PCS Home Office Group Annual Report

PCS Home Office Group Annual Report

The PCS Home Office group 2020 annual report has now been issued. This gives details of the work PCS has undertaken on members behalf throughout the year. The full annual report is available on the Home Office group pages on the PCS website. Reproduced below is the foreword to the annual report by James Cox, Group President:

As I write this foreword to the 2020 PCS Home Office annual report I am at home, under lockdown, and there is no getting around the fact that the year has been dominated by the Coronavirus pandemic. I think most of these reports begin saying that the year has been one of the most challenging, and whether that is true this year or not, it has definitely been unique.

The harsh reality of the Covid-19 pandemic is that we have had many members who have suffered with its debilitating effects, some who have died, and others who know friends or have family members who have died. This is a huge tragedy and the numbers of deaths continue to rise, now faster than at any time. It’s worth remembering sometimes that the virus we are dealing with has killed so many and taken so many family and friends from us.

But to the forefront have come health sector workers, care workers, teachers and assistants, nursery workers, supermarket staff, refuse collectors and delivery drivers. All of these have stepped up, and their value during the pandemic is clearly shown, even though many of these work in low paid jobs and some with unsecure and precarious employment status. If there was ever an opportunity to consider the need to rebalance society and consider what is valued and important then it is now.

Of course, our members in the Home Office have continued to work throughout the pandemic, whether that be from home or going in. Home working brings with it difficulties of interaction, potential isolation, the travails of home schooling and having a potential impact on mental health. But of course, those who have gone in to work are also effected by anxiety and stress about the very real increased risk for themselves and their family of contracting the virus. There have been concerns about divisions drawn between different groups of members, but the reality is that these are false divides and there is much more that brings us together than divides us. We all need to work together to beat this pandemic.

In that context so much of the year has been devoted to dealing with Health and Safety issues. Your union has been working tirelessly on all levels to try to ensure that the number of members brought back to the offices is as low as possible and can be justified. That extremely vulnerable and vulnerable members are allowed to work from home or redeployed to work that can be done from home. And, where we have had members returning to work, we have worked on risk assessments, safer systems of work and tried to ensure workplaces have been adjusted.

Calling workplaces "Covid-secure" is misleading in my opinion as it gives the impression that it is not possible to catch or transmit the virus in the workplace. It’s more accurate to call our workplaces "Covid-adjusted" in order to try to minimise the risk to members. In many cases this has been done really well, but it is up to reps and members to continue to police this and ensure any breaches are immediately reported and dealt with.

I’d like to thank all the GEC for their work this year, it’s not been easy. However, I would like to particularly single out Martin Andrews our Health and Safety lead. The sheer volume of paperwork and reading he has had to do is remarkable. He has scrutinised every FAQ and document put out by the department in order to ensure members are protected. But the whole GEC has pulled together, and whilst it’s been odd holding all our regular meetings remotely, this has ensured that we have been able to keep in touch and coordinate activity.

In this report you will see that in addition to work around Covid-19, business as usual continues. We have continued to work to recruit new members (an overall increase over 500 this year), encourage new reps and advocates and ensure that members are represented collectively and individually. This is testament to our network of fantastic reps and great members, who are all volunteers.

Notably over the year we have ensured apprentices are on the appropriate civil service pay grade, we have taken part in negotiations and reviews of all AHW rates across the country, and we have pushed for and achieved changes in the performance management system to get rid of box markings. As I write, our Heathrow branch has commenced an industrial ballot of members affected by changes to rostering on the primary immigration control. I applaud the members in that branch for taking decisive action to try to protect their working conditions. The PCS Home Office Group will support them in their continued struggle.

The pandemic and lockdown have accelerated working remotely and different ways of working. This has an impact on how we organise as a union and our members’ terms and conditions. The National Executive Committee has decided that now is the time to examine the structures of our union and how we do our business. I’d encourage all members to keep up to date with this and reply to any consultation exercises. Our focus must be on ensuring members are at the forefront of the union and what we do in the future. Your Group Executive responded to the initial early consultation. We believe that we need to continue to push the culture change to make us an organising union, seeking to address issues collectively and through membership action and solidarity. To do this we need to have more representatives and more diverse representatives, and ensure our union is embedded in every workplace.

Your GEC know that we still have much work to do in this respect and we are intent on strengthening our structures and building our representatives in number and capability. I believe that we have improved in the last year, and I believe we can continue to improve.

2021 brings with it the continued fight against Covid and work to ensure our members are safe, the prospect of potential pay freezes, the hoped-for resolution of pensions following the McCloud judgement and the delayed possible changes to the Civil Service Compensation Scheme. If this year has taught us anything then it is the importance of strong trade unions, we need to continue to grow, continue to make our structures more diverse, continue to fight so that all members are protected and that their terms, conditions and working practices are improved.

In Solidarity.

James Cox (Group President)

Click here to read the full PCS Home Office Group Annual Report.