Unite Fujitsu News

Manchester: Issues and Reps

With so much going on, your workplace reps have reviewed who is leading on the major issues we are currently working on (there are many smaller ones as well!). If you have a query, you are likely to get a better response and save your reps time if you can go to the relevant reps directly.

Issue	Lead Rep	Other Rep(s)
NHS redundancies	Ian Allinson	Phil Tepper, Ben Ashdown
Other redeployments	Lynne Hodge	Pauline Bradburn, Andy C Smith
Pay and Benefits (including Equal Pay Review)	Jackie Cook	Ian Allinson, Pauline Bradburn
Out Of Hours	Dave Francis	Ian Allinson, Lynne Hodge
Pensions	Dave Francis	Jackie Cook, Ian Allinson
Other issues	Phil Tepper	Jackie Cook

Redundancies

On Friday, Fujitsu declared it was putting 672 staff at risk of redundancy. The company has put all staff who were spending more than 50% of their time on NHS work “at risk”.

Staff briefings have been taking place at a number of locations across the UK today.

The locations most affected are:

· Home-based
· Slough
· Bracknell
· Footscray
· Solihull
· Wakefield
· Stevenage
· Winnersh
· Bristol

There are also smaller numbers at various other locations, including 14 in the Manchester Bargaining Unit. They will benefit from our Manchester “Annex 1” agreement on redeployment and redundancy. Employees right across the UK will benefit from our defence of the Security of Employment Agreement (SEA) last year, and our success in getting the company to commit to applying it elsewhere, which is recorded (under AOB) in the December 2007 UKCF minutes.

The company has set up a redundancy consultation group consisting of eight people. UNITE Manchester is represented on this by Ian Allinson, with Phil Tepper acting as his deputy.

UNITE is campaigning to protect the jobs on two fronts:

• Putting pressure on the government to end the current uncertainty and ensure that whatever supplier or suppliers take over the NHS work take on the Fujitsu staff under a TUPE transfer
• Making sure Fujitsu redeploys staff wherever possible, rather than making them redundant

Reps are confident that the numbers at risk can be brought down significantly, but avoiding all the redundancies could be difficult.

UNITE has already begun briefing MPs, has issued press releases and has asked the company to give employees the day off to lobby parliament to try to bring the uncertainty about future suppliers to an end.

The UNITE online Fujitsu “Redundancy Calculator” has recently been updated to help employees work out what they would get if they were made redundant.

If redundancies can’t be prevented altogether, UNITE will of course be pushing for the company to accept volunteers (and not just from the NHS contract) rather than forcing people out of their jobs.

Salary Swap

When the company launched its “Salary Swap” (salary sacrifice) scheme early this year and updated “Your Choices” accordingly, UNITE warned members about the dangers of the “declaration” the company required people to accept. There were serious concerns about the company gaining new powers to change your benefits.

As part of the UNITE campaign, many of you complained to the company about the way the scheme had been introduced. UNITE reps wrote to senior management suggesting that we work jointly to resolve the issues with PCS union reps and reps on the company’s UK Consultative Forum (UKCF), as they had similar concerns.

It is great news that the company has listened to employee concerns and, following a discussion with reps from UNITE, PCS and the UKCF, a revised declaration has been produced.

Well done to everyone who took part in the campaign.

Resolving the issues with the declaration means that in the summer “election period” employees will be able take decisions about the pros and cons of Salary Swap and which benefits they want without fearing that they are undermining their contractual rights.

UNITE reps are continuing to encourage the company to address a number of other areas where the scheme could be improved. We can so far report that the company will continue to allow people to refuse medical benefit whether or not they join Salary Swap.

A new “election period” for Your Choices is expected to take place from 23rd June to 25th July. The company plans to allow you to buy or sell up to five days holiday instead of the previous limit of three, and is also introducing health screening options.

NHS, Job Security, Bonus, Pay

Employees across the country have been contacting UNITE reps to discuss their concerns about the termination of the main NHS contract and the subsequent withdrawal of bonuses.

The most important concern is job security for the 1000+ people who were working on the account. At present it is far from clear what the consequences will be, but UNITE will be monitoring the situation as it develops. If you are a member in this group, please keep your local reps informed to make sure you get any support you need.

Employees are generally unhappy about the poor communication from management about the current situation.

Bonus & Pay

Cancellation of bonuses, coming on top of a miserly pay review, means most employees will get paid less this year than last – at a time when prices are rising fast.

Feedback from employees so far has highlighted the following key points:

• Many cannot afford a cut in income, particularly the lower paid.
• Bonuses are worth far less than decent pay rises. They aren’t reliable, they aren’t consolidated to form the basis for future rises, and they don’t count towards pension, redundancy pay, overtime etc.
• Those receiving tax credits and state benefits are worried about losing out twice, as tax credits are normally calculated annually and won’t automatically rise to take account of reduced income.
• We are being made to pay for problems not of our making.
• A pay rise (cut?) followed by no bonus is extremely de-motivating.

Many people have been asking what the union is going to do about the cut in our income. But of course the members are the union so it is up to you to decide.

One option is to campaign for an additional pay rise this year. The logic behind this is:

• The company took the loss from the NHS contract in last year’s accounts
• The bonus would have been funded from last year’s accounts
• The company says its underlying business performance is very strong, and that there will be no impact from the NHS contract on future company results
• The cost of an additional pay rise would come from the accounts in this and future years
• A pay rise would offset the loss of bonus this year, and help address our poor rates of pay in the longer term
• Employees need some good news to raise morale, performance and productivity

There is no point launching a campaign for an additional pay rise unless the campaign is going to attract widespread active support and participation – essential to have a reasonable prospect of success.

Your reps are therefore asking you to let us know either:

A) I am prepared to put up with the loss of bonus

Or

B) I would help campaign for an additional pay rise

Your reps will be able to review the responses and take an informed view about whether this is the right approach and what sort of campaign is appropriate and realistic.

The original notice invited members to email this article on to a few Fujitsu friends or colleagues who aren’t in the union yet, so that they can also express their views? They are just as affected by the issues and their views will help your reps build up a fuller picture.