THE CONFERENCE of PCS members in the Department for Work
and Pensions (DWP) has voted to strike again over pay in July.
Rob Williams, Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), DWP assistant
secretary.
This was after the management had said they didn’t have
any offer on the table for 2004 because they "hadn’t had their remit cleared
by the treasury to make an offer". They then added insult to injury by saying
that they were still busy collecting evidence of the problems caused by low
pay in the department!
Low pay is the cancer of the workplace. The bosses’
completely insincere exercise is calculated to drag out negotiations for as
long as possible.
Dave Burke from the PCS DWP group executive explained the
timing of the strike action:
"People will get the results from the PDS
appraisal system in June. Many will find that they have been removed from
Level One to Level Four. Being on Level Four means no performance pay at all.
Previously about 30% of people were on Level One, now because of management’s
quotas, it’s less than 10%. This is enraging members."As far as we’re concerned, members should get the rate
for the job, not something based on a manager’s biased opinion."
Julia Thornton from Leeds DWP has been 28 years in the
job. She’s always got the top grade in the old assessment system. Now she’s
been told she’s on Level Four, which means she won’t get any performance pay
at all. She’s convinced she’s been put in that box because she’s a union
activist. She told the socialist:
"Members in Leeds are outraged by the whole system. The
two strike days in July will be well-supported."
Carmel Gates, Socialist Party member and President of
NIPSA, the Northern Ireland civil service union, was received enthusiastically
by delegates when she spoke at the DWP conference. She drew out the lessons of
the six-month long civil service strike in Northern Ireland and made
comparisons to the battle PCS was having with their management and the
government.
