Personal Cases

Members often need individual assistance from PCS with work-related matters. In union-speak this is known as a “personal case”. This report gives members some insight into the number and variety of cases handled by your branch reps in 2020 and compared to previous years.

PCS Home Office Merseyside Branch provides advice on how to contact us if you need advice or representation and what do to if there are problems with your reps being granted facility time to represent you. The advice is for members, reps and managers. Please familiarise yourself with this guidance.

Our online system for members who need representation was launched by PCS Home Office Merseyside Branch in 2016. In the 5 years since its' introduction the branch has received 949 requests for representation.

In 2020 the number of personal cases (185) dropped significantly in comparison with 2019 (296). This was due to several factors. Firstly, sick absence cases dropped by more than a third. Counterintuitively this is likely to be as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Sick absences arising due to COVID-19 have generally been exempted from action under attendance management procedures. In addition, as many members have been working from home or self-isolating exposure to annual infections such as colds and flu have been limited. There has also been a reduction in external recruitment compared to recent years leading to a decrease in probation and performance management cases also by around a third.

The majority of the the reps on the Branch Executive Committee have been involved in representing members in personal cases during 2020. They have had to adapt to very different methods of representation with most personal cases moving to remote audio or video with little or no opportunity for face-to-face engagement with members.

To give members a flavour of the range of requests for assistance that your local reps have received, the end of year statistics reported to Branch Executive Committee for 2020 are reproduced below.

Notable decreases during 2020 were in European Casework (44 in 2019 and 54 in 2018) which was due to legacy casework reducing as the year went on and members moving on to other work. Cases in the EU Settlement (Contact Centre) also decreased significantly (30 in 2019) and Nationality (25 in 2019).

The number of Coronavirus-related cases appear low given that the pandemic has impacted on members since at least March 2020. However, most COVID-19 cases have been exempted from the sick absence procedures meaning personal representation was unnecessary but general enquiries to the branch inbox soared throughout the year with advice given to members on a case-by-case basis with the use of some union facility time switching from direct representation to advisory.

The Branch Executive Committee will be reviewing the cases over the last 12 months to identify any specific issues or "hotspots" from 2020 to establish whether there are issues that need to be raised with management locally that may mitigate in future the number and nature of cases arising.

If you are a PCS Home Office Merseyside Branch member and need assistance click here to contact us.

Derek Mellor (Branch Organiser)