National Executive that meets next week.

PCS must pull out all the stops to support Jeremy Corbyn’s intention to institute a vote of no-confidence in the Tory government of Boris Johnson, to force a general election and campaign for a Corbyn-led Labour Government on an anti-austerity programme.

We do not support the attempts by politicians to support a ‘national unity’ government led by right wing Labour politicians, Tories or Independents.  The capitalist establishment support this as they fear that anything led by Jeremy Corbyn may lead to an elected Corbyn government which would act against austerity and in the interests of working people including thousands of Civil Service and public sector workers. A so-called “national unity” government not led by Corbyn would act in the interests of big business and capitalism.

It is crucial now that the TUC and the unions mobilise to build on the protests breaking out all over the country, demonstrations for a general election and for a government to be elected with a clear anti-austerity programme , including the repeal of anti-Trade Union laws.

It is only the trade union movement, mobilised for a general election, which can really  unite working people by cutting through the fog that right wing politicians and media have created over Brexit. We can reclaim the ground to put forward our demands about fighting for decent jobs, pay and conditions and our services to help win the implementation of an anti-austerity programme to benefit thousands of working class families including PCS members.

The response from students across the world to climate change is inspirational. The Trade Union movement has a key role to link together the issues for workers, youth and broader society and build on the lead already given.

The evidence is now compelling that global warming and extreme weather events are linked to climate change. Since the first earth summit in Rio in 1992, the emission of greenhouse gases have actually increased. Capitalist governments have shown themselves incapable of the decisive and radical action needed. It is capitalism itself that has shown itself to be the obstacle to the scale and pace of change needed to end our reliance upon the burning of fossil fuels and move to a zero carbon economy by 2050.

Trade unions need to heed the call for action raised by the inspirational and global school student strikes and the peaceful civil disobedience of the Extinction Rebellion protests we saw in London.

The Broad left Network believes climate change is a trade union issue. The Earth’s temperature has already risen by one degree above pre-industrial levels. The Autumn IPCC report warned we have 12 years to keep global warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees. Carbon emissions need to be cut by 45% by 2030 to reach zero carbon by 2050 in order to avoid a dangerous tipping point. It is clear to all rational people, unfortunately that doesn’t apply to the current occupant of the Oval Office, that the future of our planet is at risk if we don’t organise now to force governments to cut emissions in line with the IPCC Report.

The Broad Left Network believe PCS and trade unions in UK must use their collective power to win support for the decisive action needed.

We stand for;

* Statutory rights for Green workplace reps and Trade Union led environmental risk assessments in every workplace.

* Machinery of government changes to ensure the Civil Service is ready to deliver environmental policies as part of a National Climate Service.

* Tax Justice to fund the investment, clean transport, energy efficiency measures and training programmes that can help create millions of new, skilled, unionised jobs while cutting greenhouse emissions.

*Build on the Lucas Plan, One million Climate Jobs, Just Transition: A civil service perspective and many other initiatives across the world to set out plans for a Just Transition that places the interests of workers and trade unionists at its centre.

* To campaign alongside Trade Unions for Energy Democracy, TUC affiliates and the Labour leadership for the public ownership and democratic control of Energy from the community, municipal to the government and global level.

* Strengthen the links between the trade union and environmental movement in UK and globally through joint campaigns, protests, peaceful civil disobedience and strikes to mobilise support for the system change needed.

* Support the call for a global climate strike on 20 September 2019 linking school students and trade unionists across the world.

* PCS support for the UCU call for a 30 minute stoppage on the 20 September 2019 and lobby the TUC to call for a nation- wide stoppage with actions in and outside workplaces and protests across towns and cities in the UK.

If you’d like to get involved with the Broad Left Network, please get in touch via our contact page. Thanks.