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
…or just join of course!
Pay Freeze
Since Monday, when the company announced that the 1st April Fujitsu Services pay review “will no longer happen”, employee representatives have pressed the company for a proper explanation and justification. One has not been forthcoming.
So far representatives are told:
UNITE, PCS and UKCF reps are all telling the company that if there is a genuine reason for the pay freeze, the company should spell it out. Otherwise, our senior management risk looking like a bunch of greedy bankers.
Employees would no doubt be more understanding of the decision if we had had good pay rises when the economy was booming. Instead, this comes after years of below-inflation pay rises and the cancellation of last year’s bonus before the healthy profits were announced.
Even where the company has concluded formal pay deals with UNITE and PCS, the company still plans to impose the pay freeze. So much for “straight talking” and “keeping promises”. Perhaps some of our senior management need some remedial “Reputation” training.
Not only does the pay freeze threaten our ability to pay our bills, it also raises wider concerns. If employees don’t make clear that holding our pay down without justification is not on, will senior management be tempted to come back for more – threatening our pensions, redundancy terms, “out of hours” entitlements or other terms and conditions? If employees don’t make clear that breaking pay agreements isn’t on, which agreement will they be after next?
UNITE and PCS have launched an online petition against the pay freeze:
www.ipetitions.com/petition/FJpay2009
If you want to send a message to the company that an unjustified pay freeze is wrong, please:
1. Sign the online petition
2. Talk to your workmates about the pay freeze
3. Wear your pass on a UNITE “Fair Pay” lanyard and ask your workmates to do the same (contact your rep for a handful)
4. Ask your colleagues to join UNITE
5. Pass on this email to friends and colleagues in Fujitsu who may be interested, and ask them to sign the petition too
6. Tell your reps how you get on and any ideas you have for the campaign
This issue doesn’t only concern union members, so it really is important that you talk to your colleagues and pass on this email, but please don’t send it to huge lists – we don’t want you getting in trouble!
Thanks to the members who packed today’s UNITE Fujitsu Manchester Annual General Meeting.
Impact of the Recession
The recession is very serious, and there are a range of responses to it from employers and employees in different workplaces and countries:
There is restructuring in the industry, including in the Fujitsu Group, as companies try to position themselves ready to take best advantage of any economic recovery.
Fujitsu Services currently appears relatively well placed to weather the recession, with a high proportion of long and public sector contracts. The worst impact is being felt in the private sector. The mix of work in Manchester currently appears good from a job security point of view.
Fujitsu says it isn’t currently planning any large-scale redundancies, but the future of the NHS contract is again coming to a head and Footscray is threatened with closure.
There are less than a dozen people in the Manchester bargaining unit whose jobs are currently at risk, and none of these people are currently at risk of redundancy dismissal, though Reps expect this to change shortly. None of these job losses are due to the recession.
The Annex 1 agreement secured in 2007 has served us well, saving a number of jobs.
The wider economic context shapes the company’s behaviour, as well as our own views and expectations. Our UNITE branch has been active in trying to shape this, both by supporting other workplaces fighting to defend jobs, and by initiating the “Greater Manchester Resisting Recession” campaigning coalition of trade unionists and other groups.
UNITE is organising transport to Saturday’s demonstration before the G20 summit, where world leaders will discuss their response to the economic crisis.
Reps’ Reports
Workplace Reps have dealt with lots of issues over the last year, as well as getting the new agreements more settled in. The issues included:
Learning Reps have arranged for around 60 staff to start some sort of learning. They have been particularly busy in Customer Services, promoting NVQs (National Vocational Qualifications). The workplace library in the MAN34 canteen was launched on World Book Day. Plans are in place to have training providers involved in this year’s Learning At Work Day event. The Learning Reps would welcome your views on what learning/training you would like.
Health & Safety Reps have carried out further inspections, which have had real benefits such as identifying a fire exit that could not be opened. This resulted in the company repairing a number of doors and putting in place regular checks. H&S Reps were also encouraging the company to put in place proper risk assessments. For example, there have not been proper electrical safety tests (e.g. Portable Appliance Testing), which had recently been further highlighted by an incident.
H&S Reps had taken up the issues with ice in the car park and the resulting accidents. The company is pushing to use a computer-based scheme for workstation (Display Screen Equipment) assessments. Despite claims to the contrary, there was no consultation over this. Staff are encouraged to discuss any issues with their H&S Reps. Members believed it was unacceptable that the company did not have proper risk assessments or checks in place. This area seems to get a lot less focus than for example time-sheet completion. The company should be carrying out risk assessments for stress, but denies that it is an issue.
The Environment Rep was a new role for us last year. The Reps had made some progress on most of the points in the motion agreed last year. They had organised a showing of Al Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Truth” and a discussion, run a competition to raise awareness of the power use of various electrical equipment. The Environment Reps plan a competition to raise awareness of what goes in the different waste bins. There is a risk that people neglect environmental issues in a recession, but reducing waste has the potential to save money.
The Equality Rep was also a new role for us in 2008. The aim is to fight all forms of discrimination, bullying and harassment. The Equality Reps have started producing newsletter articles to raise awareness. The new Equality Bill will have a considerable impact. There are also many other legal changes, such as the extension of the right to request flexible working to parents of children up to the age of 16, and new rules on parental leave.
Pay
There was a good discussion about the pay freeze. UNITE reps have been pressing for a proper justification for the announcement. A (confidential) letter from the company in response to that was circulated, but members felt that it provided little or nothing.
Indications from the company are that financial results for 2008-9 should be broadly on target, providing the rest of the year goes OK. The company says the concerns are about 2009-10.
A number of people are trying to justify the company decision by hinting at all sorts of reasons and financial predictions, but it seems very unlikely that these have any factual basis.
The win-rate of new business is down, but the company has not suggested that the pay freeze will help this. Likewise, the company is not suggesting that any saving from the pay freeze would be used to protect jobs by carrying a larger “bench” through a dip.
The company intends to use profits from 2009-10 to improve its cash position and to make payments to Tokyo.
The lack of information and explanation from the company is deeply unsatisfactory. It is possible that the position will become clearer after the QMM later this week.
The pay issue affects people across the country, but in Manchester there was the additional factor that imposing the pay freeze broke our pay deal. Members felt that it was important that broken promises had consequences.
There was also a concern that if the pay freeze was accepted without any real justification, the company might be tempted to come back for more – seeking to worsen other terms and conditions, benefits etc.
Members agreed the following motion:
|
On 23rd March the company announced its decision to stop the 1st April 2009 pay review, without adequate explanation or any consultation, let alone agreement. In the absence of a detailed justification, employees can only assume that the company is trying to take advantage of the recession to increase its profits at our expense. The company did not share the benefits with employees when the company performed better than expected last year and we believe that the company should have treated 2009 as an opportunity for employees to begin to catch up after many years of below-inflation pay increases. The company has been telling employees in recent months that the recession will generate more outsourcing business and that Fujitsu Services’ financial position remains strong. The company has not provided any evidence to suggest that this situation has changed. The company made a pay offer for Manchester staff on 13th February, UNITE members voted on it and UNITE accepted the offer in good faith on 20th February. We resolve: 1) To censure the company for breaking the agreement |
There was a discussion about the campaign, which needs to start quickly, but be flexible because we recognise that the situation could change.
UNITE and PCS unions are intending to launch a national online petition in the very near future.
Members can help by:
Review of Group Rules
No changes were proposed.
Reps had intended to propose a change to elect some of the workplace reps from constituencies (e.g. Capability Units), but believed that the necessary work to prepare for this, by both UNITE and the company, was not sufficiently advanced at this stage.
Reps Elections
The following were elected:
| Candidate | Workplace | Learning | Health & Safety | Environmental | Equality |
| Alan Child |
|
| Y |
|
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| Andy C Smith | Y |
| Y |
|
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| Ben Ashdown | Y |
|
|
|
|
| Colin Robinson |
|
| Y |
|
|
| Darren Cox |
|
| Y | Y |
|
| Dave Francis | Y |
|
|
|
|
| Dave Parkinson |
|
| Y |
|
|
| Dean Burn | Y | Y |
|
|
|
| Denise Roberts |
| Y |
|
|
|
| Dennis Morris |
|
| Y |
|
|
| Helen Clayson |
|
| Y | Y |
|
| Ian Allinson | Y |
| Y |
|
|
| Isabel Hay | Y |
|
|
| Y |
| Jackie Cook | Y |
|
|
|
|
| Jay Lieberman |
|
| Y | Y |
|
| Kevin M Davies |
|
| Y |
|
|
| Lynne Hodge | Y |
| Y |
|
|
| Michael Thomas | Y |
|
|
|
|
| Michelle Whittle | Y |
|
|
|
|
| Pauline Bradburn | Y | Y |
|
|
|
| Phil Tepper | Y |
| Y |
|
|
| Rama Reddy Nallamilli |
| Y |
|
|
|
| Sajana Patel |
| Y |
|
|
|
| Steve Gibson |
|
| Y | Y |
|
| Teresa Meyer |
| Y |
|
| Y |
| TOTAL: 25 | 12 | 6 | 13 | 4 | 2 |
The company recognise only 11 workplace reps, plus deputies. The 12 workplace reps elected will decide between them who will be a deputy.
Any Other Business
Given the fact that many people had had to stand for the duration of the meeting, it was agreed that the MAN35 canteen would be a suitable alternative venue for future meetings.
Members recorded a vote of thanks to the Reps for their work over the last 12 months.
Your Reps are working on reorganising tomorrow’s AGM to allow plenty of time to discuss the pay freeze. The meeting is for all UNITE members in the Fujitsu Manchester bargaining unit:
2pm-3:30pm, Wednesday 25th March
MAN34, conference rooms 34GCR1 & 34GCR2
Members are entitled to attend in work time. If your manager might need to arrange cover for your work while you are at the meeting, please ask them to confirm your release now.
Revised Agenda
The revised agenda is:
1. Job security
2. Reps’ Reports
3. Pay - Including motion (see below)
4. Review of Group Rules - No changes proposed
5. Election of Reps
The original email included the text of a proposed motion on the pay freeze.
If you wish to propose any amendments, please let your reps know in advance of the meeting if possible, so that the meeting can be well organised.
Reps nominations
At the AGM, members will elect Reps for the coming year. Below is a list of the nominations received so far. To save paper, the election statements will not be printed in the pack distributed at the meeting itself.
A big thank you to those of our Reps who have served over the last year but are not standing for re-election:
This morning’s announcement that the 1st April Fujitsu Services pay review “will no longer happen” has shocked employees.
The decision was justified on grounds of the current economic downturn, but no specifics were given about the impact on Fujitsu Services.
Many employers in genuine difficulties are seeking to sustain profits by pushing the costs of the recession onto their employees. Many other employers who are not in trouble are trying to take advantage of the recession to push through attacks on pay, jobs and terms and conditions. It is not clear at this stage which category this Fujitsu Services decision falls into.
When in 2008 the company results proved to be much better than expected, management didn’t suddenly increase our pay rises. Our pay seems to behave in the opposite way to petrol prices – when the oil price goes up, petrol prices rise rapidly, but when the oil price comes down, the price at the pump falls much more slowly.
It is interesting how unclear the announcement is on several points, which could be because it is intended to “test the reaction” from employees before decisions are taken, for example on the scope and length of the pay freeze.
For example, the announcement says that the company will “review all situations on a case by case basis”, but HR are verbally telling reps that the decision will also affect people covered by collective bargaining – even where a pay deal has already been agreed!
Please talk to your reps about how you feel about the pay freeze and how you would like to respond.
It is important that you feed your views in to your reps. Your UNITE reps will be liaising with colleagues from the PCS union and discussing how we should respond.
By coincidence, members in the Manchester bargaining unit will have the opportunity to discuss the issue at their Annual General Meeting (2-3:30pm, Wednesday 25th March, MAN34 conference rooms GCR1&2). The Manchester reps’ position is that the company should honour the pay deal unless members agree otherwise. Members at the AGM will discuss whether to change this position or how to ensure the company complies with it.
Pass It On
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
…or just join of course!
The Fujitsu Manchester UNITE group will be holding its Annual General Meeting (AGM):
2pm-3:30pm, Wednesday 25th March
MAN34, conference rooms 34GCR1 & 2
This is an important meeting for all UNITE members in the Manchester bargaining unit. If you have received this email, then according to UNITE’s records this means you.
Members are entitled to attend in work time. If your manager might need to arrange cover for your work while you are at the meeting, please ask them to confirm your release now. If you have any difficulty securing release, please contact a rep as soon as possible. If you leave it to the last minute, your reps may be unable to help.
The agenda will include discussion on:
If you have items you want on the agenda, or a motion you would like members to discuss, please send it to your reps by Wednesday 18th March.
To see an electronic copy of our latest paper one-per-desk leaflet on CafeVik, click here (a local version is here).
Fujitsu has recently created some jobs in IS Shared Services in Manchester, providing NHS support. These opportunities were highlighted to Manchester employees on the HMRC contract. Although this was welcome news, these roles could potentially transfer to another employer if the contract for NHS support goes elsewhere, as is possible in the near future.
Fujitsu could offer no guarantees that people taking on these roles might not find themselves in scope for “TUPE” transfer out of Fujitsu. Members on HMRC were keen to take advantage of the opportunities but reluctant to do so while the possibility of transfer remained.
UNITE reps discussed the issue with management, suggesting a solution which enabled the vacancies to be filled while protecting employees from coming into TUPE scope. The outcome is that the company has now made a number of roles available on a secondment basis, in such a way that no-one taking them on will work more than 40% of their time on the NHS, meaning they would not be in scope to TUPE out even if the contract transfers. A good result for all concerned!
Greater Manchester Resisting Recession
A motion from our own UNITE branch, which was then adopted by Manchester TUC, UNITE’s Manchester Area and a range of other bodies, has led to the creation of a new alliance – “Greater Manchester Resisting Recession” – to campaign against the effects of the recession on ordinary people:
1. Job losses, unemployment and poverty
2. Repossessions and evictions
3. Scapegoating people (e.g. benefit claimants, ethnic minorities, asylum seekers) for these problems and attempts by the BNP to capitalise on this
The group aims to involve trade unionists, community groups, tenants associations, anti-poverty campaigns, housing and homelessness campaigns, anti-racist groups etc. The initial organising meeting took place last week with participants from many nine different unions as well as other organisations.
Put People First – 28th March 2009
The G20 summit in London at the start of April will bring together the leaders of the 20 most powerful countries to discuss the response to the recession.
The decisions taken at this meeting will affect us all for years to come and G20 leaders are being lobbied from all directions.
UNITE, other unions, the TUC and a huge range of other organisations from Tradecraft to Compass, Greenpeace to the Muslim Council of Britain and Defend Council Housing to the World Wildlife Fund have come together to call a demonstration on 28th March under the slogan:
Put People First: Jobs, Justice, Climate
UNITE is providing free transport for members and their friends and family to travel to the demonstration. A UNITE coach will leave from the union’s Prestwich office at 6am on the day. If you want to book places, please email us giving the names of the people going. To ensure a place, book by the end of this week if at all possible.
If this transport is not appropriate for you, please get in touch anyway and UNITE will try to make other arrangements.
For more information about the demonstration, see:
http://www.putpeoplefirst.org.uk/
http://www.unitetheunion.com/campaigns/put_people_first_marc_for_jo.aspx
Continuing our regular inspections of the Manchester Campus, the Unite Health & Safety reps (with the help of Site Facilities) inspected the Fire Doors and Fire Escapes of all three buildings and the external areas of the campus on Friday 27th February.
The full inspection results have not yet been published, but will appear on the “Amicus The Union” CafeVIK community.
However, the inspection has an immediate and dramatic benefit to the safety of staff.
The inspection found that two of the push-bar fire escapes could not be opened without a great deal of force, and that two others did not open freely. Site Facilities report that these have now been dismantled and serviced, and there will now be a monthly check by maintenance staff to ensure there is no repetition of this problem.
Friday 27th February was also “Work Your Proper Hours Day”. Over five million people at work in the UK regularly do unpaid overtime, giving their employers £26.9 billion of free work every year. If you're one, why not take some time to reflect on how well (or badly) you're balancing your life?
Long hours are not good for us; they cause stress; they're bad for our health; they wreck relationships; they make caring for children or dependants more difficult; and tired, burnt-out staff are bad for business
At the AGM, members will be electing:
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 Friday 20th March:
1) The member making the nomination needs to send us an email saying who they are nominating and for which position(s) (i.e. Workplace Rep, Health & Safety Rep, Union Learning Rep, Equality Rep or Environmental Rep).
2) The nominee / volunteer needs to send an email including some information:
a) Which position(s) they are standing for (i.e. Workplace Rep, Health & Safety Rep, Union Learning Rep, Equality Rep or Environmental Rep)
b) Name
c) Work phone numbers - internal & external
d) Site and area (e.g. MAN35-2-East)
e) Department (e.g. Sirius)
f) Optionally, a statement of NO MORE THAN 100 WORDS which would encourage people to vote for you. [Previous examples are available on request]
Note that only UNITE members in scope of the Manchester agreements can stand in these elections. If you have received this email, UNITE believes this includes you. Of course, members elsewhere can hold their own meetings to elect representatives.
Managers are now implementing the pay review for staff in the Manchester bargaining unit, on the basis of the pay offer members accepted and the instructions for pay planning managers.
Ninety-four managers and HR took part in a phone conference on 6th March with Larry Upton (Fujitsu Services Employee Relations Manager) and Ian Allinson (UNITE senior rep) to answer any questions about implementation. A drop-in session for managers is planned for today.
So what can you do to make sure you get the best possible pay review:
To help you work out the rise you should automatically get from the deal, UNITE has prepared a “ready reckoner” spreadsheet for the 2009 Manchester pay deal. Don’t forget this is the least you should get – with management discretion and promotions on top. It’s had some testing already, but if you think you’ve found an error, please let your reps know.
Some of the key points that have come back from employees and managers so far include:
The company has made clear that it would like to “harmonise” terms and conditions for what it calls “Out Of Hours”.
Infrastructure Services (IS) are using “Interim Guidelines” for many people who join or transfer in. If these are anything to go by, we should all be on the look-out for a “levelling down”.
If you are offered any new contract, policy or working practice around Out Of Hours, please seek advice from your UNITE rep straight away – regardless of whether the change has any immediate financial impact on you. A contract change could be something you have to live with for years to come and could have consequences you don’t realise at the time.
The company has not consulted UNITE about using the IS Interim Guidelines for people in the Manchester bargaining unit. The company decided not to start such consultation – perhaps the response would have been too predictable. The result is that nobody in the bargaining unit should be put on this third-rate set of terms and conditions. If you are aware of any attempt to do so, please contact a rep immediately.
A significant proportion of employees will have a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) at some time in their careers.
If a PIP really is a plan to improve performance, perhaps including extra training and support, this can be genuinely helpful. Unfortunately PIPs are often used as a kind of half-baked disciplinary process, measuring failure rather than ensuring success.
Some PIPs are being used utterly inappropriately, for example a PIP for an employee who turned up less than one minute late on just one occasion!
Some PIPs impose higher standards on an individual than are required by their contract or those expected of their colleagues. The danger is that the individual is then disciplined for “failing” the PIP, when the alleged “offence” itself would never have warranted disciplinary action.
PIPs exist to help a manager to manage, and to help staff to improve. They are not intended to be used as a punishment. If you are being threatened with a PIP for a trivial incident, contact your Reps at once. It’s better to challenge an unfair PIP straight away, rather than waiting for the situation to escalate to disciplinary action.
Today’s “World Book Day” event, run by UNITE’s Union Learning Reps in the MAN34 canteen, attracted a lot of interest from staff.
One aspect of the event was the launch of our new “workplace library”, available to all staff. Why not pop along and take a look at the selection on the trolley in the canteen and see what you fancy borrowing. If you have some spare books, why not donate a few?
UNITE also has a separate library of industrial relations publications which is invaluable if you want some information about any workplace issue. Contact a rep if you want to take a look.
As the recession bites, workers unfortunate enough to be on temporary contracts are often the first to suffer. The UK has a particularly high proportion of workers employed through agencies, giving them far worse employment protection than those employed directly.
UNITE is campaigning for European and UK legislation to give greater protection to temporary and agency workers, central to which is a new EU Directive.
Closer to home, The North-West TUC is running a campaign on the issue, and have set up a web site:
http://www.fairtoagencyworkers.org/
Our own efforts to protect temps here at Fujitsu are recognised in the “good practice” section. Over the last few months UNITE has again been pressing the company to offer permanent jobs to a number of long-serving temps in the MAN35 helpdesks.
A recent story on MSN Money about how Fujitsu got rid of temps in Liverpool shows how much work remains to be done.
With almost every news bulletin bringing fresh news of job losses across the economy, the recession is the central issue affecting working people.
UNITE members at Waterford Crystal have been occupying their plant in protest at plans to close it. One of the strikers is in Manchester this week and has agreed to come and speak at our branch meeting tonight. Why not come along, hear about their campaign and show your support?
UNITE’s Greater Manchester IT branch meets:
5:30-7pm, Thursday 5th March
MAN34, conference room 34GCR2
All branch members are welcome to attend. As well as our guest speaker, there will be time to discuss workplace issues and other union matters.
Following the decision by members to accept the company’s pay offer for the Manchester bargaining unit, work is proceeding to ensure it is properly implemented.
UNITE reps have worked with the company to produce a set of instructions for pay planning managers to help make it as easy as possible. A phone conference and a drop-in session are also being organised to deal with any questions they may have.
If you haven’t already put your case to your manager for a big rise, please do so without delay, before they finalise their decisions. It’s worth preparing properly for such discussions, which includes reading the agreement and the instructions your manager will be working to. Why not have another look at the guidance for members in our 10th February newsletter?