PCS National President in Leicester

The PCS National President was in Leicester today speaking at an event organised by the Leicester HMRC branch. Solidarity to sacked rep Candy Udwin & the striking National Gallery workers.


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Branch AGM 2

Thanks to everyone who came, we had about 100 people there.

The food was great and our hardship fund has been boosted.

Special thanks to the speakers (I know I was one of them) particularly our (virtual) special guest speaker, Mark Serwotka.

We are now set to kick on with our new merged branch and to work for our members.

The names of the reps who were elected will be posted on this blog and this is the place to come for updates, local stories, reports of negotiations and how to get help with a personal case.

Branch AGM

The meeting is really packed. We're having to put out more chairs as it's standing room only.


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CMG Leicester ER Informal

PCS met with the Centre Manager on 19/02/15 to discuss the numerous issues raised in the centre.

It was a very constructive meeting that clarified a number of the points raised by members and PCS representatives.

Business changes

Management will issue a further communication.

We agreed to discuss Plan, Commit, Deliver pledging with the Area Director.

8-8

A full review of the late shift and Saturday working will take place.

It was agreed that staff can move cars to the site car park in official time when working late.

Annual Leave

There continues to be an issue regarding the week commencing 13/07/15. We put forward the view that this year’s situation is unique as Eid clashes with the first two weeks of school holidays.

We had raised this in our initial discussions about the compulsory transfer when asking about the Equality Impact Assessment.

There will be an announcement very shortly.

Performance

A useful discussion about appraisals putting this year’s into context with the change in business disciplines to CMG. This included an understanding of the use of PIPs and how they are managed with an acknowledgement that there needs to be an agreed plan to support staff to achieve any improvements.

Reducing Stress update

We have arranged a number of sessions with Union Learn. The advert will go out next week, and we are jointly committed to consider producing site and team plans.

Over 150 staff talked to us at the Time to Talk event. Hopefully this may have given some staff assurances that support is available and to have the conversation with managers, colleagues or reps.

 

Martin Foreman

PCS Takes Leading Role in Local Trade Union Movement

Leicester and District Trades Union Council (L&DTUC) is the local body of the Trades Union Congress and has affiliates from most major trade unions including Unite, Unison and GMB. It represents both workers in the public and private sector.    

Our branch of PCS is affiliated and we have been a leading union branch in the organisation for some time.

This was recognised at the AGM last night, 19 February 2015 when Chris Willars was elected President, Tony Church was elected Secretary and Noel Corry was elected acting Assistant Treasurer.

I believe that this shows the trust and belief in our branch by the trade union movement in Leicester and Leicestershire.

We will continue to push to make the L&DTUC into an effective voice for the trade union movement locally.

WSD CEG ER Formal

PCS from across the area met with management for Work Services in the Central England Group yesterday, 19 February 2015.

Although we are now meeting monthly there are still problems with no agendas, action points or decisions from the last meeting available until just before the meeting and therefore we don't know what we are supposed to be discussing and with who. We discussed this and hopefully this will improve in future.

We discussed attendance management and management assured us that the policy must be followed and there is no automatic referral to a decision maker after 28 days of continuous absence. If this is happening we need to know and the CEG HRBP will look at cases where this happens or any other case where policy has been ignored. The stress group will also be reactivated to investigate levels of stress and to try and come up with ways to reduce it.

Equality and diversity statistics for last years box markings are now available.  The format makes the figures difficult to understand and it is a long time since the end of year.  Hopefully we can get figures earlier this reporting year.

Universal Credit rollout is starting in CEG.  We have dates for tranche 1 & 2.  There then follows a pause so the pressure on releasing staff for training during peak summer leave is less than it could have been.  Management are keen to honour the commitment to two continuous weeks leave in the summer for all staff who want it. Leave levels of 18-20% is the guideline as a starting point for all sites in CEG. If this is not the case in your office or agreed leave is cancelled we need to know.

We then discussed staffing.  We do not know the figures for next year yet but the VES exercise and band B to C progression will have a significant impact on band B numbers in particular.  We should be getting more meaningful staffing figures in future to inform our discussions.

We discussed ESA claimants.  We were assured that segmentation should take place and a strong message that claimants should be rung first to ensure that they were suitable and they knew why they were being invited in.

WSD District ER Informal

We met with Leicestershire & Northamptonshire district management on 5 February 2015 so here is a short report.  If you want more details please contact your rep.

We discussed 1-2-1s and both sides hoped that they are taking place each month.  If this is not the case please discuss it with your line manager let your PCS rep know.

We discussed unipods.  A learning needs discussion should have taken place in your January 1-2-1 if this had not been discussed before and everyone who needs it should have done the Adviser Skills Routeway and Solution Focussed Approach as a minimum. The DEA role is staying and, although they may be doing some other things, will take a lead and remain the office expert.  It is good practice for other named staff to take a similar lead role for the other former specialisms. We discussed how this could work in practice but came to no firm conclusion.

We discussed ESA claimants coming in for group sessions and interventions. We were pleased that a better invitation letter had been produced. We expressed concerns about the effectiveness of selecting only suitable ESA claimants and were told that a segmenting process took place to select only people who may be suitable and that claimants were rung to ensure that they understood their obligations and what we were trying to do.

We discussed informal and formal PIPs.  If you are given a PIP and believe that it is unfair please contact your rep for advice.

We discussed staffing levels and the potential problems that the remaining staff may have after the VES exercise and promotion exercise especially as we think our staffing levels overall will be reduced in 2015/16.  We will discuss this again when we have some better information.

We discussed stress as we believe that it is very high due to a combination of the issues above.  We offered to run stress sessions and it was agreed that we could do a presentation to the SLT to see if it was suitable.

Site AGMs

All sites will have an AGM to elect reps and receive a short report on activities in that site.  It's an opportunity to meet your current rep and ask questions.  This meeting is open to ALL members on that site.

This is followed by an AGM for ALL members in ALL sites to discuss whole branch business, agree the annual report and statement of accounts and to elect branch officers.

The dates I have so far are:

Already taken place - Market Harborough
10/02/15 - New Walk and District Office
11/02/15 - Charles Street and Fraud
12/02/15 - Loughborough
18/02/15 - Melton Mowbray
18/02/15 - Hinckley
19/02/15 - Coalville
24/02/15 - Wellington Street Jobcentre, CMG 2012 and others

As some of these dates are provisional please check with your local rep for further details.