Pam Cole, Policy Officer PCS IER April The Public Sector: cuts, privatisation and employment rights

 270,000 members across government and in privatised sector  National and delegated CS recognition  National Trade Union Committee  National consultation  Delegated bargaining  Delegated facility arrangements  Departmental Trade Union Sides

 Ministerial agenda  Political lobby – protecting the taxpayer?  Cuts - cost (not benefits)  Privatisation – divesting responsibility?  The wider public sector  Austerity perspective – reason or excuse?

 BERR: Workplace representatives – a review of their facilities and facility time (2007)  TUC: The facts about facility time for union reps (2011)  NatCenSocial Research report for Unison: The value of trade union facility time – Insight, challenges, solutions (June 2012)

 Consultation responses  PCS surveys  Joint projects  Delivering change  Resolving grievances  Agreements tailored to organisations  Civil Service is not just Whitehall  Managers’ needs as well as members’ needs

 Long lead in, short consultation  Unilateral document, November 2012  Leading questions  NTUC discussions – cut short  Ministerial announcement  Cabinet Office directive  Cost limits set  Legal constraints - acknowledged  ACAS Code – duties and activities

A fundamental rupture of industrial relations in the Civil Service  Ending or changing existing agreements  Central control or delegated authority?

 Union democracy and representation  Equality and diversity  Collective bargaining machinery  Statutory responsibilities  Members’ rights  Knowledge and expertise  Individual reps

 Fewer reps?  Less diverse union?  Lower skills and expertise?  Even worse management of change  More stress – members, reps, managers and organisation  More grievances – less access to help  Lower morale  Erosion of workplace rights

 Preparation for a hostile environment  Organising strategy – Count Me In  PCS national campaign  Departmental agreements?  Tool kit – co-ordinated/tailored  Supporting reps  Supporting members  Legal challenges?  Transition plan

 Wider attacks  On employment rights  On trade union rights  Rest of public sector  Wider campaigning to protect rights and resist detriments  Working with TUC and IER and others

 “I was helped from the moment I set foot in the union room. They are a brilliant support system...My rep was in every meeting...so I was assured all correct procedures were being adhered to”  “Support from my HR department would have been no substitute for the support I received from my union rep because I would not have felt they were ‘on my side’”

 Public and Commercial Services Union