2022 AGM Agenda

Agenda for the 2022 PCS Home Office Merseyside Branch Annual General Meeting

Tuesday 8 March 2022 at 12 noon via MS Teams. In addition to the usual business of the AGM this year we are joined by special guest speaker, James Cox (PCS Home Office Group President), to talk about the PCS pay claim. All branch members have been sent an email asking for confimation of attendance. A joining link will be sent closer to the date of the AGM to those who have responded.

1. Chair’s Opening Remarks - Karen Bolger (Branch President)

2. Adoption of the agenda

3. Apologies

4. Appointment of tellers

5. AGM 2021 Record of decisions

6. Branch Annual Report (see below)

7. Branch nominations (See below)

8. Home Office Group nominations (See below)

9. PCS National nominations (See below)

10. Motions for debate (See below)

11. Guest Speaker: James Cox (PCS Home Office Group President)

12. Any other business

Phil Mount (Branch Secretary)

PCS Home Office Merseyside Branch nominations

Properly-received nominations for branch posts

President - Karen Bolger

Vice President - Kris Rowe

Secretary - Phil Mount

Assistant Secretary – Jacqueline Hughes

Organiser - Adam Holmes

Assistant Organiser – Emma Case

Treasurer – Helen Gilbert

All elected unopposed.

Branch Executive Committee members (15)

Chris Smith, Christine Doyle, Philip Brightmore, Lindsay Melia, Dean Barron, Andrew Nixon, Appi Kovoory, Clare Kay, Liz Robinson, Amy Farley, Sophie Ford, Andrew Mabbs, Derek Mellor (2 vacancies)

Auditors (2 posts)

Jonathon Evans (1 vacancy)

Delegates to PCS Home Office Group Conference (4)

Karen Bolger, Helen Gilbert, Kris Rowe, Lindsay Melia

Delegates to PCS National Conference (4)

Kris Rowe, Adam Holmes, Helen Gilbert, Lindsay Melia

All elected unopposed.

PCS Home Office Group Nominations

Properly-received nominations for Home Office Group posts

President

James Cox (Croydon)

Assistant Group Secretary

Philip Mount (Merseyside)

Group Executive Committee members

Adam Holmes (Merseyside)

PCS National nominations

Properly-received nominations for national posts

President

Fran Heathcote - DWP Tyneside & Northumbria

Vice Presidents (4)

Martin Cavanagh – DWP Wirral, Kevin McHugh – HMRC Benton Park, Hannah David - Historic England & English Heritage, Jackie Green – MOJ Bradford

National Executive Committee members (30)

National Standing Orders Committee (2)

Calum Walker - DWP, Richard Manchip - HMRC

Editorial Board (5)

Malcolm Clark - Scottish Government

Gemma Criddle - HMRC

Rebecca Hunter - DBS

Kevin McCafferty - DWP

Julian Sharpe - PSG UK Export Finance)

Delegations to TUC Conferences

TUC

Sarah Evans - DVLA, Beth Greenough - HMRC, Rebecca Hunter - DBS, Claire Keenan - HMRC, Sarah Morton - DWP, Carol Revell - DWP

Women's TUC

Emily Boucher - DWP, Megan Hamblin - HMRC, Carol Revell - DWP

Youth TUC

Emma Lee Anthoney – DWP, Maciej Krzymieniechi – DVLA

Scottish TUC

Malcolm Clark - Scottish Government, Ruth Henderson - Scottish Government, Sharon King - MOJ, Steve West - DWP

Scottish Women's TUC

Ruth Henderson - Scottish Government, Sharon King - MOJ

Motions relating to issues in the Home Office

Motion 1 (Home Office Pay)

That this Home Office Group Conference condemns the public sector pay freeze announced in the November 2020 Budget and the 2021 Pay Remit enforcing a 0% pay cap for most UK Civil Servants including in the Home Office.

Conference notes the decision taken at ADC 2019 that a united national campaign gives PCS the best chance of winning its central demands on national pay and achieving a return to national pay bargaining.

Conference further notes that, despite this, HMRC members accepted a three year pay deal in 2021 and disparities continue to exist between departmental pay.

Conference notes the impact of the pandemic, the rising cost of living including the £693 hike to the energy price cap in April this year and the prospect of further increases.

Conference rejects the offensive calls from the millionaire Governor of the Bank of England for ordinary working people to refrain from demanding big pay rises and agrees that PCS are totally justified in demanding a pay rise that is significantly above inflation to help address more than 10 years of real terms pay cuts.

Conference notes that the government claims to have lifted the pay freeze for 2022 and that an above-inflation pay rise for Home Office members should be the priority for the GEC, especially given that the Home Office has a significant issue in retaining and recruiting new staff, particularly at EO grade where there are new vacancies in the thousands and where wages are as much as £2,000 lower than counterparts in HMRC.

This Conference instructs the GEC to consider the results of the 2022 consultative ballot and the NEC response. If the NEC decides not to proceed to a ballot for national industrial action on pay the Home Office Group results in the consultative ballot should be reviewed by the GEC in isolation and, if the turnout is above the threshold imposed by the anti-trade union legislation, proceed to a subsequent statutory ballot on pay in the Home Office should the employer fail to make significant progress in meeting our sectoral claim.

Proposed by Home Office Merseyside Branch Executive Committee

Motion 2 (HR involvement in disciplinary action)

That this Home Office Group Conference is concerned by the rising influence of HR Caseworkers in deciding disciplinary and appeal outcomes and difficulties faced by PCS Representatives and members in the disclosure of this advice.

PCS representatives have noticed a concerning trend in HR Caseworkers overstepping their remit and influencing decision-makers leading to unfair outcomes.

This Home Office Group Conference understands that Managers, particularly if they are inexperienced, often feel reassured by involving HR in the decision making process and take the view that the disciplinary process is more likely to be fair, and therefore not subject to challenge, if HR plays an active role. However, in many cases, the de facto decision-maker will seek to delegate the decision as to whether or not a disciplinary sanction should be imposed to HR. This leads to members receiving decision letters that note the key issues discussed in the hearing but that the disciplinary outcome is based entirely on HR advice.

The case of Mr Ramphal v Department for Transport highlighted just how problematic this is for both management and HR, even in very large organisations like the Home Office. Where in the decision to dismiss Mr Ramphal was found to be improperly influenced by HR in circumstances where the manager conducting the disciplinary hearing changed his mind from initially believing Ramphal’s explanations for his alleged misconduct were plausible, to later constituting gross misconduct for which he should be dismissed. The EAT upheld Ramphal’s appeal and considered his dismissal unfair on the basis that the HR team at the Department for Transport had gone beyond its remit by getting too involved in the decision-making process. Despite this members in the Home Office continue to face the same unfair treatment.

Furthermore attempts by the member to request sight of such advice is often refused, again on the advice of HR, even for the purposes of appeal and even though any advice sought from HR would be disclosable in court. With many PCS members needing to resort to Subject Access Requests to obtain this information. One reason allegedly offered up by a HR Caseworker was that they are like PCS Reps for managers and their advice should be private.

This conference believes the procedure should be fair and transparent and the employee must be given the opportunity to put their case to the true decision-maker.

This conference instructs the Home Office Group Executive Committee (GEC) to seek negotiations with the employer with a view to clarifying in guidance that all HR advice given to Decision Makers is only in relation to the procedure that an disciplinary manager should follow or legal issues related to possible outcomes and not influence the decisions being made. Additionally that where advice has been given it is made clear that this must be disclosable to the employee. As part of those negotiations the GEC should be prepared to use all appropriate action, if the employer is not willing to address these issues satisfactorily.“

Proposed by Home Office Merseyside Branch Executive Committee

Motions relating to the national union

Motion 3 (Remote working)

That this Annual Delegate Conference notes the post-lockdown move in many bargaining units to extend homeworking or move towards hybrid working. This Conference affirms its commitment to the safety measures established by the National Executive Committee (NEC) in terms of COVID-19 at workplaces and the principles set out regarding remote working. Conference accepts that these should form the basis for the terms & conditions of members for homeworking and hybrid working including the right to disconnect.

Conference instructs the NEC to establish a framework for remote working (including home and hybrid working) centrally which fully supports working remotely in a safe and environmentally friendly manner. The framework should include:

• workstation assessments;

• remote working allowances;

• support for staff moving to greener energy if working from home;

• workplace hours for homeworking and importantly maintaining the right to disconnect

Conference also recognises that larger numbers of members moving towards remote working has serious industrial and organisational ramifications for PCS. Conference therefore instructs the NEC to examine how other unions are organising all aspects of industrial action, protest, campaigning and communicating with members whilst working remotely. This information should be used to contribute to consultations between the NEC and bargaining areas on effective organising and campaigning in these changed working environments.

Proposed by Home Office Merseyside Branch Executive Committee

Motion 4 (National rules change)

That this Annual Delegate Conference instructs the National Executive Committee to delete standing orders A35 and A36 of Appendix A of the PCS Rules and to renumber the subsequent standing orders accordingly.

Proposed by Home Office Merseyside Branch Executive Committee

Motion 5 (Pay)

Conference notes the three-year Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) and Budget announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak on 27 October which provides little or no comfort to PCS members.

Following 11 years of pay cuts and freezes, of which the civil service has been hit worse than any other part of the public sector, we still have no clarity on whether members covered by the civil service pay remit will receive a pay rise next year. The Chancellor, responding to media interviews, said it was an issue for pay review bodies, which we are not covered by. Inflation is already over 5% this year, meaning real terms pay cut once again for most of our members.

Conference further notes with anger that:

• All of us are overpaying our pension contributions by at least 2% every month.

• The recent planned hike in National Insurance Contributions

• The slashing of Universal Credit puts many of our own members into further financial detriment

It is increasingly clear that PCS members now face a real assault on their living standards, and that we need the biggest, most joined-up action possible, with maximum membership engagement, in order to mount the sort of campaign capable of defeating these government attacks, as the Tories seek scapegoats to pay for the crisis.

Conference instructs the NEC to:

1. Step up activity at every level of PCS to engage every branch, group, nation and region in coordinated campaigning.

2. Build regular activity at every stage to increase membership, as well as participation, and build a grass-roots activist base who can work to support branches in shifting the culture so that members are geared-up for the challenges that lie ahead.

3. Deploy all available resources to ensure that all branches are represented at national campaign briefings in all regions and nations;

4. Proactively work with groups to develop Group Organising and national campaign plans, on an ongoing basis, that are endorsed and updated at all GEC meetings.

5. Put ourselves in the strongest position to mount action capable of taking on, and defeating, this government.

Proposed by Home Office Merseyside Branch Executive Committee