Vote YES for strike action and an overtime ban

Don't forget to vote. Make sure you return your vote by 10 January.

The DWP has issued compulsory redundancy notices to 43 staff. 
PCS is balloting all members in the DWP for strike action and an overtime ban to oppose these compulsory redundancies and for more staff.
There is no justification for these redundancies

• We need more staff not less
• You could be next
• Social Fund staff face an uncertain future next April when most of it is abolished.
• Initiatives like the introduction of electronic post scanning threaten many AA posts.
• DWP keep cutting sites. 3 Jobcentres in the North West were cut last month.
• Future changes, like Universal Credit and PIP that drastically increase the automation of processing and self-claiming online, put many jobs at risk.
• It’s not just AA’s being made compulsorily redundant. It is AO staff as well.

Our pay is frozen or cut, our pensions attacked, our terms and conditions attacked and our jobs are getting more stressful, redundancies are a last straw that we will not accept. Our union has done everything possible by negotiation. The DWP’s decision to hand out compulsory redundancy notices to these staff is an act of extreme provocation.

We can stop these compulsory redundancies

Our case is strong and action by PCS members can get management back into negotiations to find a settlement and protect our job security. Action by PCS members has won improvements in contact centres, more staff in Merseyside and better Christmas leave in Pension Centres.

Use your vote - Vote YES/YES

Redundancy consultation period to be halved to 45 days

Unions accuse government of making it easier to sack staff by cutting the time before a firm can implement large redundancies

Unions have accused the government of making it easier to sack people after a minister announced that the period before large-scale redundancies can take place is to be cut from 90 to 45 days.
Jo Swinson, Liberal Democrat employment relations minister, also announced plans to exclude fixed-term contracts from collective redundancy agreements when they reach the end of their "natural life". Swinson said the changes were aimed at helping workers and businesses.
The TUC said the measures "will not save a single job". Reducing the consultation period gave unions less time to work with employers to find ways to save jobs. Removing redundancy rights from fixed-term contract staff would create more job and financial insecurity for temporary staff and reduce their chances of redeployment.
Currently, firms must consult with staff for a minimum of 30 days before making more than 20 staff redundant, or 90 days when 100 or more jobs are at risk. The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills said a consultation on the changes conducted last summer had resulted in a strong argument for shortening the 90-day period, and moving to 45 days would still allow full employee engagement including the statutory right to contribute to the process.
The changes form part of the government's commitment to reviewemployment law to support business and concentrate on growth.
Swinson said: "The process is usually completed well within the existing 90-day minimum period, which can cause unnecessary delays for restructuring and make it difficult for those affected to get new jobs quickly. Our reforms will strike an appropriate balance between making sure employees are engaged in decisions about their future and allowing employers greater certainty and flexibility to take necessary steps to restructure." The change is planned to be introduced from next April.
Brendan Barber, the TUC general secretary, said: "The last thing we need is for the government to make it easier to sack people. Unemployment has not gone as high as many feared because employers have worked with unions to save jobs, even if it has meant sharing round fewer hours and less work.
"The need to consult unions has made an important contribution to that, and also given staff, many of whom will have had years of loyal service, time to think through their options.
"These measures will not create a single extra job. The idea that an employer will change their mind about taking someone on because the statutory redundancy consultation period has been reduced from 90 to 45 days is close to absurd.
"Removing consultation rights from fixed-term contract staff will seriously increase job and financial insecurity for vulnerable groups of workers, and temporary staff will lose out on redeployment opportunities."
The University and College Union (UCU) said plans to exclude fixed-term contracts from collective redundancy agreements were "another damaging blow" for post-16 education, a sector with high rates of staff on fixed term contracts that has already been hit with funding cuts and threats of job losses.
The UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said the plans meant trade unions would no longer have the legal right to be consulted about widespread redundancies of staff who happen to be on fixed-term contracts – many with long years of service.
Hunt said: "Casualisation in our universities and colleges remains the unacceptable underbelly of post-16 education and these changes send a very worrying message to staff. Employers should maintain collective consultations whether or not they remain a legal requirement, as it is good for staff and institutions to engage in positive dialogue.
"Jobs for early careers staff in further and higher education are already notoriously insecure; making the situation even worse could result in many considering different career paths."
Business groups welcomed the plans as sending a "strong signal" that ministers were committed to creating a flexible labour market.
Tim Thomas – head of employment and skills at EEF, the manufacturers' organisation – said: "By reducing the consultation period from 90 to 45 days, the government has taken a further step to creating a modern, consultation system based on the quality, not the length of, the process.
"It now needs to complete the package by introducing simpler settlement agreements and protected conversations that provide a better base for discussing and managing change in the workplace."
Neil Carberry, the CBI director for employment and skills, said: "The priority for businesses is meaningful consultation. A shorter consultation period will reduce uncertainty for staff and allow businesses to focus on the future more quickly."

DON'T RIP UP OUR RIGHTS

PCS members at Makerfield Contact Centre sent a strong message today to the Cabinet Office:

              Calling All Young Members
 
Join the young members network today!
The young members network was established to give young workers a voice in the workplace ensuring we have a healthy union which has democracy at its heart, campaigning on the issues that matter, well into the future.

The network was set up in 2004 and has gained momentum since. There are 9 regions covering all civil service departments across the UK.

There are around 700 young PCS members signed up to the network. The young members’ charter is a set of key principles outlining what we stand for and can be found on our web pages.

Young member convenors gain useful training and experience in organising and representing members in the workplace and area.

The young members network objective is to give young workers the confidence, through their trade union, to make a difference – whether that’s in the workplace, community or wider.
The young members network fully support the ‘Youth Fight for Jobs’ campaign which fights for decent jobs and living conditions for young people. Its clearly not right that young people should pay for the economic crisis.
The young members network also participate in initiatives around the environment, tax justice and anti fascist campaigning.







Ask your PCS rep for an application form today

UPDATE YOUR INFORMATION NOW!

It is important that the union can contact you quickly with things like ballot results, details of industrial action action called, and decisions taken by PCS elected committees.

We cant use work emails to send out strike information and this governments ceaseless quest to remove facilities for unions and smash the rights of our members to pieces mean it is absolutely essential that PCS both at national level and at branch level have your personal email and mobile phone details.

Without PCS having this vital information , in the future you may be left isolated at the time you need the union most.

Please click the following link and update your details online now. You can also sign up for a monthly campaigns newsletter, join the PCS group on Facebook and follow PCS on Twitter to get the latest news and information.

http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/campaigns/text-and-email-alerts/union-latest.cfm

It is also vital that your membership details are correct on the PCS database, particularly your BALLOT ADDRESS. Due to the reduction or removal of messenger services from an increasing number of work places it is recommended that you use your HOME ADDRESS for ballot purposes. Please click the following link and follow these steps.

1/ select MY PERSONAL DETAILS from Left Hand column.

2/ select My addresses from TOP TABS

3/ click edit these details to change your BALLOT ADDRESS to your home address.

  

http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/member/index.cfm

AND FINALLY!

PCS Wigan Branch are working on setting up an external email distribution list to send updates and info direct to your home email. Please send your email address to us using the following email link.

pcswigan@gmail.com

NEC meeting to agree campaign activity in November

The National Executive Committee (NEC) is meeting on 7 November to consider important campaign activity over the coming weeks. 

On 14 November the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) has called for a day of action and solidarity in order to mobilise the European trade union movement against austerity policies.  http://www.etuc.org/a/10446


The NEC will consider campaign activities for the day.


The NEC will also be considering a campaign plan involving a day of protest at the end of November against the coalition government's proposed review of civil service terms and conditions which threatens to cut basic entitlements such as annual leave on purely political grounds.

Further information will be issued immediately after the meeting on 7 November.

Fresh Tory attack on civil servants.

A leaked cabinet office reveals the latest vicious ideological attack being launched by the tories against hard working civil servants.

The document lays bear the full extent of the tories plans to dismantle the terms and conditions of hard working civil servants, and includes a number of family-friendly policies such as childcare, compressed hours working, flexitime, parental leave, part-time working, job sharing and term-time working.

The document also lists other policies that could be reviewed, including advances of pay, allowances, excess hours, weekend working, travelling time, eye tests and advances in money to pay for travel expenditure and subsistence payments.

The full document can be viewed here

 Cabinet document

PCS guerilla lightshow

 

 

 

 

This anti-austerity message was beamed by PCS on to the Conservative party headquarters in London! Another high-profile building will be lit up in the coming days with

 

the same message… that it’s time to say no to the government’s austerity programme, and to get ready to demonstrate on 20 October.

 

A spokesman from PCS said, “PCS is proud of its reputation for leading the fightback against brutal austerity measures"

 

The union is supporting the TUC anti-austerity marches on 20 October and proposes an alternative based on closing the £120 billion tax gap, job creation, defending public services and investing in big, socially useful projects, such as housing, renewable energy and public transport.

 

“We are challenging the government’s slash and burn approach to the public sector, every step of the way.”

Condem the Con-Dems @ O20

Austerity isn’t working!

Our country faces long-term economic problems. But our political leaders have failed to face up to them.
For the next five years or more, unless policies change the economy will not grow, incomes will not rise, and there will be almost no new jobs.
If the government keeps on with big spending cuts and austerity we face a lost decade.
Even on their own terms government policies are failing. Rather than deep, rapid spending cuts, we need to reverse our decline and build an economy that works for ordinary families.
PCS Wigan Branch along with 1000s of other branches from dozens of other Unions across the country will be desending on London on October the 20th to send a clear message to this unelected government of millionairs: "we will not pay for your crisis"!

CLICK HERE FOR LATEST INFO