2018 Home Office Group Conference

PCS Home Office Group and National Conferences are where the priorities and direction of the union are set for the forthcoming 12 months.

The group conference ran over 21 - 22 May in the Brighton Conference Centre. All of the delegates from the branch attended conference in their own time.

The decisions made at the conference are listed below.

Motions and decisions

Departmental Structure and Staffing

A1 Carried, A2 Carried, A3 (Home Office Merseyside Branch motion) Carried, A4 Carried, A5 Carried, A6 (Home Office Merseyside Branch motion) Carried, A7 Carried

Health & Safety

A8 Carried, A9 Carried, A10 Carried

Distinguished Life Memberships

A11 Carried

Personnel

EM1 (SOC2) Carried, A12 (Home Office Merseyside Branch motion) Carried, A13 Remitted, A14 Carried, A15 Remitted, A16 Carried, A17 Carried

Pay

A18 Carried, A19 Carried

Equality

A20 Carried, A21 Carried, EM2 (SOC2) Carried

Organisation

A22 Carried

Industrial Relations

A23 Carried

PCS Home Office Group Conference Report Day 1

The opening of conference took place against the backdrop of the loss of our Group President (Nigel Buller) who sadly passed away late in 2017. In both the chairs opening remarks and the Group Secretary moving the annual report made reference to Nigel and his great contributions and friendship.

When the Chair (James Cox) made his initial opening remarks he made specific reference to the challenges that we have faced over the last year, specifically over pay, BREXIT and jobs. Specific mention was also made to our branch and the sterling work that we have done in recruiting new members to the union.

When the group secretary moved his lengthy annual report he made mention of a number of issues that have taken place since last conference. Mike stated that they year has again been dominated by the Home Office being in the media spotlight time after time, with crisis after crisis. Mike also took time to remind conference that PCS had been consistently raising the ‘hostile environment’ with the then Home Secretary (Theresa May) offering an alternative vision to this. This has of course come to the fore recently with the Windrush scandal.

Mike also talked about the success of the pay day protest and specific mention was given to DBS and the Capital Building where members of Parliament addressed the crowds.

The group secretary also gave mention to our branch in relation to the massive recruitment we have been undertaking following the recruitment in areas such as Euro. This has supported the Home office group in general terms to have a positive year in recruitment. Mike Also mentioned our very own Nick Hobbs who has done great work over the last few months in relation to recruitment and supporting new reps when they come onto the branch.

Conference then began to debate the motions outlined in SOC1. The results of conference motions are listed above. Highlights included:

The support from our branch (speech by Emma Mooney) for motion A1 and the group on reviewing the Home Office structures and putting forward an alternative vision.

Our branch delegates also spoke on Motion A4 which relates to the poor service that has been offered by the Shared Service Centre and in particular the recent experiences that our members have had in Euro and their pay. Karen Bolger also made specific reference to the scandalous position of members being charged a kings ransom when phoning their 0845 number. Lots of nods from the conference floor when specific reference was made to the usual being put on hold right at the beginning of the phone call (whilst the charges rack up) or the customer service advisor having to get their manager. One example from our branch was a £30 charge for calls made to SSC.

Our motion on apprentices was also passed after some debate on the calculation of the pay. However, conference agreed that the training and structure of the initial batch of apprentices has been poor.

We then had an address from the General Secretary who paid tribute to Nigel Buller who was a giant in the movement and was respected by all. Mark also thanked the reps who were attending yet again in their own time to discuss Home Office policies.

Mark also made specific reference to the windrush scandal and the blame that was put on our members for this. The blame he says clearly lays with the Politicians whose policies on creating a hostile environment has caused this. He also spoke about pay and the supposed pay cap which has been lifted but for us we still have to work on 2015 budgets (1%). Initial soundings from the talks have indicated there may have to be a Trade off on Terms and conditions, possibly working hours to get anything above this 1%.

Mark handed out Distinguished Life Memberships to Richard Gillingham (once of Home Office Merseyside Branch), Ann Martin, Graham Johnson and Neil Seepujak.

Conference then took motions on Health and Safety issues during which our delegation spoke about some of the personal cases we have dealt with which have impacted on members health and wellbeing.

Conference listened to our national president, Janice Godrich who talked about issues such as facility time, the victory we had at the High Court over the Civil Service Compensation scheme. Following her recent election this will be the 17th consecutive year she has been our president.

Conference then moved to the final business of day 1. This was a section relating to the life membership for Nigel Buller. Conference was regaled by Kevin Mills on his time with Nigel over the decades he knew his, some great laughs on their friendship and of course was a brilliant rep he was. The national president made the award to Nigel's wife Jane. Following conference a social gathering has been arranged in his memory between the Home Office and HMRC.

PCS Home Office Group Conference Report Day 2

Conference began on day two following a bit of a late night where delegates across the Home Office Group and HMRC celebrated the life of our Group President Nigel Buller who passed away in 2017. The party was brilliant and with Karaoke, dancing and so many happy memories of a great man who was sadly taken from us prematurely. So it was an early start for the delegation but we spoke on many issues that are impacting our members.

First up was the Emergency motion on the situation in HMPO regarding the removal of their safe working breaks being taken away from them by an employer who procrastinates themselves over making the Department a “Great place to work”. The motion to move to the next stage of action was taken and the Group Executive Committee are behind our reps and members in protecting their hard fought terms and conditions of service.

We also received a presentation in relation to the use of social media and how we can make the best use of this platform to communicate with members. Our branch is well ahead of many others with our strategy with our website and use of the of Facebook Twitter and Google+ but this gave us some helpful insights on the use of this medium to get the best out of it.

The branch also moved motion A12, which has had so much of a detrimental impact on members when it comes to the sick absence policy. Our motion called for line mangers to have the discretion to discount the calculation of absences, if they give out ‘line managers discretion’ over the rolling 12 month period. This motion was passed and we look forward to seeing what progress can be made. Discretion should mean Discretion said the GEC speaker, we agree.

Motions A13 and A15 were remitted to the GEC for consideration. This essentially means that conference couldn’t support the motion but the GEC can take the sentiment of the motion forwards with the Department and the motion wasn’t lost.

We also had a second emergency motion discussed from Home Office Midlands branch about staff being barred from working at posts abroad if they have family in this location (even if they don’t even know them or even speak to them). This was also supported by conference.

We then had two awards, firstly Clayeon McKenzie was awarded a Distinguished Life Membership for the decades of service he has given to the Movement.

Finally conference closed with Joe Hartley moving the vote of thanks for a well run and great spirited conference.

The delegation then split to head home or to PCS National Conference which was due to start early that afternoon