Unite Fujitsu News

Campaigns & Events (Manchester)

The campaign continues for the reinstatement of local nurse and UNISON activist Karen Reissmann, who was sacked for speaking out in defence of the NHS.

She lost her internal appeal before Christmas, and the case will now go to an employment tribunal. However, tribunals do not have the power to force employers to reinstate someone, so the campaign is vital.

As a next step, UNISON is organising a lobby of local MP Ivan Lewis, who is also the minister for mental health, and they are asking all supporters to join them:

From 5pm, Friday 25th January
381 Bury New Road, Prestwich, Manchester, M25 1AW
[corner of Church Lane on this map]

Karen is also one of the speakers at a Manchester dayschool for trade unionists on Saturday afternoon, hosted by Organising For Fighting Unions. Other speakers include our Regional Organiser, Sarah Holden, Brian Caton (General Secretary of the Prison Officers’ Association) and Jane Loftus (Communication Workers Union President).

Branch Meetings (Manchester)

The next meeting of UNITE Greater Manchester IT Branch is:

6pm-7:30pm, Thursday 6th February
Upstairs, Hare & Hounds pub, Shudehill, Manchester city centre, M4 4AA
[Near the Shudehill Metrolink station and transport interchange and the spiral ramp to the Arndale Car Park]

All branch members are welcome to attend.

As well as the usual branch business, we will have a guest speaker from the Anti-Academies Alliance to lead a discussion about the plans to set up Academies in Manchester and the future of education.

Salary Swap Workshops (Manchester)

The confusion, poor communication and unrealistic deadlines imposed by the company are leading your reps to be deluged with queries about the new Salary Swap scheme.

UNITE is organising a series of short workshops where reps will give a brief explanation of the scheme, the issues and the UNITE advice - and you can ask questions.

MAN33 G CR1
Friday 25th January
· 10:00 – 10:30 or
· 10:45 – 11:15 or
· 11:30 – 12:00

There is a lot to cover, so please be on time.

These are open to all employees, whether currently members or not. Please let your colleagues know about them.

You should check with your manager that you can be released to attend.

Sadly, the corporate position is that the preferred route for employee enquiries is to HRdirect rather than UNITE, so they are not generally instructing managers to allow time off to attend.

Please remember that Friday is the company deadline for you to act if you wish to avoid them automatically enrolling you into salary swap.

It is particularly sad that the company is not being more supportive of the workshops when the HRdirect home page talks about a 5-day backlog of email queries, when some of the FAQs have still not been uploaded, and employees only have one day to make vital decisions about their future.

UPDATE on Salary Swap and Your Choices

YOU need to act THIS WEEK to avoid being automatically enrolled in the company’s “Salary Swap” scheme – even if you followed the advice issued last week.

Remember – the company are offering no facility to leave salary swap after 2008, but you can join at any time.

The UNITE reps in Manchester issued advice last week about the company’s new scheme, including a model letter and form for people to use.

Sadly, rather than resolving the issues with salary swap, the company is (for now) piling more pressure on people with unrealistic deadlines.

The company has emailed people who used the model letter with one of three standard responses. This notice is intended to explain what these mean and how to use the company response.

Pensions

The company say they will accept the UNITE version of the form to opt out of salary swap for pensions. If you haven’t sent this off yet and want to avoid the risk of being trapped into the salary swap scheme for pensions, you need to get this to HRdirect by the end of the week.
If you do opt out of salary swap, Pensions Choices will not be affected until July anyway.

Non-pension Benefits
The company still intend to put you into Salary Swap, even if you sent the model email that UNITE provided. To avoid this, you need to act now.

However, in response to the emails from employees, the company is now offering an extra option:

1. You can do nothing and be enrolled in salary swap on the default benefit levels – risking being trapped in a flawed scheme, but avoiding accepting the problematic “Declaration” - for now
2. You can go into Self Service, change Your Choices and accept the problematic Declaration
3. You can now return the new form they have provided to opt out of the non-pension aspects of salary swap without the need to accept the Declaration. Your benefits will revert to your contractual entitlements.

Sadly, the company are still not giving people the option likely to be in the best interests of the company and many employees – to be in Salary Swap without accepting the Declaration.

Your reps are receiving many queries. Here are answers to a few:

• If I opt out of salary swap, will I lose all my benefits? No. Your benefits package will revert to your contractual entitlements. This could be an increase or a decrease, or mean no change at all, depending on the choices you made in the past. However, the company will not give you access to the “optional extra” benefits (the HRdirect letter calls these “elective”).
• If I stop having a benefit, can I take it up again in future? Whether you join salary swap or not, the company is making no promise that benefits (other than those you are contractually entitled to) will be available in future. However, if you don’t opt out of salary swap, you will lose the right to revert to your contractual entitlements after this year.
• If I revert to my contractual entitlements I/my spouse/my family would no longer be covered by the medical scheme – what are the consequences? Beyond the obvious, also bear in mind that there can be restrictions on cover for existing conditions when someone rejoins a medical scheme.
• I had a contractual entitlement but had declined the medical scheme – how am I affected? Reps have raised this question with the company, but the answer is not clear yet. The facility to decline medical benefit pre-dates the introduction of Personal Choices. It is likely that if you opt out of salary swap then HRdirect would enter you into the medical scheme again – if this happened you would be taxed on the extra benefit. If you want to avoid this it would be wise to specifically tell them you still decline the benefit.

Hopefully the company will sort out the issues without further delay so that UNITE can recommend people join an amended scheme.

Which Option For You For Non-Pension Benefits?

Since the “default” benefit levels are the same as your contractual ones, it’s hard to see why anyone would choose option a) over the new option c).

You are likely to choose option b) if you think the consequences of being in salary swap and accepting the Declaration are preferable to reverting to your contractual benefits for even a short period of time.

Otherwise option c) is probably for you – returning the form provided by the company in response to the original model email (correcting the section of their form about medical cover if necessary).

In Summary

You can opt out of salary swap for pensions using the UNITE form.

You can either make your choices, accept the Declaration on Self Service and be enrolled in salary swap for non-pension benefits, or opt out THIS WEEK by sending the model email provided by UNITE last week, then returning the form HRdirect send in response.

In either case, please let the company know how unhappy you are at not being given the option of choosing the benefits you want without accepting their unreasonable Declaration.

More Information

Ironically, the introduction of salary swap has had the effect of reducing choice for many employees, as the company is refusing to allow you to make choices without accepting the Declaration, as you could before Salary Swap was introduced.

UNITE has pointed out to the company that far from reassuring employees, the company’s approach is reinforcing the view held by many staff that Salary Swap is being forced on unwilling employees to save the company money, rather than being a genuine staff benefit.

There are many other questions being raised about Salary Swap, particularly its relationship to Pensions Choices and AVCs. Your reps hope to clarify all these questions and issue further guidance after the immediate focus of helping people to opt out before Friday has passed.

Please feel free to pass on this email to colleagues who are interested. If you are one of those colleagues and are interested in finding out more about the union, please get in touch with the union using the form here:

www.ourunion.org.uk/interested

You can join UNITE/Amicus regardless of which location you work at or whether you are home based, what your job is, whether you are a “permanent” employee or an agency temp.

UNITE Advice: Salary Swap and Your Choices

This notice includes important advice on Fujitsu’s new “Salary Swap” scheme and the related changes to “Your Choices”. If you wish to follow the advice, you need to act quickly, before the company deadline of Friday 25th January.

Fujitsu has introduced the changes for valid reasons – to offer more choice and better benefits to employees, and to save the company money. However, the introduction of the scheme has been rushed and is seriously flawed.

The company is enrolling all eligible employees in salary swap, and does not plan to give employees the right to opt out after August 2008.

The scheme has been set up on CafeVIK Self Service so that you have to agree to a “declaration” if you want to change any of your choices. Unfortunately, the wording of the declaration leaves employees vulnerable to future changes in the scheme. Combined with the inability to leave the scheme in future, your reps believe this is a fatal flaw in the scheme.

Unfortunately the company is moving a number of existing benefits under “Your Choices” into the Salary Swap scheme, so it is possible that the problems could have an impact on them as well.

The company has made the opt-out process complex and confusing. You need to do TWO THINGS if you wish to avoid being trapped in a flawed Salary Swap scheme or agreeing to the declaration.

1) Your reps have drafted a model letter which you can adapt and send to HRdirect:

2) Your reps have published on CafeVIK an amended version of the company form to opt out of the pensions salary swap. To be effective, you must print, complete and return this to HRdirect at BRA01 by 25th January if you are in one of the eligible pension schemes. It is a good idea to keep a copy of the completed form and a note of when you posted it. You may also wish to email a copy to HRdirect, to ensure they are expecting your signed paper copy.

The model letter has been drafted so that you can use it regardless of whether you want to be in or out of salary swap in the long run, or whether you currently want to change your choices.

You will appreciate that your reps needed to issue this advice without further delay, so that you have time to act on it. At present, it is not clear how the company will deal with existing Your Choices if you send the model letter, hence the section at the end to allow you to ask for what you want. UNITE will update members as the situation develops.

Given that the company will save money when people who take part in Salary Swap, it seems likely that if a lot of people opt out they will address the shortcomings of the scheme in the near future. This is what happened with similar issues with the original Personal Choices scheme introduced ten years ago.

Please feel free to pass on this email to colleagues who are interested. If you are one of those colleagues and are interested in finding out more about the union, please get in touch with the union using the form here:

www.ourunion.org.uk/interested

You can join UNITE/Amicus regardless of which location you work at or whether you are home based, what your job is, whether you are a “permanent” employee or an agency temp.

Pass It On

The original email notice said:

If you know a few Fujitsu friends or colleagues who aren’t in the union yet but you think might be interested, why not pass this email on to them?

If you’re one of those friends or colleagues, and are interested in finding out more about UNITE in Fujitsu, you can leave your details here:

www.ourunion.org.uk/interested

Crewe success

A member in Crewe has sent us this report:

I was given 4 x weeks to find another role within Fujitsu, otherwise I would be TUPE’d into a company which, having researched the company – I DID NOT want to work for. Neither Fujitsu, or the new company provided me with any relevant information about the upcoming transfer or my potential new role – and in addition to this, the company wasted over 1 ½ weeks (out of only 4) changing it’s mind as to the required duration of any new role (in order to take me out of scope for TUPE). I found myself hurtling towards a TUPE deadline with no information with which to make any kind of informed decision. No help and no guidance in finding a new role.

I contacted the Union, and to be honest, just the morale support alone was worth the monthly fee! But of course they did far more than just provide support; they advised me what my rights were (such as the right to Information and Consultation!!). They helped me structure my approach to the company in a constructive manner and gave me some really good advice and support. The issue was raised formally with the company and I was advised that I had the full backing of the Union, should it reach the unfortunate situation of tribunal.

I am now working in a new role within Fujitsu and thankfully am out of scope for TUPE. Thanks to Lynne Hodge, (who has been there for me before) Phil Tepper and Wilf Williams. I can hand on heart say if you are thinking of joining the Union, it’s less than a tenner a month – it’s more than worth it.

Johnsons Workplace Management

Colleagues previously employed by Johnsons Workplace Management, who provide site facilities services (e.g. facilities management, reception, mailroom but not catering, cleaning, security or maintenance) at Fujitsu sites, have now TUPE transferred into Fujitsu.

This is good news for them, and good news for Fujitsu staff generally, as it should simplify communication and reporting channels, helping improve our working environment.

Please give them a warm welcome to Fujitsu – and why not invite them to join the union too?

UK Consultative Forum

You should by now have seen the results of the recent elections to the company’s UK Consultative Forum (UKCF). Once again, union backed candidates performed very strongly:

• Three of our candidates were elected unopposed
• In the areas where elections took place, a majority of employees who voted put a union-backed candidate first
• The majority of the new employee reps are union members

Thanks to all the candidates who stood and to everyone who voted.

The first meeting of the new UKCF took place in December and we hope the official report (which has to be agreed with HR) will be published soon. In the meantime, it is good to report that the company confirmed that following the settlement of the Manchester dispute, entitlement to the Security of Employment Agreement (SEA) was clarified for employees right across the UK, in line with the announcement UNITE published. Indeed, the company says that the HR database has been updated and that people can check what their own “redundancy terms” field says by contacting HRdirect.

This good progress on redundancy rights still doesn’t go as far nationally as we’ve achieved in Manchester. For example, the company nationally has not been explicit that redundancy rights are a contractual entitlement, and they’ve made no commitment on entitlements for those who joined the company since the start of 2000.

Pensions

One of the gains of the settlement to the Manchester dispute last year was that employees who were in the ICL Defined Benefit pension scheme but only entitled to accrue pension at 1/75th of salary per year had this increased to 1/60th (like most of their colleagues). Employees across the rest of the UK are benefiting from this win too, as the company has extended it nationally.

UNITE newsletters have previously reported on the attacks on occupational pensions at other companies. The ICL Defined Benefit scheme covers about one third of Fujitsu Services’ UK employees, and the “ICL Pension Members Committee” (IPMC) is the elected body which keeps an eye on its health.

At its meeting on 26th September, the company’s actuaries gave a presentation about how they see things, based on the actuarial valuation on 1st April 2006. The minutes and slides are available on the IPMC's CafeVIK community.

It is clear that the company is concerned about cost and about the unpredictability of future costs. If you ask an IPMC member what is going on, you get this statement:

The results of the 2006 valuation have raised a few questions which the IPMC are exploring with the company. There has been a significant cost increase since the 2003 Valuation driven mainly by two factors:

· further increases in longevity beyond those anticipated in the previous actuarial assumptions - people are living longer and continuing to do so

· a more pessimistic outlook on investment returns and on bond pricing

These factors are making it difficult to forecast future costs and create increased risks for the Company and plan members as we need to ensure we have a secure Plan going forward which the Company can afford. As part of our ongoing role in the IPMC we are discussing these concerns and exploring the future.

Most people would agree that it is legitimate that certain aspects of pension management may require confidentiality, for example where they relate to individual matters or are financially sensitive. But beyond that pension schemes are safest when they are as open and transparent to members as possible.

The November IPMC minutes show IPMC member (and UNITE rep) Dave Francis asking for trustee minutes to be made available. After all, the trustees (even the company appointed ones) are legally there to act in the interests of the fund members – nobody else. This would be one positive step, but more are needed.

UNITE in Manchester has asked the company for a briefing on the state of the ICL Defined Benefit pension scheme, so that the union and the company can agree how the union should be involved at an early stage during discussions.

The company agrees that it would be beneficial for UNITE to be kept abreast of the current discussions with the IPMC, in case a proposal requiring formal consultation should arise at a later stage. However, the company currently says it will only do this on a confidential basis and restricted to only two named representatives.

The company proposal presents us with a dilemma.

Refusing the confidentiality restrictions risks being kept in the dark until discussions about the future of our pension fund have progressed – making it harder to influence outcomes. Having a few reps “in the loop” would help us to prepare for any proposals which might emerge later. But the members are the union, so keeping a couple of reps informed is no substitute for keeping members informed and in control. Being party to this confidential information could make it more awkward to campaign on the basis of information we can glean from other sources, or against the secrecy itself.

The Manchester reps would be very interested to know your views on what approach they should take. Please contact Rep Ian Allinson or Rep Lynne Hodge.

On a wider note, UNITE can claim a lot of credit for the recent government announcement that it will reimburse people who lost their pensions when their companies went bust.

Out Of Hours

Data Cleansing

Following a UNITE newsletter in Manchester which included a section on Out Of Hours, John Lucas issued a further company announcement (to some people) on 9th November seeking to address many of the concerns raised by union and UKCF reps about the company’s “data cleansing” exercise.

The hottest topic was the company recording “NOELIG” (no eligibility) in your HR records if they thought you hadn’t claimed a particular form of Out Of Hours payment recently. The note includes some crucial reassurances:

• “The NOELIG code does not mean that you would not have any eligibility in the future it just reflects what you have claimed since April 2006.”
• “In signing this form you are not accepting a change to your terms and conditions, nor are you signing away your right to have these details amended further in the future.”

The statement is very welcome, as people had understandably been very concerned about the ambiguity of the form.

Unfortunately however, the note continues the confusion about what it is that they are recording. It says “Our aim is to merely understand the current ‘out of hours’ arrangement that you are working and being paid for”. This suggests they are recording what you are being paid, rather than what you are entitled to be paid. The latter view is clearly spelt out in the advice from the union and UKCF reps on CafeVIK, which was approved by the company and to which John Lucas’s own note refers.

We continue to advise you to check the information on the company letter very carefully and only sign and return when you are sure it is correct.

If in doubt, please contact your rep. Reps themselves may need to consult the reps involved in the subgroup for guidance, as this is a complex area.

Campaign and Survey

UNITE continues to be very concerned about the company intentions in this “harmonisation”. Everyone would welcome a more fair and consistent approach, but not one which reduces payments to the lowest common denominator or seeks to increase the compulsion to work long or unsocial hours.

This harmonisation will affect you whether you currently work overtime / shifts / standby or not.

UNITE and PCS have agreed a joint leaflet on the issue, so that we can alert employees to what’s going on whether they are members or not. If you want to protect terms and conditions at your site, why not contact us to discuss getting it distributed where you work.

Don’t forget our “Out Of Hours” survey which is open to all employees to complete. See: www.ourunion.org.uk/ooh.

Campaigning is key to building up the union at your site. The success we are having is reflected in the growing list of reps and contacts at the foot of this note. What can you do to help?