2024 Annual Report 

Branch annual report 2024

Message from Branch President

This year saw a change in Government, and in terms of our pay offer, and

from branch members meetings we held about the offer, the majority of

members were pleasantly surprised of what was offered and our thanks go to

the pay team made up of Home Office GEC members for negotiating our

offers of between 6 to 9%. This builds on what we achieved the previous year.

Ours was one of the better offers across the civil service however, this again

highlights the fact that we need to get back to collective bargaining across the

civil service as a whole. It should not matter what department you work in, we

should all be on the same pay at each grade.

Members will also now be aware that the NEC has agreed to pause the levy

that all members were paying, in addition to their union subs. Our Branch

Secretary Phil Mount wrote to the National president last year on this issue

stating the branches position that the levy should be paused. That’s not to say

it won’t be reinstated in the future but that can be debated at such a time if

there is a need to.

Other good news this year was that the decade long legal battle through the

Courts regarding the Tory Governments withdrawal of check off, which

enabled members to have their union membership dues deducted from the

salary by their employer, resulted in the ruling by the Supreme court in

November, which will allow the Union to now claim substantial damages from

the attempt to basically bankrupt the Union, which hopefully will now mean the

new Government will show intent to improve industrial relations by settling

and agreeing appropriate damages once and for all.

As members will be aware, a new attendance management policy has

recently been introduced, with no mandatory training for managers. Although

various areas have delivered some training to managers, the branch are

already identifying issues with how management are applying the new policy.

It seems to us they have completely bypassed the informal part of the process

preferring to go formal as soon as anyone hits their trigger points, which are

now 8 and 4, raised from 6 and 3 under the old policy, rather than considering,

as per policy, whether the absence is actually a cause for concern, regardless

of the length of the absence. It was this element of the policy we had issues

with and raised before the policy was published however those in charge

chose to not engage about the issues PCS had, which has now resulted in

those exact issues coming up time and again across the department. It is also

of concern that people who already have raised triggers under the Equality

Act on disability grounds may be facing issues getting further raised triggers

under the new policy as there seems a reluctance from management to

increase triggers for these members above the new baseline of 8 and 4, for

example, the members adjustment under the old policy was 8 and 4 instead of

6 and 3. The branch will be feeding back to the GEC on these issues and,

consider obtaining legal advice regarding potential disability discrimination.

As always, a big thanks to the outgoing BEC for all their work again this year,

their input and willingness to represent members often at short notice means

the branch can maintain its service when members need help the most. We

have a had a full BEC again this year which hopefully will continue with the

incoming BEC.

this year’s Branch AGM will again be a virtual meeting and members will

receive an email with joining details. I hope that scheduling it during the lunch

period will allow for members to attend as no facility time has been granted by

the Department as has been the case for many years. I look forward to the

meeting where everyone can get involved in shaping the future of the branch

and discuss motions for submission to PCS Group and National conferences

which will be a physical conference held in the Brighton Centre in May 2025.

If anyone is interested in becoming an advocate or a rep or wants to get more

involved but not sure what it entails, please contact the branch inbox for a

chat.

It is going to be a busy year again, but I am in no doubt that the incoming BEC

for 2025 will be ready for whatever lays ahead.

Finance

We receive our funding from PCS allocated funds from member’s

subscriptions. The purpose is to reimburse reps who may need to spend

money or travel during their dealings with members but are subject to

guidelines to ensure frugal and necessary use.

The year 2024 has seen frugal to say the least.

We hold £388.81 and have spent no money during the whole of 2024.

This is broken down to

Main Account: £303.96

*Workers Beer Company Account: £84.85

*The Workers Beer Company Account was set up to take payments for the

shifts our members did on bars as volunteers at various summer music

festivals. We unfortunately no longer have the ability to raise funds this way.

Accounts have been audited.

Personal Cases and Membership data

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 2024.

PCS Home Office Merseyside Branch provides advice on how to contact us if

you need advice or representation and what to do if there are problems with

your reps getting facility time to represent you. The advice is for members,

reps and managers. Please familiarize yourself with this guidance.

Home Affairs - Need Help?

Our online system for members who need representation was introduced by

PCS Home Office Merseyside Branch in 2016.

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 2024 are reproduced below. As Predicted last year it

has been the busiest we have ever known.

There were 305 requests for representation that were correctly received

through the online form. This does not include any requests for help that

members have made direct to individual Reps.

This represents a 68.5% increase up from 181 in 2023.

2024 personal cases by month

January 25

February 30

March 20

April 24

May 25

June 26

July 23

August 26

September 20

October 24

November 43

December 21

Total 305

2024 personal cases by work area

Asylum (inc. RCM) 94

Border Force (inc. Intel) 8

Criminal Casework/FNORC 13

EU Settlement (Casework) 33

European Casework and BNO 8

Customer Contact Centre 10

International 9

Nationality 16

Settlement 27

Immigration Enforcement (inc. Intel) 14

VSI/Visa Hub 3

COSS (Including ALAR, SRU, Windrush) 4

Other 66

2024 personal cases by site

101 Old Hall Street 37

Capital Building 222

John Lennon Airport 1

Redgrave Court 36

Seaforth Docks 2

Other 7

100 of the total 2024 personal cases related to sickness absence

2025 looks like it may be an even busier year for your branch reps as 74

personal cases have already been logged in the first 2 months compared to

55 for the same 2 months in 2024.

At the end of 2024 Branch Membership stood at 3362 making Home Office

Merseyside Branch one of the biggest in the union. Despite this we have seen

fluctuation in membership which has already dropped in early 2025.

The most common reason given throughout the year for leaving has been

cost with many members telling us they have left due to the increased

monthly payment caused by the levy. We have written a separate article about

the Branches response to the levy issue here.

We hope that now this issue has been resolved many of those who have left

will return to PCS and we continue to grow year on year.

It seems we say the same year on year but your Branch Reps have never

been so busy. The Branch Executive Committee is therefore bringing a rule

change motion to this years AGM seeking to expand the number of the

Branch Reps that can be elected to help spread the work.

We hope that you will support this so we can continue to support you.

Solidarity

Karen Bolger (Branch President)

Andy Nixon (Branch Treasurer)

Jacqui Halsall-Hughes (Assistant Secretary)

Phil Mount (Branch Secretary)