PCS PARLIAMENTARY BRIEFING: February 2009

February 2009

For more information contact PCS’s campaigns team:

Tel: 020 7801 2820, e-mail

Public and Commercial Services Union

160 Falcon Road, London, SW11 2LN

National Civil Service Pay Dispute: Update

Following the national agreement on pay reached in December, talks with the Treasury and the Cabinet Office about implementing it have taken place. These talks were primarily about the detail of converting efficiency savings into pay improvements and the content of new Treasury pay guidance for 2009/10.

PCS and other unions met the primary Ministers responsible for civil service pay, Yvette Cooper and Tom Watson, on 29 January to discuss these key issues.In addition we discussed the types of pay changes involved, timing issues and other pay reforms, including separate funding for pay progression and tackling equal pay problems. As part of the pay agreement we also expect the 2% cap on basic pay rises to be removed.

The PCS National Executive is determined to test the agreement in order to establish whether it will deliver extra money into our members’ pay packets, and we now expect to be consulted on a draft of the new Treasury pay remit guidance, with the final version being issued in mid February.

PCS has asked all our negotiators to seek early meetings in all departments, agencies and other bodies to discuss the scope of efficiency savings and the handling of the process. A PCS national pay forum is being arranged later this month to ensure that a detailed explanation of all aspects of the new pay guide is given and discussed. This will highlight the requirement that reports on talks about efficiency savings must be provided by the end of March, so that the NEC can test December’s national agreement at the earliest possible time.

Departmental pay issues

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC)

HMRC's immediate response to the national settlement on pay was to impose the 2008 element of the three year offer that had been so resoundingly rejected by members in the department back in September 2008. We will now take the opportunity afforded by the national agreement to resume discussions with HMRC to address our members' ongoing concerns - notably around honouring the commitments to pay progression agreed as part of the previous settlement and thereby restoring a level of fairness and transparency in the pay system.
Queen’s Speech 2008

Welfare Reform Bill

PCS has expressed bitter disappointment over the government’s proposals contained in the welfare reform bill.

Like many others, PCS does not support the measures to introduce ‘work for your benefit’ schemes. PCS is fundamentally opposed to compulsory unpaid work experience for extended periods. PCS members do not want to force claimants to take part in pilot schemes which will pay a rate of as little as £1.73 per hour.

PCS are also strongly opposed to the privatisation of the public employment service and social fund. We are alarmed by comments made by James Plaskitt MP during the second reading of the bill which suggested amendments to change the social fund into a public private partnership.

The government seem intent on privatisation despite concrete evidence that it doesn’t work and there is no doubt that the outsourcing proposed in the bill would be a major blow to the morale of Jobcentre Plus staff. The message sent out by this would be that their dedication to the service, associated hard work and consistent record of successful delivery has been ignored.

PCS is supporting the TUC’s demand for the government to urgently raise Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) by £15 per week.

We are writing to both Steve Webb and Theresa May to request a meeting with each of them to discuss where we share concerns.

We have also requested that the parliamentary group writes to James Purnell to request a meeting.

We will be briefing the bill committee about our concerns and will be asking for an opportunity to meet with them and looking for a major intervention at the report and third reading stages of the bill.

Action: We request that MPs

  • Sign EDM 453 on the TUC campaign to increase benefit levels
  • Sign EDM 632 opposing the privatisation of the social fund
  • Sign the draft EDM on privatisation when it is tabled.

PCS are also working on a joint statement on ‘work for your benefit’ schemes and a joint initiative on a claimant’s charter. We will keep you updated with developments.

We will be looking at supporting amendments to the bill. Our priority areas are privatisation of employment services and social fund as well as workfare.

Marine and Coastal Access Bill

PCS would like to thank the parliamentary group for the work done on this campaign so far. The bill is in the Lords and Lord Rosser has tabled a number of amendments on our behalf. The next phase will be focused on the report stage in the Lords and we will be asking to retain civil service status for our members and trying to ensure we can protect staff from personal liability whilst they carry out their work duties on behalf of the Marine Management Organisation.

Other issues

HM Revenue and Customs

Office closures: HMRC announced their final tranche of planned office closures at the end of 2008.These final announcements confirm the department’s intention to close up to 200 offices across the UK over the next two years.

Figures obtained by PCS indicate that in many instances the costs of closing an office and relocating or offering compensation packets to staff unable to move will greatly outweigh any financial benefits to be gained by closing an office.PCS believe that now the HMRC office closure announcements are complete the government should call an immediate halt to all planned HMRC office closures and review the economic and social impact of the job cuts and office closure programme.

Contact centres in HMRC: PCS members employed in HMRC’s contact centres have been facing deteriorating working conditions over the last two years. PCS are concerned that worsening conditions, including aggressive micro-management and the inability of staff to take leave, are indicators of severe staff shortages across the network.

PCS are asking the department to review staffing levels against targets in all areas of the department, and have in addition put a series of requests to HMRC management which seek to more realistically bring into line the current staffing levels with individual workloads, as well as seeking a greater range of working time flexibility for staff in contact centres.

Preparations for a statutory ballot of all 10,000 staff in HMRC’s contact centres are now underway, and, unless there is a radical change of heart from the employer it looks increasingly unlikely that industrial action can be avoided.

Privatisation and outsourcing: HMRC are continuing to explore the possibility of privatising their in-house security guarding function which could mean the outsourcing of security responsibilities at some of the department’s most sensitive sites throughout the UK.

We have concerns about the quality of private sector security provision in this area, particularly in relation to the guarding of highly sensitive information.A PCS petition supporting the retention of the security services and calling for a halt to the process, has collected over 10,000 signatories and is expected to be presented in Parliament in the next month. In addition we will be consulting all our members on the 19 sites affected on their willingness to take industrial action should HMRC announce any final decision to outsource this function.

We have continuing concerns about the department’s general willingness to consult openly with the trade unions during this process.We expect the department to seek invitations to tender in February and for the process as a whole to be completed towards the autumn of 2009.In addition, HMRC are also under pressure to explore private sector service provision in a number of other areas, including in aspects of estates management and debt collection.Further updates will be provided as the situation develops.

Action: PCS have recently met with the Financial Secretary to the TreasuryStephen Timms MP to discuss the office closure programme and privatisation. We would like the parliamentary group to write to the Minister pressing him to revisit the office closure decisions and to address our concerns particularly over the privatisation of the remaining in-house security guarding functions.

PCS have organised a lobby of Parliament and rally on these issues. This will take place on Wednesday 11 February.MP’s are asked to meet with their constituents from 12.00pm on the day and attend the rally due to begin at 2pm in Committee Room 14.

For more information please contact James Davies PCS Campaigns Officer on 020 7801 2771 or by email at

National Minimum Wage helplineGovernment advice and assistance on the claiming and implementation of the national minimum wage (NMW) is currently delivered through five separate helplines:

  • HMRC: National Minimum Wage, on behalf of BERR
  • DEFRA: Agricultural Minimum Wage
  • Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate (Part of BERR)
  • Gangmasters Licensing Authority
  • Health & Safety Executive (HSE)

BERR has overall policy responsibility.

PCS welcome government proposals to merge the existing helplines into one national operation. However, we are extremely concerned that BERR intends to outsource this service.

In August 2008 the government published its response to the issues raised by BERR’s vulnerable worker forum which had looked at the nature and scale of the abuse of workers’ rights and examined the effectiveness of the existing enforcement framework. It set out a programme of action aimed at improving awareness of the basic employment rights and encouraging the reporting of abuses, and beginning steps to merge the various existing helplines. There were no recommendations that this service should be outsourced.

Last summer BERR conducted a feasibility exercise about how the service provided by the new unified hotline could best be provided. We are concerned that the unions were only made aware of this after the council of civil service unions (CCSU) contacted the BERR permanent secretary Sir Brian Bender in December following rumours about the exercise.

PCS are concerned that tenders have already been sought and are now being considered, with no in-house bid under consideration, and no consultation with the unions. BERR have sought internal legal advice and do not believe TUPE would apply to Employment Agency Standards’ helpline staff (and therefore corresponding staff in the other departments) because the test that “there is an organised grouping of employees situated in Great Britain which has as its principal purpose the carrying out of the activities concerned . . .” is not met.

Sir Brian Bender has stated that BERR intends to pass provision of the NMW helpline to their “preferred bidder” (a company called bss) in May.

Action:The CCSU are replying to the permanent secretary with our concerns. We would also like the parliamentary group to support our campaign against the outsourcing of this helpline by raising questions in the House about the proposals.

Ministry of Defence: Defence Information Infrastructure

PCS welcome the report by the Public Accounts Committee, which is heavily critical of the MoD’s Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) project.

The DII Programme began in March 2005 and will cost an estimated £7.1 billion by 2015, if fully implemented. The project aims to replace hundreds of existing IT systems with a single system covering the entire armed forces. The contract for DII was awarded to the ATLAS consortium led by EDS.

The report highlights concerns previously identified by PCS that DII suffered from bad planning from the start and was now 18 months behind schedule. Whereas 62,800 terminals should have been installed by the end of July 2007, only 45,600 were in place at the end of September 2008. A range of core software such as word processing, email, internet access and security to run on the new system should all have been delivered in June 2006. However, less than half of the requirement had been delivered two years later in June 2008.

PCS share the Committee’s concerns over the rising cost of DII. The direct contract cost of DII has already overrun by £182 million. The estimated total cost of the programme is now estimated at £7.1 billion when at the outset of the programme in 2005 the MoD estimated total costs to be £2.3 billion, a huge increase.

The report has highlighted the very real risks that the failures of DII could pose to current IT systems and data security in the MoD. PCS are concerned that despite this the MoD still plan to award ATLAS with further DII work.

Given these risks and the failure of ATLAS to deliver, PCS calls on the MoD to halt giving any more work to ATLAS and to look at improving current IT systems by using in house capabilities, which we believe could deliver a lower cost and lower risk option.

Action: PCS would like an early day motion to be tabled in support of the PAC’s concerns about DII.

Defra : Gangmasters’ Licensing Authority (GLA) / Migrant Workers

The GLA currently employs around 60 staff –in its Nottingham HQ and as enforcement and compliance officers carrying out fieldwork on farm, fisheries or food processing sites. It was initially set up for a three year period after which it was intended to be subsumed into the HSE. This now appears unlikely to happen, possibly on cost grounds.

The GLA is under-resourced with a budget of under £2 million. Where abuse/ exploitation of workers is suspected, officers are often unable to investigate and advised only to pursue cases where evidence is strong enough to ensure the outcome will justify the expenditure, therefore many rogue gangmasters slip through the net.

The limitations of its remit leaves workers in other industries vulnerable. The licensing workstream must be self-financing – a decision taken in a vacuum as a serious attempt to estimate expected numbers was not undertaken prior its establishment. This has resulted in an increase in license prices, which, combined with the perceived inconvenience of the regulatory/ inspection process, is discouraging gangmasters from employing workers in farming, fisheries or food processing. Instead they are diversifying into construction, textiles, catering and cleaning trades – all fraught with dangers but unregulated as regards migrant worker protection.

PCS members report widespread abuse and exploitation of migrant workers, e.g. workers living in site in sub-standard accommodation for which “rent” is deducted at source; unreasonable levels of deductions from wages for transport to the workplace; deductions of £2 per worker per week towards the cost of employing a book-keeper.

Many gangmasters have criminal tendencies, promoting an outwardly respectable individual to front their organisation and applying for the licene, then behaving as they please. Should mal-practice be discovered and the licence revoked, they may appeal. A legal loophole means there is nothing to prevent them from applying for a new licence during the appeals process. Alternatively, they may simply present another person to apply for a licence in their name whilst the real gangmasters carry on as before.

Workers are not necessarily helped by licence withdrawal as this often leaves them jobless and homeless. GLA officers try to persuade labour users such as farmers to employ migrant workers directly where this occurs, but with limited success.

Action: We ask the parliamentary group to press for:

  • A widening of the GLA’s remit to incorporate all vulnerable workers, whether migrants or casual
  • Improved resourcing, enabling the GLA to carry out its existing functions and any additions to achieve the best results possible.

Kew Enterprises Ltd: Sunday trading

Kew Enterprises Ltd (KEL) is a trading arm of the Royal Botanical Gardens Kew (RBG). The aim of the company is to generate an income stream for RBG (an NDPB with charity status). As a private limited company it is required to submit annual trading accounts. KEL has shareholders, a board of trustees, and employs approximately 80 staff. Its annual net profit is covenanted to RBG. As such this act of charity to RBG attracts tax concessions. The company uses unpaid volunteers and operates retail shops at KewGardens (Richmond) and Wakehurst (West Sussex). All the shops are open 7 days a week.

PCS has concerns around the Sunday trading hours operated at the two Kew shops. The Sunday Trading Act 1994 lays down the rules relating to Sunday trading. During the summer months of 2008 KEL Kew opened Victoria Plaza Kew shop from 9.30am-7.30pm and White Peaks Kew shop from 10am–7pm.

The shop floor areas for VictoriaPlaza and WhitePeaks are 420sqm and 387sqm. Both shops operated continuously. The Act states that Sunday trading hours should not be more than 6 hours worked continuously between 10am-6pm for large shops. Small shops are defined as those shops with a floor area of 280 square metres. VictoriaPlaza and WhitePeaks would therefore be classified as large shops and do not appear to be covered by the exemptions contained within the Act.