Forestry Commission Trade Unions - www.fctu.org.uk
PCS Forestry Commission Group News - October 2008
Welcome to another of our newsletters which are published after each meeting of the Group Executive Committee. The newsletters are not intended as a definitive account of the GEC’s actions, those are recorded in the minutes of the meetings, but are an ad-hoc selection of articles which we hope will give a flavour of some of the work of the group and which will be of general interest to most members.
Please also remember that all our group news is always available online at: www.fctu.org.uk/pcs.
In this edition:
> Transcript of Kevin Greenway at October 2008 GEC
> Group Conference 2009
> SEARS
> Hardship Fund
> FD Review in Scotland
Transcript of Kevin Greenway at October 2008 GEC by Allan MacKenzie
Kevin has been a trade unionist for the past 30 years and was proud to join the Civil Service which at that time offered real benefits for employees. Today there are some 0.5 million Civil Servants for whom Kevin sees them as being the guardian of the public interest in many, many ways.
For his part he was listening intently to the previous agenda item which was the Branch reports and heard about some of the issues affecting members and some of their concerns, he was interested in knowing what it is like to work for the Forestry Commission and had brought along the edition of the PCS magazine View containing the article about just that subject. He was struck by a couple of points raised in that clearly working for the FC is quite unique because of the discreet area of work that we are involved in, organising in geographically difficult circumstance not just in large conurbations but into some of the most remote rural areas in Britain.
As he listened to the Branch reports he wanted to pick up on a couple of points, one made by Malcolm about short termism and one other made by Jim about recession in the economy. In the last few days the World has been turned upside down by the failing economy and he wonders if we in the Civil Service are seeing the real picture of what will confront us in the months and years to come? We already know that the fall of in house sale has seen a loss in revenue to the Land Registry; we also know that the reduced consumer spending has led to a reduction in the revenue being collected by Her Majesty’s Custom and Excise. It is important therefore that after discussion with NEC we may need to adjust some of the messages contained within the National Campaign materials around the questions on the economy.
Kevin was interested to hear about the work that PCS representatives are doing around the country and made reference to the concerns that members have about their immediate job, therefore the National Campaign could be seen as taking a back seat, however the recent consultation process highlighted these concerns and the NEC now seek to address members issues but still keep a strong focus on the aims of the National Campaign.
If the current ballot brings about a yes vote then it brings about opportunities in the most important area of the campaign and that’s pay. We have at present 50% of Civil Servant on less than £20,000 per year, with approximately a third of Civil Servant on less than £16,000 a year. The yes vote is important in that it demonstrates to the employer that we are serious about this issue and that every union is serious also in obtaining a pay award that matches inflation as measured by the Retail Price Index. A separation of funding for pay progression to be a separate payment from the annual inflationary rise this will give Civil Servants parity with other Public Sector workers. The treasury remit guidance since 2006 penalises Civil Servants as the 2% pay cap fails to meet the needs of our members. PCS believes that these are reasonable demands and a yes vote would confirm that our members believe them to be reasonable as well.
The GEC is quite right to seek out political allies in the trying to bring about the changes necessary to secure fair and equal pay for our members in the Forestry Commission. Arguments should consider what value to local and rural communities are placed on the jobs our members undertake rather that the price of those jobs. Politicians need to understand the significance of what we do coupled with the ongoing campaigns to seek meaningful solutions to the current situation. By carrying out this political campaign it demonstrates to our members that the union is prepared to go to any length to avoid having to take strike action and are serious in getting negotiated settlements to the issues that concern our members.
The leadership of PCS are sometimes criticised for being too left wing and only interested in bringing down Governments for himself Kevin admits quite openly that he is a left wing socialist but he is also a realist. He and the NEC are under no illusions that there will be any kind of major political upheaval in the near future and as such they know that they can not get ahead of the rank and file members, he thought that our careful judgment on the situation by looking at the long term is exactly the right thing to do and will bring about results along with other groups in PCS.
In his closing remark Kevin highlighted the previous sections of the National Campaign in which the union has been successful; in 2004 we were faced with large scale job losses without any redundancy protection in place protocols are now in place to give that protection. Next we were faced with the loss of the first three day of sick pay, the strike action taken by unions at that time stopped management in its tracks and the idea was scrapped. The next threat was to the retirement age and that there was to be no negotiation on this the Government had made up its mind. They were in fact persuaded by the massive uproar from all across the public sector unions and they were forced into making an agreement with the unions.
If the actions taken so far have achieved some gains surely we can bring about success in achieving fair pay for Civil Servants through determined and unified campaigns.
Kevin Greenway has been appointed as the National Executive Committee (NEC) Liaison Officer to the PCS Forestry Group. He works in the Ministry of Justice and is available to our Group for advice and guidance as required.
Group Conference 2009 by Sue Gillingwater
At its last meeting the GEC confirmed that following the feedback received from 2008 delegates Conference for 2009 would be returning to the Fairfield Manor Hotel in York.
The close proximity to the May Bank Holiday has meant that in the past some members have been unable to attend because of holidays. Next year the date has been moved to the 12th and 13th May so hopefully we shall see some new faces..as well as some old ones! Please make sure that the dates are in your diary.
Next years Conference will mark the re-introduction of a Standing Orders Committee. Steve Osborne and Tony Farndon were elected at the 2008 Conference to take on the role of making sure that we are all kept on the straight and narrow and have issued the following timetable for BEC’s and Conference Organisers:
- 30th January and 27th February 2009 Branches must nominate delegates for Conference at its AGM and all AGM’s must be held between those dates.
- 6th March 2009 Branch motions for Conference must be returned to the Standing Orders Committee (SOC) by this date.
- 20th March 2009 List of delegates drawn up by Conference Organisers.
- 9th April 2009 Delegate information booklet produced, including motions to be debated.
- 8th May 2009 Emergency Branch motions for Conference must be returned to the Standing Orders Committee (SOC) by this date.
- 11th May 2009 Group Membership List to be run by this date.
- 12th May 2009 All Branches to have mandated delegates.
SEARS by Hazel Maclean
After discussions with Brain Allison (FCS Staff Council Chair) Edward, Allan, Danny Williamson (PCS) and I met to discuss concerns about the implementation of SEARS in particular SRDP and the impact that this is having on the quality of work being undertaken by Woodland and Admin Officer staff. Although these concerns have been discussed by the FCS Conservancy Staff Council over the past 12 months we don't believe that sufficient attention is being paid to the resolving the issues and are dismayed by the lack of Union involvement in any plans to resolve the issues. Edward has contacted Bob MacIntosh to ask for a formal meeting to discuss the issues and to (hopefully) address the lack of Union involvement to date.
FCS Conservancy Staff will not be surprised that the main areas of concern are:
- Due to computer systems restrictions Woodland Officers are now undertaking a portion of the work previously done by Admin staff.
- The quality, variety and quantity of work being done by Admin Officers has dropped markedly.
- Due to the pace and timing of the roll out of the IT system, the quality of training has been poor, as the just in time delivery mean Training Professionals are not being used. For some elements (WIAT and F4P) no training has been provided.
- Changes in the inspection regime, and SGRPID's role in determining the regime, have reduced the quality of the Woodland Officers' role and the service which the FC is able to provide to customers. This has the potential to lead to some local interpretation of the rules, which will also impact on the consistency of the service.
- There are numerous other concerns about workflow design within some of the systems and the impact that this again has on the quality of work for FCS staff.
We look forward to being able to update in the next Newsletter as to our progress.
Hardship Fund by Steve Holdsworth
In the context of the government agenda towards the civil service and the complete lack of inflation proofing of recent pay awards, despite huge rises in food bills and energy prices, the GEC has agreed to examine the setting up of a Forestry Commission Group Hardship Fund. Such funds would provide grants to individual members who are placed under severe financial hardship as a result of taking industrial action (where strike pay is not paid).
An example could be an AO working 2 days a week part-time where one of those days fell on a strike day and as a result of losing half a week’s salary has been unable to pay a childminder. The request for assistance might be for a payment to enable the childminder costs to be reimbursed.
The fund would be administered by the GEC in liaison with Branches, and we would need to consider donations and fundraising in order to build up an account. It is obvious that there are members whose finances are on a knife-edge, where taking unpaid strike action is extremely difficult. These are the members who might benefit from hardship assistance, following participation in industrial action.
Raising funds through our local trade union movement can help to raise the profile of our movement and build support. Additionally, having a hardship fund in existence takes away from some members the excuse of hardship for not taking part. I hope this type of support will enable members to join our campaign to defend our pay and I will provide further information about developments in a future Newsletter.
FD Review in Scotland
Since the last Group Newsletter, an extensive consultation with staff around Scotland took place to assess opinions on how to approach negotiations as the final proposals emerged. Members wanted an end to uncertainty and accepted that the changes would go ahead with the Union trying to get the best deal possible in exchange for the loss of 4 FDs. Agreement was reached with management on 8th August, with additional upgrades to 5 posts, assurances about suitable office accommodation in the former locations for the majority of staff and the inclusion of the new admin manager posts from the admin review.
The High Level Implementation Group agreed, at a meeting in August, how we should move forward. We are to meet again on 14/11.
Although Ministers were understood to be happy with the agreement, formal approval came through only in mid-October, which has delayed the first set of trawls for the PB2 FDMs and PB5 admin managers. However, these are now out or will be imminently. In the meantime, existing FDs continue to operate as before, with the exception of Moray, due to the move of FDM to another post.