Branch President report

Branch President Karen Bolger looks back over the last year for the branch annual report.

Where to start this year!?!

COVID-19 has obviously dominated the world affecting every part of our lives and brought with it unprecedented demands and changes in terms of the branch and our workplaces meaning a lot of upheaval, changes to working practices, how we as a branch function and representing members. COVID-19 also brought with it additional policies, guidelines and priority to issues that were not required before.

The Government's handling of the situation will be debated forever but, quite simply, it has been woeful and has made life harder as time has gone on. We are now almost 12 months into this seemingly never ending situation. However, the branch are determined to carry on regardless in trying to stay on top of all issues that affect our members. At this point I would like to thank the branch reps, amongst them some new reps who were thrown in at the deep end this year but stuck with it. There were a few resignations along the way but by and large we have managed to maintain our responsibilities, issue communications and continue to provide representation to our members mainly through our branch website. The work our reps have done this year is a testament to their dedication and willingness to help others, particularly through this pandemic with their own issues to deal with on an individual level. I can’t thank everyone enough, and for me in particular our Secretary Phil Mount who somehow has kept me sane. Thanks Phil.

From last March when the first lockdown started the branch has been involved and contributed to and raised issues with every unit's plans regarding health and safety, changes to how we work, working from home, special leave, flexi; the list goes on and, in the main, the department's local SMT’s have engaged positively with PCS. Many contentious issues have been resolved as a result of direct collective bargaining and negotiation through having established a good industrial relations environment to ensure all government guidelines were interpreted and followed correctly. In particular the branch have worked well with the Capital Partnership Group and Health & Safety units.

The PCS stance remains that although during this current lockdown the Home Office has returned to phase 1, we believe that we should have returned to the same stage that we were in March 2020 when only critical work should have been conducted that required attendance in the workplace and not just business as usual which seems ot be increasingly the case. Members will have received communications regarding the PCS list of demands around this and other issues.

Cabinet office responded to PCS demands and in a letter from them dated 11 January 2021, Alex Chisholm states that “employers have issued stronger messaging to their workforces clarifying the expectation that anyone who can reasonably work from home should do so. This message has also been made clear and reinforced in the most recent version of the central HR Policy Guidance.” The letter goes on to outline that “it is important to reiterate that the core message to us all remains ‘Stay at Home’ wherever possible - the most important action we can take to protect the NHS and save lives."

Whilst the majority of Civil Servants will continue to work remotely as they have been throughout the pandemic, we know there are colleagues who will have a continuing requirement to work outside of the home during lockdown. The only individuals who should be attending the workplace are those who need to be in for essential business activity which cannot be undertaken from home or for personal circumstances including where it is not practicable or safe for individuals to work from home for an extended period. Even where individuals have a continuing requirement to be in the workplace, they are expected to minimise attendance as much as possible.”

The branch has written to a number of Heads of Unit asking that roles currently requiring a workplace presence are reviewed to ensure that any part of a job that can be undertaken at home is identified and jobs reformatted to enable as much homeworking as possible.

PCS Conferences

In terms of Home Office Group and National PCS conference the 2020 conferences were cancelled. The motions we submitted last year have been reviewed by the Branch Executive Committee to ensure they are still relevant and will be re-submitted for this years group and national conferences provided the arrangements for the 2021 conferences, which are to be held virtually, allow us to do so.

Pay

Regarding pay, members will be aware that in our national pay claim for 2020 PCS called on the government to address years of pay restraint by allowing for an immediate 10% across-the-board increase. Given that the COVID-19 pandemic led to delays in national pay discussions, a number of interim demands were made which included a call for a suspension of the delegated pay process and an immediate above inflation pay increase for all staff, implemented across the Civil Service from the centre. Many PCS members have been classified as key workers and have gone above and beyond call of duty. Despite this, ministers decided to cap any pay rise at between 1.5 - 2.5% or it to be frozen for many.

Our General Secretary, Mark Serwotka, has described the fact that the reward for Civil Servants helping to keep the country running during the crisis, is to be another pay cut, as “an outrageous swindle”; adding “It shows the hypocrisy of ministers who on the one hand, applaud and praise public sector workers but do not think they are worthy of a genuine pay rise.”

The PCS position on pay remains unchanged.

Looking ahead

Finally, the next year will no doubt bring further changes to the way we live and work. The department is expanding into new work routes including Hong Kong and International and this will no doubt bring many challenges for the branch and members with the additional issues of suitable training methods and development in new roles given the amount of working from home . Members can play their part in assisting the branch by bringing potential issues to us at the earliest opportunity. Any members wishing to get more involved in the branch can contact us for an informal chat and as there are still new joiners to the Home office if any members are aware of new staff you can help us by contacting the branch inbox so we can arrange inductions for them. The branch will continue to meet regularly with management throughout the coming year and update members through our website.

Keep safe everyone and here’s hoping the new vaccine rollout brings us closer to the light at the end of what has been a very long tunnel

Solidarity

Karen Bolger (Branch President)