All PCS members in Steria/SSCL

To All PCS members in Steria/SSCL

29 May 2014

Update on talks with SSCL

No compulsory redundancies

Vote YES for action

Ballot for industrial action

PCS will shortly be balloting you for strike action. We need to increase the pressure on SSCL to ensure that all of you who want to remain employed can do so.

We want them to:

• No forced compulsory redundancies

• Relax the deadline of 31 October 2014 to enable staff to properly consider voluntary redundancy terms and to find continued work through redeployment

• A two year delay before any office closures which will be the full term of the transformation plan so that staff can maximise all opportunities for re-deployment.

The ballot will start on Friday 30 May and close on Wednesday 18 June 2014. Please make sure that you use your vote and post your ballot paper back straight away.

PCS members working in the Ministry of Justice Shared Services are also threatened with privatisation and will be balloted at the same time as members in SSCL.

What we have achieved so far

PCS has always opposed the privatisation of shared services. By a combination of negotiation and your support for the strike on 25 October 2013 PCS achieved:

• Protection of your pension

• No sites to close for at least a year and an additional special commitment that the Alnwick and York Defra offices will continue to operate as they are for at least 20 months after transfer

• A “Redeployment Protocol” for DWP, DEFRA and HMRC that has now extended to several other government departments to help staff get a job back in the civil service.

What SSCL plan to do

On 3 March SSCL announced proposals to cut 500 jobs through the closure of sites in Sheffield, Cardiff and Leeds by 31 October 2014, reviewing work and reducing staff at other sites and off shoring the equivalent of about 200 jobs to India.

PCS has opposed the job cuts, office closures and off shoring. We organised a parliamentary briefing for MP’s and a full debate in the House of Commons to put political pressure on SSCL.

In negotiations since March PCS has successfully persuaded SSCL to run a voluntary exit scheme before the voluntary redundancy scheme and to extend voluntary redundancy to give staff more options and more time to look for redeployment. PCS has also persuaded the Cabinet Office and SSCL to include more government departments in the redeployment protocol.

Despite protests from PCS, however, SSCL have insisted on pressing ahead far too quickly and with a much too short timescale for the voluntary exit and voluntary redundancy schemes. This has created an atmosphere of ‘panic exits’ and left many staff without the information they need to make an informed decision.

Their operation of the redeployment protocol has been too slow. The civil service jobs vacancies website has been impossible for SSCL staff to access and use. So far only 6 staff have been redeployed (Sheffield ex-DWP staff have found alternative work in the nearby Dearne Valley DWP Debt Management office).

PCS has demanded that SSCL agree to a two year delay before any office closures which is the full term of the transformation plan. This would allow more time to properly sort out information for staff genuinely wanting to leave and also maximise the opportunity for re-deployment for those staff in Cardiff, Leeds and Sheffield who want to be redeployed to avoid redundancy. PCS has put this forward as a reasonable way of avoiding compulsory redundancies. SSCL have refused and insist on ploughing ahead full speed and closing Cardiff, Leeds and Sheffield by the end of October.

To make matters worse, the Cabinet Office, rather than acting in the interests of former DWP and Defra staff, has threatened penalty clauses should SSCL not vacate the premises by the deadline. They are also, because the Government are party to the contract, insisting that these cuts are made by 31 October. Furthermore the Government has given the go ahead to a merger with Sopra with no regard for the possible consequences for members in SSCL.

Compulsory redundancy notices

As a result staff throughout SSCL are being rushed into snap decisions on their future and much worse; PCS members at Cardiff and Sheffield now face the real and imminent possibility of being given compulsory redundancy notices.

At a meeting with SSCL on 29 May 2014 PCS were informed that it is now the intention to commence one to one meetings with all staff in Cardiff and Sheffield who have not signed up to the voluntary exit/redundancy schemes put on offer at those sites. Those meetings will commence on 2 June 2014 with the intention of issuing compulsory redundancy notices on

1 July 2014. SSCL have stated that the Cabinet Office is comfortable with this approach. PCS is appalled at this and urges all members to ensure that they enlist the support of a trade union representative to accompany them at their one to one meeting.

The only concession that SSCL were prepared to make was to extend the exit date to 31 December to enable staff to exploit the potential of any vacancies that may arise. However this is at the expense of VR/VE terms and only CR terms will remain on the table. This runs completely contrary to the Cabinet Office job protocols which is about avoiding compulsory redundancy at all costs. For those of you who want to keep a job you will need to consider your options very carefully and speak to a union rep as soon as possible.

Make a united stand

PCS have done everything possible by negotiation. We have won concessions but it’s not enough. PCS is completely opposed to privatisation, job cuts, office closures and the off shoring of work. This is why we have now taken the decision to ballot for industrial action across all sites where we have PCS members employed by SSCL. No one is safe. Your site and job may not be at risk right now but we have to fight for protections for all those threatened with compulsory redundancy now and to protect members who remain working for SSCL whose jobs and terms and conditions may be at risk in the future; don’t forget the transformation programme will be spread over two years. We need you to vote yes to up the pressure on SSCL management to gain the protections we need for members.

Vote YES to protect jobs and services. Make sure you return your ballot paper by noon on 18 June  Save our Shared Services