The next meeting of Greater Manchester IT Branch is:
6pm-7:30pm, Thursday 6th March
Upstairs, Hare & Hounds pub, Shudehill, M4 4AA
[Near the Shudehill Metrolink station and the spiral ramp to the Arndale car park]
As well as usual branch business and discussion of workplace issues, we have invited a guest speaker:
Branwen Dale from the Anti-Academies Alliance, leading a discussion about changes to education and the proposed City Academies in Manchester. We had invited Dale to our February meeting, which unfortunately had to be cancelled due to a bereavement at the venue.
All branch members are welcome to attend.
Following the merger of Amicus and TGWU to form UNITE, elections are under-way for the first Executive Council of the new union. Members will receive ballot papers and voting will take place between 3rd and 28th March.
Please read the information with the ballot paper and use your vote. The NEC is the governing body of the union and its composition will have a significant impact on the future direction of your union.
All members in the north-west will have a vote for one north-west regional seat. All working members will have votes for four women’s seats. Members employed in the IT industry will not get a vote for an industry sector seat, because Ian Allinson was unopposed for this position.
The Greater Manchester IT Branch made the following nominations:
All members in scope of the Manchester agreements (i.e. with a contractual base of MAN33/34/35 and some HOM99) are urged to attend their Annual General Meeting:
1:30-3:30pm, Thursday 6th March 2008
MAN35, Ground Floor, West Wing
Please note the new venue
The meeting will discuss reports from reps, take key decisions and elect reps for the coming year. Please do your utmost to attend and encourage colleagues to come too.
Updated 2008 pay and benefit scale information will be available for discussion at the meeting.
Our latest “One Per Desk” leaflet is currently being distributed at Central Park and is available on CafeVIK for people working off site.
If you work at Fujitsu, aren't currently a UNITE member and are interested in finding out more about UNITE in Fujitsu, you can leave your details here:
www.ourunion.org.uk/interested
Learning has become a major area of activity for our Manchester group. Union recognition has given them the right to have Union Learning Reps recognised by the company and given work time to carry out their duties.
However, there’s still a lot available for members right across the company. For example, there are free online courses available from OpenLearn covering subjects including:
· Arts and History
· Business and Management
· Education
· Health and Lifestyle
· IT and Computing
· Mathematics and Statistics
· Modern Languages
· Science and Nature
· Society
· Study Skills
· Technology
If you are interested, please contact us.
Unions have always been involved in environmental issues. They affect us all, but they often affect working people most. Changes in the workplace can help resolve environmental problems and unions have been in the forefront of many such campaigns, from asbestos to Agent Orange (245T) to the dumping of nuclear waste at sea.
Environmental sustainability and climate change are increasingly becoming recognised as major issues by government and employers.
In order to campaign effectively in this area it is important that UNITE has information about what is going on in workplaces and how members perceive issues and initiatives to do with climate change and sustainability.
Please take a few minutes to carry out the online survey:
http://response.questback.com/amicus/eeeitenvironment/
The TUC is offering an online training course designed to meet the growing demand from trade union members and reps for information, knowledge and skills to deal with environmental issues. The course will begin late February and details are available here:
http://www.unionlearn.org.uk/education/learn-1913-f0.cfm
Fujitsu makes extensive use of temporary agency workers. For example, the helpdesks use the agency Adecco as a primary route into the company.
There’s a legitimate case for Fujitsu using temps for a short time to cover fluctuations in workload or as a form of recruitment and probation. But members on a number of sites report worryingly high proportions of temps, many of them with long service at Fujitsu.
Inappropriate use of temps is an issue because temps have less job security and often worse pay and benefits too. This is bad news for the temps, and for “permanent” staff who work alongside them and feel their pay and benefits are being undermined.
Did you know:
UNITE membership and organisation continues to grow across the UK. Central to this is what members can do themselves, with support from union reps, officers and organisers.
We have a new national leaflet available covering pay, offshoring, redundancy rights, UKCF, the Manchester win, Out Of Hours harmonisation, why join the union, organising and Salary Swap. If you’d like to see it distributed at your site, please get in touch with your rep or contact us.
We’re pleased to welcome John Blacklock (WAR08), Sean McGurk (IRE11) and Paul Thomas (FCY01) to the growing list of UNITE reps and contacts.
An announcement from the Royal Mail account that there was a ban on people who lived less than two hours from London staying overnight had caused a lot of concern, particularly as it suggested this would be rolled out across the company.
We are pleased to report that following representations through from UKCF reps, the ban is no longer in force.
Though it’s obviously legitimate for the company to control costs, it is not acceptable to do so in a way that promotes long and unsocial hours. The withdrawal of this policy is very welcome.
Work Your Proper Hours Day
The TUC estimates that nearly five million people are doing an average of more than seven hours overtime every week for free. All that unpaid overtime is worth £5,000 a year. If an employee did all their unpaid overtime at the start of the year they wouldn't get paid until this Friday (22nd February). The TUC have therefore named this date ‘Work Your Proper Hours Day'.
On this day, take a stand by arriving for work on time, taking a proper lunch break and leaving on time.
If you're a manager, why not thank your staff for all the extra effort they put in at work.
There's more info and advice on the ‘Work Your Proper Hours Day' website, where you can:
• find out whether you have a long hours problem by taking a quick quiz
• help to find the best and worst bosses across the country for managing long hours
• post a message on the ‘Work Your Proper Hours' blog. The best stories will be published on the website.
For more information see www.workyourproperhoursday.com
Unpaid overtime increases your stress, reduces your income and above all reduces the chances of your employer actually employing enough people to do the job.
Out Of Hours
UNITE reps, along with colleagues from the PCS union and the company’s UK Consultative Forum (UKCF) continue to discuss harmonisation of what the company calls “Out Of Hours”. This covers normal working hours, overtime, shifts, standby and callout.
Don’t forget to complete our online survey, which you can find here:
As the April pay review approaches, you need to be lobbying your manager for a decent pay rise. The better you understand the process, the more effective you will be.
The company’s national pay guidelines for managers are published on CafeVIK. Additional guidelines have been issued for employees in the Manchester bargaining unit, reflecting existing agreements which must be taken into account alongside the national guidelines.
Make sure you prepare properly for your meeting with your manager. You are entitled to know the 2008 pay comparator for your job (actually the median salary for Fujitsu’s employees on that role code in the UK) – ask your manager if you haven’t got it. Employees only won access to this information after much campaigning with the union.
As usual, UNITE will give members access to far more information as it becomes available, including guideline pay and benefit for many different jobs. This can help you make important career decisions as well as giving you the information to lobby your manager on benefits as well as pay.
This vital information is only available to UNITE members because the company still refuses to publish it. Why not ask a colleague to join so they can get it too?
If the rumours are to be believed, the company pay “pot” is once again far below inflation, so the standard of living of most employees is likely to be eroded yet again.
Core Services, which includes the vast majority of Fujitsu’s UK staff, is encouraging managers to give a more “extreme” distribution of pay rises this year. This would inevitably mean more 0% rises.
Last year the increase in the package of Fujitsu Services’ highest paid director (presumably David Courtley) was comparable to the pay pot for the entire Manchester workforce. You can’t get much more “extreme” than that.
There is some good news for staff on TSS/1, TSS/2 and TSM/1 roles this year.
For a long time people on those roles within Customer Services have not been managed on the standard company pay system, but on a system known as “D1-4”. In Manchester this has been reasonably clearly defined, but elsewhere it has often been even more impenetrable than the standard pay system.
Thanks to the UNITE deal in Manchester last year, Fujitsu is now untangling the two pay systems - nationally.
The first beneficiaries are those on TSS/1, TSS/2 and TSM/1 outside Customer Services (i.e. not on the D1-4 system). HR has now recalculated the medians, excluding the staff on D1-4. The effect has been an increase to the guidelines in all three cases. It is particularly pleasing to see the lower guideline figure for TSS/1 rising slightly above the National Minimum Wage – but it says a lot that this is even an issue.
The untangling of the two systems is likely to encourage a more open pay system within Customer Services, and work that will assist in achieving this is already under way.
UNITE will be holding the group Annual General Meeting:
1:30-3:30pm, Thursday 6th March 2008
MAN35, Ground Floor, West Wing
Please note changed location
Please do your utmost to attend this important meeting which will take key decisions affecting your future.
You are entitled to attend in work time.
If your manager might need to arrange release 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.
Your reps are proposing the following outline agenda:
1. Review of Progress and Current Issues
2. Pay
3. Motions
4. Review of Group Rules
5. Elections
Please consider urgently whether you are willing to stand as a Representative or would like to nominate someone else, or if you have motions or other items for the agenda. See below for more details.
Pay
The meeting will review progress against the motion passed at the EGM in November and discuss updated Fujitsu pay and benefit scales. Don’t forget that these are only available to members, so encourage your colleagues to join up in time to come along.
Motions
The reps committee is putting forward motions on Exclusions, Health & Safety and Climate Change. If you have motions you want to propose, please submit them by Monday 3rd March.
(The original email included the text of all the proposed motions)
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Motion 2: Health & Safety (DSE Assessments) Back and upper limb disorders are one of the major health issues affecting employees. Many of these can be avoided by provision of appropriate equipment, training to correctly adjust and use it, reasonable working hours and adequate breaks. Display Screen Equipment (DSE) risk assessments, sometimes known as workstation assessments, are a key tool in preventing back and upper limb disorders. The company is legally obliged to have DSE assessments carried out by people competent to do so. The practice of promoting "self-assessment" rather than assessment by a properly trained assessor has often meant that assessments don't happen at all. Where they do take place they are often just a "tick in the box" which is a nuisance for employees and does little to promote health. The results of self-assessment are sometimes later used to allow the company to blame the individual if they later suffer ill-health. We welcome the decision of the union and company representatives on the Manchester Safety Committee on 6th November 2007 that "DSE assessments across the Campus would be undertaken by trained DSE assessors, rather than via self assessment". We resolve to campaign for the company to appoint and train sufficient competent assessors and to ensure all employees benefit from a proper assessment. Motion 3: Climate Change We note the increasing concern about the contribution of Carbon Dioxide emissions to climate change. We welcome initiatives by government and employers to reduce energy usage but believe that more action is needed to reduce the risks from climate change, to promote energy security and to reduce costs. We resolve to: 1. Work with Fujitsu to reduce the company's Carbon Footprint |
Review of Group Rules
The current group rules were agreed at the AGM in 2006. Your reps committee is proposing a number of changes this year to:
The proposed new rules are:
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Proposed Group Rules: These rules operate within the context of the general rules of the union. In the event of any conflict, the rules of the union shall prevail. 1. OBJECTS The Group exists to enable its members: 1.1 To convey their feelings to Fujitsu management on matters concerning remuneration, working conditions and related topics 1.2 To promote the objects of the union It shall provide a framework within which members can make decisions or take action. 2. MEMBERSHIP Membership consists of all UNITE members employed by the Fujitsu group and in scope of the Manchester recognition agreement (i.e. MAN33/34/35 and some HOM99 employees). 3. MEETINGS 3.1 General Meetings may be called by any Committee member. 3 days notice must be given of such a meeting. 3.2 An Annual General Meeting shall be held each year, normally in the month prior to the pay review date. 3.3 Any Group member may call an Extraordinary General Meeting to seek to replace any Committee member by obtaining the signature of 15 other members. One month's notice must be given of such a meeting. 4. REPRESENTATIVES The group members shall elect from amongst themselves: 4.1 Workplace Representatives 4.2 Health & Safety Representatives 4.3 Union Learning Representatives 4.4 Equality Representatives 4.5 Environmental Representatives 4.6 Such other representatives as required by the union rulebook or determined by the members Elections will be held at the Annual General Meeting. In addition, elections may be held when decided by the committee or when a nomination is made to fill a vacancy. All terms of office expire at the following Annual General Meeting. The Representatives shall form a committee to oversee the work of the group, and elect a senior representative, a deputy and such other officers as it deems necessary. 5. PROCEDURES 5.1 Majority decisions shall abide at all meetings. 5.2 There will be a review of the rules at each AGM and if requested, at a General Meeting. Any changes to Group Rules shall only be made at a meeting where the proposed changes have been published on the agenda. 5.3 A speaker may not take longer than five minutes to introduce any topic or motion. Other speeches shall not exceed three minutes. These limits may be extended or waived at the discretion of the chair. |
Elections
The AGM is where the members decide who their representatives should be. In order that elections can be properly organised, your reps are asking members to stand or nominate colleagues by Monday 3rd March.
If the proposed rules are adopted, members will be electing:
If the proposed rules are adopted, all these reps will form the reps committee overseeing the work of the group, so it is important you have confidence in all the representatives you elect.
If you wish to volunteer or nominate someone else, please do so by Monday 3rd March:
Note that only UNITE members in scope of the Manchester agreements can stand in these elections. Of course, members elsewhere can hold their own meetings to elect representatives.
Electrical safety is a key part of a safe working environment in our industry, and proper testing is central to how this can be achieved.
Fujitsu Services have in place a policy to test all portable electrical equipment at intervals as laid out in mandated policy guidelines. This “Portable Appliance Testing” (PAT testing) can take the form of “Formal Visual Inspection” (FVI) or “Combined Inspection and Test” (CIT).
UNITE Health & Safety reps are working with Fujitsu Services to ensure Policy and Guidelines are adhered to. This has resulted in audits of areas within the Manchester Campus being carried out that have identified large numbers of untested items.
We are working towards ensuring that a proper programme of testing and record keeping operates as soon as possible.
Did you know the Learning Skills Council (LSC) contract was lost last year and that staff are expected to TUPE transfer to Capgemini and Phoenix at the end of March 2008?
There are some 10 or 12 staff affected by this in the Manchester bargaining unit and many more on other sites.
There have already been group presentations, one-to-ones and several meetings with employee representatives. Those in the bargaining unite have the benefit of representation by trained UNITE reps who typically deal with several TUPEs a year.
Last year’s deal and new recognition agreement are already having major benefits for members and non members alike. The consolidation of disturbance allowance into basic pay and the Annex 1 protection for redeployment and redundancy are just two notable examples.
UNITE members have the benefit of individual support and advice from their reps, whether they are in the Manchester bargaining unit or not.
TUPEs happen all the time, so it’s worth making your colleagues aware of the benefits of our recognition agreement and of union membership. LSC shows us TUPE is not academic, we may all be affected by TUPE at any time.
If you’re in scope of the Manchester agreements and are interested in speaking to Union Learning Reps or an adviser from Bury College about personal learning opportunities, please contact your Union Learning Reps (ULRs).
Your ULRs want to know what you want. Please take a few minutes to complete their survey which can be downloaded from CafeVIK.
ULR Pauline Bradburn recently travelled down to parliament to address MPs, including David Lammy (the Minister for Skills in the new Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills) about what we’ve achieved at Fujitsu Manchester in the brief period since the Learning Partnership Agreement was signed.
UNITE reps are helping several groups of staff whose jobs are at risk in Infrastructure Services and Application Services.
The new “Annex 1” agreement is proving extremely valuable in protecting the rights of staff to be told what’s going on, to be given more support and to avoid being dumped into unsuitable jobs.
Not surprisingly, getting the new agreement applied hasn’t always been plain sailing, but there seems a good chance that everyone can either be redeployed into a job they are happy with or be given an acceptable package to leave.
If you think your job might be at risk, or you are left without work to do, please contact your rep as soon as possible for advice. It’s much easier to sort out such situations early on.
Fujitsu uses temporary staff employed through an agency (typically Adecco) both as a recruitment channel and as a cushion to allow the company to deal with fluctuations in work without making permanent employees redundant.
Agency temps don’t have the same employment rights as direct employees and often do not get the same pay and benefits.
UNITE has always pushed for fair treatment for temps and for them to be offered permanent jobs whenever possible.
Our recent Settlement Agreement included a commitment from the company to allow temps access to a grievance procedure within Fujitsu so that issues relating to their relationship with Fujitsu rather than their employer can be resolved.
At Central Park (and a number of other sites) there are now temps who have worked here for two or more years. UNITE reps asked why they hadn’t been offered permanent work.
The company has agreed to look at whether the extra FLEX helpdesk jobs coming to MAN33 would allow people to shuffle around so that temps could be offered permanent jobs. They also agreed to look at one individual particular case more immediately.
UNITE is also campaigning more widely for better rights for temporary and agency workers. The Amicus National Executive Council (NEC) agreed this as a major campaign for 2008. UNITE member Andrew Miller MP is promoting a private members bill in parliament to give equal employment rights to temporary and agency workers. You can find more information about the campaign and how you can help on the union web site.
The company sent out a notice to Manchester Campus staff on Friday afternoon about changes to catering provision.
The company had briefed UNITE reps in confidence about plans to close the MAN35 canteen, but the union argued that staff views should be heard before a decision was taken. Accordingly, the company notice asked for employee views.
Unfortunately the notice asking for views was a masterpiece of spin. It opened “As part of the ongoing improvements to the Manchester Campus catering provision we are proposing to consolidate the service from three outlets to two”. Many people read the notice without realising it meant the closure of the MAN35 canteen.
UNITE reps have a number of concerns, including:
It is clear that many of these concerns are shared by local management.
Please make your own views known through your UNITE rep, your management and to Site Facilities.
Following the passing of the deadline for people to opt-out of Salary Swap, the company has confirmed to UNITE that they are reviewing the scheme prior to the summer election period.
UNITE reps will be writing to the company to seek discussions as part of the review, with the aim of ensuring that the problems with the scheme are ironed out as soon as possible.
Whether you’ve opted out or not, please continue to make your feelings known through your management and HR. The number of people who have already done so has already been instrumental in ensuring that the review will take place.
In our notice of 22nd January we had highlighted a particular issue affecting employees who opted out of salary swap who had previously declined medical benefit. Though UNITE had raised this with the company, they seem to be making the issue worse rather than better at the moment.
HRdirect are telling some (but not all) of those who declined medical benefit that they will be forced to have it if they have opted out of Salary Swap. This means the company is insisting on handing over its own money to AXA PPP for a service the employee doesn’t want and costing the employee extra tax in the process.
It appears that the company is prepared the throw away money in order to try to penalise those who have opted out of Salary Swap.
It is particularly outrageous given that quite a few of those who declined medical benefit did so for ethical reasons (opposition to private healthcare). The facility to decline the benefit has nothing to do with Salary Swap and has been available since medical benefit was first introduced.
No wonder some people are starting to call “Your Choices” “Poor Choices”.
If you had declined medical benefit, please contact your rep for individual advice. The withdrawal of the facility to decline the benefit may be a breach of contract and certainly involves a financial loss.
The guidelines managers across the UK will be using to carry out the 1st April pay review are available on CafeVIK and we encourage all members to read them carefully to help you argue your case with your line manager.
In line with members’ decision at the meeting on 29th November, UNITE did not submit a Manchester pay claim this year, but instead is focussing on ensuring the best possible implementation of the agreements we have already secured.
Though no claim means no formal pay negotiations, this doesn’t mean your reps aren’t meeting management and discussing the issues. We’re pleased to report that the pay scales applying to helpdesk staff in Manchester are being increased.
(The original email notice included these scales)
All helpdesk staff in the Manchester bargaining unit will get an increase of at least £150 per year (pro-rata for part timers).
While these increases are hardly going to bring helpdesk staff into line with Fujitsu Services’ highest paid director, whose package was worth £1.8m last year, it’s worth remembering that this is only the second time that the D1-4 scales have been increased at all since they were introduced nearly a decade ago. Would this have happened without the consolidated disturbance allowance and our extra rise in October?
Your reps have discussed with the company how to deal fairly with the differences in basic pay arising from the consolidation of disturbance allowances.
For helpdesk staff in the bargaining unit, the consolidated disturbance allowances will be completely set aside this year when comparing individual salaries with peers or with pay scales.
For the bargaining unit as a whole, UNITE reps have provided input into additional pay review guidelines for managers, which are intended to ensure that existing agreements are properly taken into account. UNITE has published these additional Manchester guidelines for your reference. The guidelines cover many important points, including how consolidated disturbance allowances will be handled.