It contains an update on the elections to branch posts, slates for nomination to Group and National Executive Committee positions and motions to conference.

Note that 1.5 hours flexi credit plus traveling time can be claimed for attending the AGM.

If you have any problems obtaining leave to attend please contact one of your local Reps or a branch official.

Agenda for PCS DWP Sheffield Branch AGM 2012

Branch Newsletter 1 Spring

Please see below the updated Pensions Calculator on the PCS website:

http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/campaigns/pensions/pensionscalculator.cfm

The branch has sent the following message of solidarity for this strike, but feel free to send your own:

On behalf of PCS DWP Sheffield branch I wish you well in your fight and you have our full support in your dispute. The battle for pensions is as vital in the private sector as in the public sector, where we continue our struggle, and we remember that it is the unions that fought and won for better pension rights. It is vital that struggles like yours are won in order to set a precedent for the private sector, and so we offer you our full solidarity and support.

Unite members at Unilever will be on 24 hour strike again on Friday 20 January 2012.  Details of the Y&H site affected is below:

Coal Road
Seacroft
Leeds
LS14 2AR

The strike will start at 18.00 hours on Friday 20 January 2012, concluding at 17.59 hours on Saturday 21 January 2012.

The significance of this action by Unite members is that it is the private sector fighting to retain pensions and it is an absolutely crucial aspect of the fair pensions for all campaign.

Please show solidarity by sending messages of support and attending picket lines (if possible).

Messages of support can be sent to Bill Hodgson at william.hodgson@unilever.com and Ian Swift ian.swift@unilever.com

_________________________________________

Privatisation Dispute: the battle continues

Further walkouts called for on 16 and 31 January 2012

For the latest follow us on Twitter @PCSRCGROUP

Messages of support to Twitter @PCSRCGROUP or email r&ccampaigns@pcs.org.uk

Members employed in PTOps across the UK took action on 12 December in protest against HMRC’s decision to trial privatisation in the telephone contact centre.

The current situation is HMRC have signed contracts with two suppliers, Sitel and Teleperformance.

Both companies will be recruiting locally in the coming weeks and we expect representatives from these companies to be on site at Lillyhall and Bathgate in the lead up to trials starting in February

We are therefore asking all members in PTOps (contact centres, customer operations and in enquiry centres) to take further strike action on 16 January and again on 31 January. Information on this is here.

12 January 2012

Unions representing one million civil servants, teachers, council staff and health workers will be invited to a meeting to discuss the next stage of the campaign against the government’s cuts to pensions.

Today’s meeting of the TUC’s public sector liaison group, involving all the public sector unions, did not agree with PCS’s recommendation that further co-ordinated strike action on a similar scale to 30 November should be organised now. While some unions supported the call, others have accepted the government’s so-called ‘heads of agreement’ and will now proceed to negotiations on the details of new schemes.

PCS’s national executive committee yesterday unanimously confirmed a rejection of this offer, as it imposes the government’s plans to increase contributions from April, link the retirement age to the state pension which is rising to 68, and impose a switch in indexation that means a cut in the value of pensions of around 15% to 20%. So far the government has refused to negotiate on these core issues.

The NEC will reconvene for a special meeting on Thursday 19 January to consider the positions of the other public sector unions and how to continue the campaign, including the possibility of further industrial action. The unions in all four sectors – civil service, education, local government and health – that have refused to sign up to the offer will be called together to discuss a joint campaign.

The executive also agreed that if the government follows through on its threat to exclude the union from future discussions it would consider taking legal action and the TUC is calling for our reinstatement.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “The fantastic strike on 30 November showed what was possible if we act together in unity. It is disappointing that more action has not been called now but we will discuss the way forward with the other unions which have not signed up to the government’s offer.

“We will continue to call for proper negotiations on the key issues of paying more and working longer for less. But in the absence of these further co-ordinated industrial action will be necessary to stop what is nothing more than a crude attempt to make millions of public servants pay for economic problems caused by the failings of a few millionaire bankers and politicians.”

The branch position has always been to campaign collectively to make FTAs permanent, and we continued with this view even when it was not taken as seriously as we would have hoped at PCS conference this year, and in spite of the lack of support we have received for a number of employment tribunals challenging the end of FTA contracts, from PCS DWP Group Office.

The below is copied from the PCS website.

21 December 2011

PCS is campaigning for more staff in DWP. We are also campaigning against the threat of compulsory redundancies, compulsory transfers and office closures. DWP management have now conceded that more staff are needed and agreed to recruit 4,000 additional staff in the AO and EO grades for DWP Operations.

Youth Contract and Rising Unemployment – More Staff Needed

The Youth Contract was announced by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg on 26th November. It was an acceptance that in the face of rising youth unemployment, it is Jobcentre Plus staff that have the expertise and experience to help get more young people into work quicker. PCS immediately wrote to management seeking additional resources to deal with the additional work involved in the Youth Contract, in particular the Adviser interventions and more frequent signing. The extra staff announced are partly to deal with this. However, it is also an admission that unemployment is now set to rise sharply. Throughout 2011, PCS has warned management that this would be the case and that the forecasts they had been working on when making decisions to close offices and not renew some FTA contracts would be proved wrong. The Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasts predicted that unemployment would start to fall at the end of 2011. The new OBR forecast announced by the Chancellor on 29th November predicts that unemployment will rise from the present 2.64 million to 2.8 million in 2012.

PCS believes the OBR has now established a track record of underestimating increases in unemployment. While the recruitment of 4,000 additional permanent staff is a welcome breakthrough for our campaign, we will continue to campaign because more are needed.

Office Closures – End the Threat of Redundancy

The offers of Voluntary Redundancy at 12 sites threatened with closure and the Voluntary Exit offers planned for sites in their vicinity were due to be made last week. They were suspended for at least a month while the impact of the additional resources now made available is assessed.

PCS immediately wrote to management demanding that the Meaningful Consultation on compulsory redundancy in those 12 offices be halted. We believe it is now clear that redundancies can be avoided through voluntary exits and re-deployment within the DWP. Members in these offices should have the threat of redundancy lifted and all the decisions on office closures, including the ‘Year 2’ sites, should be reviewed in the light of increasing workloads.

Fixed Term Contract Staff

PCS has campaigned hard for FTC members to be made permanent. Most FTC members were recruited through ‘fair and open competition’. This means they can be converted to permanent staff without going through a further recruitment or selection exercise. We will be pressing management to ensure this happens. FTC members who have now given DWP a great deal of loyal and effective service should not now be unnecessarily put into competition with external applicants. All should be made permanent.

Compulsory Transfers on Merseyside

PCS is preparing to ballot members on Merseyside for action over staffing and the threat of compulsory transfers due to take place on 9th January. We have now asked management to, as a minimum, suspend the threatened transfers while the staffing position is reviewed.

Conclusion

PCS is now seeking further urgent talks on staffing in DWP Operations. You will be kept informed of developments.

Thursday 22^nd December

@ 5pm for a maximum of 30 minutes

In the Dove & Rainbow

We are aware this is short notice, and the timing is not ideal for everyone, but sure you all appreciate why it has to be. This issue is an extremely important one and we need to act fast if we are to save anything of our existing pensions deal. Please make every effort to attend; children, partners, all welcome.

If you can’t attend for any reason but would like to air your views on the way forward, please contact your local rep.

Having the views of the ‘rank and file’ of the PCS membership is the most important part of this campaign – waiting for the TUC to make a decision might be too late, we have to discuss our views on the ways forward.

Any motions or contributions will be taken from the floor, and if appropriate, any motions can be officially ratified by the branch committee and their next meeting in January.

The Branch Executive Committee

Only 5% of the staff at Carlisle can be redeployed within reasonable travelling distance. This means up to 130 experienced benefit processors at the site could be made redundant. This is the worst affected site for redeployment due to its rural location. DWP refuse to provide plausible justification for its closure which results from the government’s austerity plans.

Jobcentre Plus has already cut more than 10,000 staff since 2009 and the decision to close more offices will mean more delays in processing claims. This decision to close Carlisle comes at the same time when hundreds of thousands public sector workers are expected to lose their jobs, with an anticipated similar knock-on effect in the private sector.

An Office for Budget Responsibility report prepared for the budget in March forecast unemployment will be higher throughout 2012 than it was at the beginning of this year. Unemployment is rising still, and rising faster in the Lancashire and Cumbria area than elsewhere in the North West. DWP need experienced benefit processors to ensure the sick and the unemployed receive their payments and the help they need.

The loss of 150 to jobs to Carlisle will damage the local economy. Putting DWP workers on the dole queue rather than have them carry out valuable work and invest their wages into local businesses will hurt the people of Carlisle.

Instead of cutting jobs, the government should be investing in public services like these to help get people back to work more quickly and help our economy to get back on track.

Please sign the petition here

We will be having a small presentation ceremony for colleagues who wish to show their support for Gareth. You will need to attend in your own time, but management have stated they will be sympathetic in terms of changing lunchtimes for this purpose. Any problems with release, please contact Tom Bishell.

The presentation will be at 1pm on the 20th December in Room 307 (behind the canteen). We hope to be able to provide refreshments.

Gareth’s winning entry is below:

The Taverna at Sigri

The taverna at Sigri stands blue, white,
And nameless at the end of desert roads;
Entirely contained, absolute, grounded,
Just a quayside to mutter of elsewheres.
We eat small fishclothed in curls of batter,
Tomatoes taut with the tang of the sun,
Salt feta and olives – you like them now –
Drink red wine brought cold in an alloy can.
On the white beach afterward I sit shocked
By solar heat, feel myself made x-rayed,
Translucent, about to disappear, as
I watch you swim in water thick with light.

 

The road at Robin Hoods Bay cuts steeply
Down, bridges the stream at the ferned ravine,
Lands among name-boarded pubs that it scoots
Between to the high tide harbour slipway.
In the Laurel Inn, lodged round a table
Crammed between coal fire and local chit-chat,
We duck April rain and drink beer brown as
The meat pie gravy soaking the fat chips.
No sunbathing later, a sharp fret stings
Faces and full flood blocks the beach, grey road
Sliding  seamlessly into sea. I watch
The dark water roil and slop the stonework,

 

Find myself both present and distant in
One instant, comprehend it is all one
Water, the world’s wrapping, its wide stretched yet
Wrinkling skin, reaching from here to Sigri,
Archangel to Brooklyn Bridge, all the shores
Rehearsed in school geography; places
I sat writing while you swam, places we
Have been, will never be, will be again.