PCS Conference Thursday Morning

It's goodbye to Brighton from us but first we have a packed agenda to get through.  

Firstly we discussed the other big contentious issue of National Conference, affiliation to TU Momentum. 

The motion was lost. 

We voted to oppose military intervention in Syria & support migrants & refugees. 

We agreed to step up our campaigning on green issues. 

We agreed to campaign to make pension contributions fairer for Classic scheme members, to campaign on workplace stress and to oppose performance management policies.

We agreed to fully support the junior doctors in their dispute. 

We voted to try & stop privatisation of current services in devolved governments and opposed forced academisation of state schools (supported by Tony Church)

 

We agreed to campaign against cuts, closures & privatisation, to support neurodiverse members, to use the legal judgement on check off in DWP to continue our campaign and to oppose bullying. 

That's it for this year. 

PCS Conference Wednesday afternoon

It's one of the two big debates this afternoon. 

We voted to carry out a review of our political work rather than vote to affiliate to the Labour Party. 

We also voted to review our finances. 

We agreed that any changes because of the strategic review would be subject to agreement of conference, that differences in Welsh & Scottish parliaments are taken into account, that the make up of groups is reviewed, that electronic voting for NEC is introduced, that branch structures are reviewed, that conference is reviewed and relaunch our organisation for HEO & above (the PMA). 

Conference is over for the day so I've just got time for an okey. 

 

PCS Conference Wednesday Morning 3

We agreed to continue to campaign against benefit sanctions and welfae reforms. 

We agreed to campaign to improve equalities in employment policies and in PCS. 

And now it's time for lunch. 

 

PCS Conference Wednesday Morning 2

Our second guest speaker is John McDonnell, the Shadow Cancellor. 

 

PCS Conference Wednesday Morning 1

Our delegation are concentrating hard.  

We agreed to put the facts about the EU Referendum but not campaign to leave or remain. 

We agreed to develop a mental health strategy, to better support members who have suffered domestic abuse, to have a mechanism to challenge a decision to not support an ET case, to produce material early enough to get it out to members and to raise trans awareness.

PCS Conference Tuesday Afternoon 4

We returned to debating motions. 

We agreed to oppose the Trade Union Act. 

We endorsed the organising strategy, agreed to start implementing the conclusions of the strategic review and to improve access to the PCS membership computer system.

That ends today's business. Back to the hotel. 

 

PCS Conference Tuesday Afternoon 3

Our speaker is Jeremy Corbyn!

 

PCS Conference Tuesday Afternoon 2

We debated motions. 

 

We agreed to oppose office closures but to consider timings of any ballot against closures or compulsory redundancies. With the help of Tony Church. 

We agreed campaigns to break the 1% pay cap & for national pay, against reductions in the Civil Service Compensation Scheme and against privatisation of Land Registry. 

PCS Conference Tuesday Afternoon 1

 

We are ready to go. 

We've had really inspiring speeches from Janice Godrich, Mark Serwotka and Hannah Lawson, Chair of Museums of Wales branch who are on all-out strike. 

PCS Conference Late Tuesday Morning

We now have the guillotine section where we pick up motions that we didn't have time to hear earlier in the conference. 

We called for UC calls to be free, opposition to local variations of attendance management policies, for disability trigger points to not be increased in the review period and for complex case advisors not to advise on medical issues. 

We paid tribute to longstanding GEC member & Group Assistant Secretary Dave Richards (NOT our Dave Richards) who died recently. 

DWP Conference closed. 

I'll be back for National Conference after lunch. 

 

PCS Conference Tuesday Morning

We supported AOs in Jobcentres & will fight compulsory redundancies, argue to remove staff names from letters, changes to WCDM and to campaign against increases in MELs. 

We carried our branch motion, moved by Alan Groves, which calls for a review of the grading of the CMG caseworker role. 

 

We adopted a strategy to protect members where sites close or move as a result of the end of the PRIME contract or People & Locations Programme. 

We agreed to campaign for better pay equality, publicise equality data, improve guidance for equality act transfers, end discrimination against neurodiverse members and improve assistive software. 

PCS Conference Day 2

It's dawned a nice day again today. We took a sensible decision on the way ahead for pay & I'm optimistic for today. 

There's a quick dash through the leafleters & paper sellers & we are ready to go. 

It's the end of DWP conference this morning and the start of National conference this afternoon. 

 

PCS Conference Monday Late Afternoon.

We supported a staffing campaign, a grading review, safeguards for staff in benefit & UC service centres and to measure call quality by outcomes rather than call recording.

We agreed to negotiate a co-location framework, improve safe levels of CCOs, get better support for workplace stress and an end to hot desking.

We called for a stop to FDA poaching our manager members. 

The conference day was closed by our own Bash Chilwan moving the DWP Group accounts. 

 

We'll be back tomorrow. 

PCS Conference DWP Pay Debate

This is the most important debate of the DWP part of conference week. The debate was long, passionate & involved. 

Conference voted to recommend acceptance of the Employee Deal. 

 

Alan Groves won it for us. 

Conference Monday Morning

A busy first morning of DWP issues. 

Our own Noel Corry has been appointed as a teller. 

We have opposed sanctions & supported members who use their discretion, opposed the third party deductions of up to 40% of UC as it's too high & opposed discrimination in the appraisal system against older workers. 

We voted to ask for the appraisal system to be scrapped, supported consistent conditions of service across all of DWP, agreed guidelines to transfer HMRC staff to DWP and encouraging members to complete the survey with safeguards as it is useful to PCS. 

We called for compliance with deadlines for HR decision making and introducing a QAF for HR decision making.

We called for awareness of bad attendance management (AM) practices and to publicise ET wins, guidance on when to refer AM decisions.

We also agreed to campaign against privatising Access To Work.

We had an inspiring speech from Mark Serwotka & we're now on lunch. 

 

Our reps take our conference responsibilities very seriously. 

PCS Conference 2016

The sun is shining in Brighton as we assemble for this year's conference. This year I propose to report on conference session by session. There will be updates at lunchtime and after conference ends. There may also be extra posts if anything particularly crucial or interesting happens. 

Follow #pcsadc on Twitter for more detailed nonsense.

 

Conscientious Objectors Memorial

Leicester now has a memorial to those that refused to fight and kill in WW1. It is on Peace Walk. 

Whatever your views, I think it is right that we honour those who took a stand for peace. Whether you believe it is right or wrong to have taken part in the various wars that this country has fought, the aim is surely lasting peace. 

  

Midlands Trades Council Conference

I'm in Derby with delegates from all over the East and West Midlands. Key note speakers include Kevin Courtney, Deputy General Secretary of the NUT. 

 

Pay Meetings

Please look out for your pay meeting. All members get an hour of paid time to attend. Here's Bash in full flow. 

 

May Day 2

The march has arrived for speeches & a rally.  

May Day

The Red Leicester Choir are warming people up prior to the May Day March.