To see an electronic copy of our paper one-per-desk leaflet called "Poisoned Chalice", on Cafevik, click here (a local version is here). This leaflet was produced for our Manchester Central Park and West Gorton sites.
Summary
Pay Report
HR sent a new pay offer this morning, following Wednesday’s works conference. It said nothing about who it applied to, but reps subsequently clarified this through an exchange of emails. We have made the offer and emails available on CafeVIK for staff to read.
Sulayman Munir reported from the works conference meeting on Wednesday.
Members had rejected the company’s original offer in March. It wasn’t a good offer, but the biggest problem had been that accepting it would have meant accepting the loss of union recognition and associated rights (including redundancy and redeployment). It would have turned our union recognition into a closed and rapidly dwindling group.
Since March, the company has wasted time. It took three months to hold the first stage-2 meeting, for example. Escalating the issue to the works conference stage had at last involved managers with more authority. However, the company came with few ideas, were ill-prepared and made sure it impossible to cost possible options at the meeting.
Linkage
From the start, the company has been consistently and deliberately linking the pay issue to the dispute over recognition, while Amicus has consistently been trying to unlink them so that a pay deal can be achieved without delay.
For example, the agreed and signed outcomes of the pay talks on 17th February state:
“Amicus offered to explore ways of disconnecting the pay issue from the outstanding recognition issue, but the company did not want to pursue this.”
At the works conference, the company initially responded positively to Amicus proposals which would unlink the two issues. However, after an adjournment, their position hardened considerably. Today’s offer is even worse than anything discussed in the meeting – it links the issues just as strongly as the original one.
During the meeting, one company representative said he couldn’t authorise “a peanut” for those they are trying to exclude from recognition.
Members are keen that reps continue efforts to unlink the issues so that a pay deal can be reached with or without a settlement on the other issues.
Progression
A key element of our claim was about pay progression as people moved up within and between roles. It is outrageous that staff who consistently perform well can still languish at the bottom of company pay bands.
The new offer finally acknowledges this issue, but doesn’t resolve it. Our negotiating team pointed out the absurdity of the company saying it couldn’t solve the issue on Wednesday in time for the EGM. Amicus had tried to open discussions on pay in January, so the issue shouldn’t have come as a surprise.
Overview
Reps stressed that the March offer , though poor, was better than the “bog standard” one imposed elsewhere. The new offer is better than the March one in a number of respects, which were highlighted.
However, the offer is still an attempt to smuggle through drastic cuts in employees’ rights under the guise of a pay offer. Loss of union recognition, redundancy and redeployment rights would be even worse than a poor pay deal. A divided workforce with a closed and dwindling bargaining unit would inevitably get worse deals in future years.
Though there are some improvements in the offer, it would still be the worst deal in recent years.
The overall budget figure is 3%, but this is worth far less than a 3% increase to pay rates because of the way “pay pots” work. For some jobs (e.g. in helpdesks) this would mean no increase in the pay rate at all – hence the offer proposes no increase at all to D1-4 pay scales.
Inflation is now running at 3.3% (year to July) with average earnings up 5% (year to June). Members felt their living standards were being eroded year on year.
Pay deals we’ve secured in recent years delivered rises beyond the declared pot, but the current offer would not. When a poor offer recently drove PCS members in Fujitsu Swansea to ballot on pay, the company quickly produced a revised offer which took promotions outside the pot.
Just looking at a percentage is misleading – pay for Fujitsu staff is usually far below the market rate. This is one reason why the company replaced the external benchmarks/scales with (generally far lower) internal ones.
The highest paid Fujitsu Services Director saw his package rise by over 25% from £1.37m in 2004-5 to £1.77m in 2005-6 (the last figures available). He gets a bigger % of a bigger package – it seems the rules don’t apply at the top. Few of us are paid 3% of his package, never mind getting that as a rise!
The company is doing very well, thanks to our hard work. Members feel that if we don’t get a good rise now, we never will. After having our pay rises delayed, we deserve something decent.
It seems likely that the company is deliberately making a poor pay offer this year in order to try to give the impression that collective bargaining doesn’t deliver results. They are doing this to help divide the workforce, attack the union and drive down pay and conditions.
Dispute Report
A reminder of the decisions of the March AGM and a written report was circulated to Manchester members yesterday. Ian Allinson verbally supplemented the report.
In 2003, there had been no disagreement between the union and the company about who was covered by recognition, but the company had nonetheless attacked employees’ rights on union recognition, redundancy and individual representation.
Members fought off that attack, and made gains too. With just 1½ days strike action, the campaign resulted in:
· Sick pay from day-one, benefiting around a thousand helpdesk staff across the UK
· An extra 5-days holiday for permanent helpdesk staff
· The introduction of better redundancy terms (the Minimum Redundancy Payments ) for those on the worst contracts
· Stopping the company’s attempts to make Manchester staff redundant without 90 days consultation
· Stopping the company’s attempts to implement decisions before hearing employees’ grievances, which broke our recognition agreement
· Negotiated pay deals in 2004 and 2005 that were significantly better than elsewhere in the company
Union organisation and effectiveness in Manchester and elsewhere in recent years has delivered many important gains, both individual and collective.
In February 2004, at the last minute, the company prevented a final settlement on union recognition, redundancy and redeployment, giving them the option of having another go later. Unfortunately, it took us some time to realise the game they were playing.
The company is now mounting the attacks again, but this time with a more sophisticated strategy. HR have been getting help from an external consultant this year.
HR manufactured the disagreement about the scope of recognition, by breaking the promise they made to employees on Xmas Eve 2004 that our agreements would carry over to Central Park .
The company then delayed pay rises and is blaming the delay on the disagreement about union recognition, but it is clear that this is just an HR ploy. The PCS union in Swansea has no dispute with the company over the scope of their union recognition, yet HR have delayed their pay talks year after year.
At the AGM in March, members decided to ballot for industrial action over the dispute on union recognition, redundancy, redeployment etc. At the same time, we offered the company talks with ACAS as a last chance for the company to resolve the issues amicably.
Ballot preparations are very time-consuming (thanks to the anti-union laws), but are now almost complete.
The ACAS talks produced one step forward – the company agreed to set up regular meetings with Amicus. Details of the proposal will be circulated to members for approval shortly.
90-days
The ACAS talks are currently deadlocked over the company’s insistence that only some Manchester staff can have a clear right to 90-days consultation before redundancy. This is valuable time when people can avoid redundancy or find another job – while they’re still in work.
The company says that these redundancy rights are “uncompetitive”. HR seem keen to compare good aspects of our terms and conditions to the market, but seem curiously reluctant to do the same for our pay.
We maintained decent redundancy terms throughout the period when the company was struggling to survive, so it is hard to see why we should accept worse now that the company is doing so well.
The company argues that good redundancy terms will price us out of work. But we know that the UK has worse redundancy terms than most European countries, which has encouraged companies to cut jobs here rather than abroad. This shows that bad redundancy terms do not protect jobs.
We cannot compete with India or China on labour costs – we shouldn’t try to. Good redundancy and redeployment terms encourage companies to invest in retraining us and improving skills, rather than focusing on short-term profit at the expense of the future.
The company says that they are still offering redundancy terms better than the legal minimum. This is true, but hardly a reason to accept a reduction from what we’ve got.
In the ACAS talks, the company are saying that they only want to worsen redundancy rights for some people and in some circumstances.
However, in the real world (e.g. the VME team offshoring and the MAN05 closure), the company is taking a much more aggressive stance on redeployment and redundancy.
It is ironic that the company hadn’t even put the issue of reducing the 90-days on the list of issues to be discussed at the start of the talks - it was re-introduced along the way.
Scope
There are still other unresolved items in the ACAS talks. The key one for the company is its scheme to change the scope of union recognition through what it calls an “Expression of Wish”.
The idea that we each choose whether we want to be included in union recognition sounds superficially attractive. However:
· HR’s commitment to “choice” is bogus – it denies most employees any choice at all. It is only interested in offering choice where it undermines union organisation and allows them to reduce terms and conditions.
· PCS in Swansea have already adopted this scheme, and it hasn’t prevented the company messing them about.
· It is incompatible with employment law, which recognises that employers DO deal with employees in groups for many issues.
· It is divisive – we are each given the choice as to which side of a divided workforce we want to be in. The majority want a united workforce, but this option would not be on offer.
· The company already uses the excuse that we can’t fix problems here because they would have to do the same elsewhere. They could use this excuse even more if people doing the same job in the same team on the same site were divided between those included and those excluded. They would use this excuse to make it harder for any of us to get a fair deal on any issue in the future.
· The company would be tempted to mess staff in the bargaining unit about in order to make us “opt out” – an extension of what they’re doing already.
Pressure
In previous talks, the company made clear that it only offered a decent deal in the past because members put them “under duress”. It seems that we now need more pressure to get a decent deal on the table.
HR and senior management frequently jump ship between the major IT companies. They attend the same meetings and seminars. All the IT companies seem to be pushing down on pay and conditions at the moment, and this is producing a strong reaction from staff. It is only such a management offensive that can explain why, in an industry not known for union militancy, strike ballots are on the agenda at CSC and EDS as well as in two parts of Fujitsu. This context will make it harder for the company to scare people with the idea that our industrial action would jeopardise jobs in Fujitsu Manchester.
Pay decision
Sulayman Munir explained that members had to choose between two options:
a) Reject the company proposals, register a Failure To Agree in the pay talks and fight for a better pay deal
b) Accept the company proposals
If we accepted the offer:
• It would establish bargaining only for small and dwindling group
• We would implicitly accept loss of union recognition, redundancy rights etc for large and growing part of workforce
• We would be accepting a deliberately poor offer. Many staff would wonder if it had been worth the wait
If we rejected the offer:
• Company would be free to do as it wished, including imposing the deal
• HR were likely to make more mischief around the decision
• Members would be free to fight for something more
It was stressed that this was a decision for members to take. Whichever way the decision went, there would be some people outside (or even inside) the room who wouldn’t understand or would be unhappy. It was important that we all united behind the decision, whichever way it went. All members would be responsible for the decision, for explaining it to colleagues and for carrying it out.
After discussion, members decided to “Reject the company proposals, register a Failure To Agree in the pay talks and fight for a better pay deal” – without a single vote against.
Clarifying the issues
The attack on the union includes attacks on time and facilities for Reps to carry out their duties on behalf of the workforce. The company is also trying to get away with discriminating against several of the Reps, already resulting in grievances and a tribunal claim.
It was agreed that as a result of the decision on pay, there would be a single ballot encompassing pay and all the issues already in dispute, including:
· 2006 pay deal
· Union recognition, redundancy and redeployment rights
· Failure to fully implement the 2005 pay deal
Plans for industrial action
Nobody wants to have to take industrial action, but the issues are important, and members are prepared to take action if necessary.
Phil Tepper led a wide-ranging discussion about possible forms of industrial action and protest. In choosing what to do, we should consider factors such as:
· Will it involve people?
· Will lots of people join in?
· Will it have more impact on the company than on the people taking the action?
It would be self-defeating if we all worked extra-hard after industrial action to deal with the backlog of work.
The discussion resulted in a consensus on some action to take as a first-stage, which was captured in the motion (see below).
There were many other useful ideas for both industrial action and protests, which can be explored later. Please continue to feed your ideas to your Reps and the Action Committee (see below).
Motion
The company is very profitable, because of our hard work. There is no excuse for failing to treat staff fairly and with respect. We shouldn’t be seeing a continuing deterioration in pay and conditions.
Many departments are under-staffed and over-worked. Tight SLAs and scarce skills put employees in a strong position – as long as we are united.
Nobody can guarantee whether it will be easy to win, but it is clear that if we don’t fight, we will lose.
The following motion was passed (with no votes against):
We, the Amicus members, resolve to instruct our Reps and Officers to:
1. Mount a vigorous campaign, applying pressure through the use of Amicus contacts with the media, local and central government, customers and potential customers.
2. Ballot us for industrial action, up to and including strike action. The ballot should include all Amicus members employed by Fujitsu Services and based at MAN05/33/34/35, including HOM99 members whose admin base is MAN05/33/34/35.
3. If the result of the ballot is in favour of industrial action, our initial plan for the first phase of industrial action is:
A) A one-day strike on the first day of action
B) Action short of strike, consisting of:
a. Withdrawal of goodwill. This means stopping all the extra things we do to help the company run smoothly, over and above what is formally required of us. Examples (not exhaustive) include stopping:
i. Doing unpaid work (including travel) outside our contracted hours, including responding when not being paid for standby and overtime
ii. Doing work prior to being given a charge code or call number
iii. Making ourselves easily contactable by mobile phone or pager
iv. Using our own cars for company business (except where in receipt of an allowance in lieu of a company car)
v. Overnight stays away from home
vi. Batching up expenses, rather than claiming them each time
b. Taking full breaks. This means taking appropriate breaks away from work, stopping work for lunch, and VDU users ensuring that they have at least 10 minutes every hour not using their VDU.
c. Helpdesk staff ensuring all calls are logged carefully and thoroughly, making appropriate use of Make Busy and Do Not Disturb.
d. Setting up an Out Of Office reply to cover the strike day and non-work periods such as overnight or weekends. This should be based on “Fujitsu Services staff in Manchester are currently taking industrial action because the company is breaking its union recognition and redundancy agreements, and over a pay claim. Apologies for any inconvenience caused. If you want more information or to join Amicus, see www.ourunion.org.uk. Please send messages of support to support@ourunion.org.uk.”
For the avoidance of doubt, subsequent General Meetings can change or extend this plan, but we must give at least seven days notice to the company before any action.
4. Immediately begin raising funds to support our dispute, including by asking members elsewhere in Fujitsu to contribute through a levy.
We, the Amicus members, resolve to:
1. Explain the issues to our colleagues
2. Recruit our colleagues into our union, to help them defend their rights
3. Take an active part in our campaign to defend our rights
4. Campaign for a massive “yes” vote in the ballot
5. Set up an “Action Committee” to assist in the organisation of the dispute
Raising funds would give us more options to sustain and extend action if necessary.
Amicus members at other Fujitsu sites have benefited directly from union recognition in Manchester , for example by gaining access to pay scales. Encouraging them to contribute to a levy would help our campaign, but also be a form of pressure on the company by raising awareness and involvement in the dispute beyond Manchester .
If necessary, the campaign could be widened as well as deepened.
An Action Committee had helped during the 2003 dispute:
The Action Committee has no formal responsibility. It consists of both Reps and members. It is a way of expanding the reach of the union, by involving members from all areas of the site. It can help to:
• Gather suggestions for further action and meet to assess whether these are suitable and effective, making recommendations for official action which will be agreed at a General Meeting.
• Advise all employees on appropriate action and monitor the effectiveness of official action taken in their area.
• Collectively approve or reject applications made by managers for specific cases of exemption from action/strike action.
It should reflect all areas, to ensure that the impact of decisions on different jobs and departments are fully considered.
Due to the extensive discussion in the meeting, there wasn’t time to identify Action Committee members for each wing at Central Park and at MAN05. Volunteers are already coming forward.
Members in each area should choose one or two people to join the Action Committee and give the details to the reps.
Peace - announcement
There were no items under “Any Other Business”, but there was one announcement.
The Labour Party conference will be in Manchester this year for the first time. A national demonstration against the occupation of Iraq and against an attack on Iran has been called for Saturday 23rd September – this is expected to be the largest protest in Manchester for very many years. Our union branch is supporting the protest.
Some members and non-members have already said they are going. It will be better if those who want to go take part as a group. Leaflets were available, asking Fujitsu staff who are interested to email sept23 @ ourunion.org.uk.
What next?
The meeting had made big decisions in an open and democratic fashion. This was in stark contrast to the phoney “choices” offered by HR in their “bogus ballot” or “Expression of Wish”.
It is highly likely that the company will react to the decisions taken, possibly:
· Trying once again to issue propaganda direct to the workforce rather than talking to Reps in an attempt to resolve the issues.
· Trying to divide the workforce.
· Attacking or censoring our communication channels. Members are urged to read union emails and keep an eye on the union web sites.
· Blaming everything on a few Reps. In 2003, bizarre rumours circulated.
· Scaremongering about the consequences of action, as in 2003.
The fact that members in other IT companies and other unions are also contemplating industrial action makes it harder for the company to attack us for standing up for ourselves.
Reps promised to get this email report out to members today. We also need to issue a paper newsletter to all staff as quickly as possible, and members were urged to help distribute this. Newsletters are no substitute for every member discussing the issues with their colleagues, but newsletters can make it easier to start such conversations.
Reps asked members to help build up the campaign, by steps such as:
· Ensuring everyone in your area has been asked to sign the petition .
· Wearing your pass on an Amicus lanyard
· Wearing an Amicus “Fujitsu Staff Deserve Recognition” sticker (e.g. on the back of your pass-holder)
· Displaying our Central Park useful information poster at your desk
· Using an Amicus mouse-mat
· Asking colleagues to join the union
Members took away a mass of such material at the end of the meeting. Contact your Rep if you missed out.
Above all, the message from the meeting was that if we all stick together, we can defend our rights and win a better deal too.
The members ARE the union – to win, we must each play our part.
Following the pay talks today, this notice provides key information in advance of the Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM):
2pm-3:30pm, Thursday 17th August
MAN33, 1st floor, East (hot desk area)
Pay Offer
Following the pay talks at today’s works conference, we expect to receive a new pay offer from the company in time for members to discuss and vote on it at the EGM.
Your reps anticipate putting the following options to the meeting:
a) Accept the company proposal
b) Register a Failure To Agree in the pay talks and fight for a better deal
Report
At the AGM in March, members rejected the company’s initial pay offer and passed a motion about the dispute. These decisions have determined the course we have taken since.
Since the AGM, on pay:
Since the AGM, on the dispute:
Nominations
Nominations for a Union Learning Rep and a Rep were circulated to members.
John Lacey has agreed to step down as a Rep to make a space available. Many thanks to John for his contribution over several years.
Offshoring
The impact on jobs, terms and conditions of “offshoring” work should be a concern to every employee.
Fujitsu has produced a draft policy on how employees should be treated. Amicus has published it on CafeVIK and would welcome your comments. The file has a password to prevent the CafeVIK search facility leading someone to the drafts and mistaking them for live policies.
Other information you may wish to consider alongside the company draft includes:
Amicus booklet on offshoring
Agreement between Amicus and Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) on offshoring
Draft agreement presented to the company by the employee reps on the Fujitsu Services Consultative Forum (FSCF).
Health & Safety
The management of Health & Safety in Fujitsu is very poor, as Amicus has been highlighting in Manchester.
The company has finally produced draft new Health & Safety policies, which it must consult employees about.
Amicus has published the drafts on CafeVIK and would welcome your comments. The file has a password to prevent the CafeVIK search facility leading someone to the drafts and mistaking them for live policies.
This week will see some major events affecting Manchester staff:
The EGM is for all Amicus members contractually based at MAN05/33/34/35, including those based at HOM99 with an “admin base” of one of those sites (i.e. those more closely associated with these sites than any other Fujitsu sites).
2pm-3:30pm, Thursday 17th August
MAN33, 1st floor, East (hot desk area)
Please note that the meeting is at a different time to General Meetings in the past.
Members are entitled to attend in work time. If your manager might need to arrange cover for you to attend, please contact them NOW. If you have any problems getting release, contact your Rep immediately. If you leave it until the last minute, Reps may be unable to help.
How we got here
Half our current membership have joined since 2003 – including many this year. Unsurprisingly, a number of the recent-joiners have been asking how the current difficulties with HR arose. Below, we offer some key facts and links to some key documents from the last few years...
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Attack on employee rights
Amicus had written to --name of company HR boss removed-- in October 2005, setting out how the company was breaking agreements on union recognition and other matters. The union proposed a “works conference” meeting as a last attempt to resolve the issues through negotiation, and negotiations duly began. The negotiations stalled in January 2006 when the company sharply changed its view on how agreement could be reached. Under the negotiating procedures in our current recognition agreement, neither the union nor the company should take “coercive action” while an issue (in this case clearly including the scope of recognition) is under negotiation. The company has chosen to make a 2006 pay offer in line with its latest view of who should be covered by union recognition and collective bargaining, excluding many of those who should really be covered. They intend to impose a pay deal on those they want to exclude. The company will be taking coercive action by imposing its own view while the matter is in the negotiating procedure. Negotiations cannot be in good faith if one party is already implementing its desired outcome. This means that the pay offer is a disguised attempt to change the scope of union recognition to exclude new starters, exclude people who move to Central Park (other than directly from MAN05) and exclude nearly all HOM99 staff. The effect would be to divide the workforce and turn the group with recognition into a closed and rapidly dwindling group. Excluding people from union recognition and collective bargaining has effects across a wide range of issues, including redeployment, pay, benefits, pensions, redundancy, health & safety, training, out of hours working, TUPE transfers and contract changes. These issues dwarf the significance of the company delaying our pay review (which they have promised to backdate to 1st April, as in 2005). Amicus tried to separate the recognition issue from the 2006 pay review, but the company refused. In effect, the company is trying to divide the Manchester workforce into two: 1. An included group. Their pay rise is delayed. The group shrinks rapidly over time so that their additional rights become harder to defend. 2. An excluded group. They may get a pay review on time, but it is the second-rate pay review imposed on most of the company. Of course, this pay review doesn’t guarantee any rise at all. They are excluded from all the extra rights that come with union recognition and collective bargaining. It is not in the interests of any employee to allow the company to divide us and erode our rights. We, the Amicus members, resolve to instruct our Reps and Officers to: 1. Register a Failure To Agree in the recognition talks. 2. Mount a vigorous campaign in defence of employees’ rights, applying pressure through the use of Amicus contacts with the media, local and central government, customers and potential customers. 3. Ballot us for industrial action, up to and including strike action. The ballot should include all members employed by Fujitsu Services and based at MAN05/33/34/35 plus HOM99 members who had identified themselves as having a MAN05/33/34/35 admin base for the 2006 pay review. 4. Consult HOM99 members living within 30 miles of MAN05/33/34/35 who are not covered by point 3 to ask if they want to be included in the ballot, as they would be likely beneficiaries of a positive resolution to the dispute. 5. In order to try to find a resolution before any industrial action, offer to hold talks with the company, with ACAS acting as conciliators. We, the Amicus members, resolve to: 1. Explain the issues to our colleagues 2. Recruit our colleagues into our union, to help them defend their rights 3. Take an active part in our campaign to defend our rights 4. Campaign for a massive “yes” vote in the ballot |
Newsletters
All our recent “One Per Desk” leaflets are available on our “Amicus The Union” CafeVIK community:
Much of the material from past email newsletters is subsequently made available on our external news weblog:
http://www.ourunion.org.uk/news
To see an electronic copy of our paper one-per-desk leaflet called "Decision Time", on Cafevik, click here (a local version is here). This leaflet was produced for our Manchester Central Park and West Gorton sites.
We are all aware of the terrible events currently affecting Lebanon, Palestine and Israel, and the concerns raised about the role of our own government.
This Saturday (5th August) will see an emergency demonstration in London calling for an unconditional ceasefire now. For more information, including local transport from Manchester, see www.mancsagainsttanks.org. Even if you can’t go, you can still sign the Open Letter which will be handed in at Downing Street.
Events in Iraq continue to cause concern. The plight of Iraqi trade unionists rarely makes the headlines. They face the privatisation of industry while the government has banned them from using the few funds they have. The TUC is asking members to donate second-hand mobile phone handsets, which Iraqi trade unionists can adapt and use to help them organise. For more details, see the TUC web site.
This autumn, the Labour Party conference is being held in Manchester for the first time. To coincide with this, the Stop the War Coalition and CND have called a national demonstration in Manchester on 23rd September, calling for our troops to come home from Iraq and opposing an attack on Iran. This will clearly be the biggest protest in Manchester for decades.
If you work in Fujitsu and are interested in joining the demonstration, please let us know – it will clearly be better if a group can all go together.
The next meeting of the Greater Manchester IT branch is:
6pm – 7:30pm, Thursday 3rd August
Upstairs, Hare & Hounds pub, Shudehill, Manchester City Centre, M4 4AA [Near the Shudehill Metrolink Station and the spiral ramp to the Arndale Car Park]
All branch members are welcome to attend. As well as branch business, there will be opportunity to discuss workplace reports and issues.
Union Learning Reps
We introduced “Union Learning Reps” (ULRs) for the first time in January this year. Already we have:
- Pushed the company to make CV and interview training available for HMRC and Libra staff seeking redeployment.
- Produced a draft “Learning Partnership Agreement” for you to comment on and which Amicus could propose to the company.
- Reorganised the union library to enable us to run a “BookSwap Shelf”.
Much of this progress was achieved by ULR Aaron Donnelly, who (happily for him but sadly for us) left the company after finding a better job externally.
In order to build on this, we need more volunteers/nominations (from members within the Manchester union recognition area) to be Union Learning Reps (ULRs). You can find more information about the role on the TUC web site. Full training is provided.
Martin York is our remaining current ULR, and Pauline Bradburn has already said she wants to stand. Clearly we need more ULRs if setting up an effective Learning Partnership Committee is to be achievable.
See below to find out how to volunteer or make a nomination.
BookSwap
The TUC are promoting the BookSwap scheme where members can donate books they have finished with and borrow books other members have donated.
We’ve set aside some space in our union library, and quite a few books have already been donated. These can be on any subject – fiction, work-related, union-related or general interest – but please no offensive material.
If you have some books you can donate, please get in touch. Obviously we don’t want the library to be cluttered up with items nobody is interested in, so Amicus reserves the right to dispose of books as appropriate.
Once we’ve got a few more books (and a new ULR to help run the library) we will launch the scheme.
Amicus is launching a new petition for Manchester staff, which reads as follows:
Cheap Redundancy and Delayed Pay – the new “Fujitsu Way”?
We believe that Fujitsu’s senior management:
• Shouldn’t hold pay rises to ransom in order to make divisive attacks on our redundancy rights and union recognition.
• Should work constructively with union reps, rather than trying to divide us and attack the union in an attempt to worsen our pay and conditions.
• Should take our views seriously and not wait until individuals hand in their notice or groups resort to taking industrial action.
You can download a copy here or get one from your rep.
The aim of the petition is to show the company the strength and breadth of feeling about the way they are treating Manchester staff. This will only succeed if we get a high proportion of Manchester staff to sign the petition. To achieve this, everyone needs to play a part.
The petition will also help you to talk to your colleagues about the issues – vital to build and maintain support for the campaign.
Many more staff across Fujitsu (particularly in Manchester) have joined Amicus in recent months. You can help build the union by asking your colleagues what they think about the issues and asking them to join. Recent joiners include a number of people who thought they would never join a union, so don’t feel there’s anyone you can’t ask.
Most of our new members are now joining online. This is a quick and efficient way to join, but it would help if new joiners let our membership secretary know so that they can start receiving newsletters etc without the delay of waiting for an update from HQ.
MAN05 closure
Amicus Reps have been in a number of informal meetings with the company about the impending closure, and in particular the impact on those Fujitsu employees still at MAN05.
Rather than using the (sensible) approach of dealing with all affected staff in the same meeting, the company has so far elected to discuss each group of staff (e.g. those in IS Datacentres and those in Network Services) in separate meetings. As a result, Reps understand that some employees have been overlooked.
Reps have been seeking to ensure that these groups will be treated consistently, as it initially appeared that some were getting treated better than others, for example only Datacentre staff were getting the benefit of a dedicated resource manager to help in finding suitable jobs for affected staff.
Most of the staff are being relocated to MAN23, WAR13 or the Manchester Campus. The company is aiming (but has not guaranteed) to avoid any job losses amongst those affected.
Even where no redundancy dismissals or major changes in job content are envisaged, Reps have pointed out that jobs are still strictly “at risk” as the requirement for work at a particular location is reducing. Accordingly Reps have been pressing the company to honour the SEA, which sets out your rights with regard to redeployment, trial periods etc. This is proving a major issue – see below.
We have also asked the company to confirm that the people affected will retain union recognition rights and (where relevant) membership of the collective bargaining unit. So far, the company are refusing.
The company has confirmed that staff who incur costs through relocation will receive payments (e.g. disturbance allowance) under the Relocation Policy guidelines.
We have also asked the company to confirm that it will provide affected staff with:
- special support from a resource manager, i.e. not just being left to find your own alternative job
- training to help people willing to be redeployed into a job which is different from their old one
- giving those whose jobs are at risk priority consideration for opportunities
For those groups for whom discussions have taken place, the company has agreed these steps in all cases where they were appropriate.
Attack on Security of Employment Agreement (SEA)
The long-running argument with the company over our Security of Employment Agreement (SEA) is highly relevant in the current MAN05 situation.
Firstly, the company denies that the Security of Employment Agreement is a collective agreement (there’s a clue in the title!). Secondly, the company claims that only a tiny minority of staff have any contractual entitlement to it. They have provided no evidence or argument to back up this position.
In other discussions, HR have sometimes claimed that only those whose contracts explicitly reference the SEA are covered – almost nobody!
The SEA doesn’t just determine redundancy payments for many staff – it provides consultation, voluntary redundancy and redeployment arrangements for us all. We allow the company to chip it away at our peril.
Offshoring threat to VME team in Manchester
Four staff working on VME in MAN34 have been told the company plans to offshore their jobs to South Africa. In line with the draft company guidelines highlighted in last week’s national newsletter, the staff weren’t told until late in the process – when flights were being arranged for people to come here and learn their jobs.
Local management say that HR told them that Amicus had been consulted over the plans, which was completely untrue. This is an important lesson for all employees – always check with your Reps!
Thankfully, the group is covered by union recognition and collective bargaining. This meant the group was able to lodge a collective grievance through Amicus and that the current situation (the status quo) must continue while a resolution is sought. This is a vital protection against the general company approach of only telling people when it’s too late.
Amicus is holding an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) for all Amicus members contractually based at MAN05/33/34/35, including those based at HOM99 with an “admin base” of one of those sites.
2pm-3:30pm, Thursday 17th August
MAN33, 1st floor, East
This will be a vital meeting because:
Members are entitled to attend in work time. If your manager might need to arrange cover for you to attend, please contact them NOW. If you have any problems getting release, contact your Rep immediately. If you leave it until the last minute, Reps may be unable to help.
To make meetings run smoothly, Reps try to circulate agendas etc in advance. On this occasion this will prove more difficult, because the works conference on pay is taking place the previous day.
If you have:
Please send them to your reps as soon as possible.