November 29, 2011

Wakefield: 30th November day of action

As you will no doubt be aware, tomorrow will see the biggest strike in a generation by public sector workers across Health, Education (schools, colleges & universities) and Local & Central Government over cuts to pension provision.

As Wakefield House is shared with the NHS PPA, we have been told that there will be a Unison picket at the building.

Whilst Fujitsu staff are not striking, all trade unionists rely on unity and solidarity to achieve their goals, and the tradition of respecting picket lines and not crossing them is central to this. Fujitsu has prepared a statement which says:

“we recognise that some Fujitsu employees may not wish to cross a picket line, may wish to arrive at work later than normal, may need to make alternative childcare arrangements or may wish to take annual leave on the 30th November. In any of these situations it is essential that employees notify their line manager of such an intent no later than 23rd November to ensure appropriate arrangements can be made. Please note, I cannot guarantee that all requests will be accepted as managers will be required to ensure services are provided as usual but we will be flexible where it is viable.”

The media is full of misinformation about public sector pensions. UNITE has produced an excellent leaflet aimed at private sector workers to explain the issues, as well as a poster you can display to show your support.

Please show your support if you see the picket and, if you can manage it, there’s a March and Rally starting from the Vine Tree Pub Car Park, 82 Leeds Road with the Rally at Cathedral Precincts.

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Reorganisation

Many employees have now received individual email notices from the company telling them where the company is allocating them as a result of the reorganisation.

The company notice does not highlight the deadline should you wish to query where you have been placed, which is just FIVE working days from receipt of the notice. The appeal process is here:
http://sites.cafevik.fs.fujitsu.com/sites/01006/sitefiles/generic_downloads/HeadcountAlignmentAppealsProcess.docx

UNITE has already pointed out to the company that the proposed timescales in the current version are nonsensical, as you have to raise your formal appeal before receiving the response to your initial query with your line manager. We hope this will be corrected promptly.

If you have any concerns with where you have been allocated, please make sure you raise them before the deadlines.

A list of local UNITE reps and contacts is here:
http://www.ourunion.org.uk/fujitsu/wheretogo.htm.

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Xmas Meals

Employees were pleased to see the recent announcement from Duncan Tait, which stated performance this year is on track so far, and that there is an allowance of £25 per head for all employees towards the Christmas celebrations.

Quite rightly, managers in areas where agency temps are working, such as Service Desks, have decided that temps should benefit too. However, instead of allocating £25 each, Fujitsu plans to share the money from the permanent employees amongst all the staff, so everyone in these areas gets less.

The parts of the company with most agency temps (and who will therefore get least) – Service Desks, Engineering Services and Supply & Lifecycle Services – are also those with high concentrations of low paid staff.

The extra cost of giving all the few hundred temps the same £25 for an Xmas meal would probably be comparable to the car allowance for one senior manager.

It would be a real shame if the company allowed a scrooge-like attitude to the lowest paid to spoil what is otherwise a welcome gesture.

In some parts of the business concerns are also being raised that the £25 is only being paid if people attend an “official” Xmas party, but some of these parties are organised in such a way that they are unaffordable or impractical for many staff to attend.

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Manchester Members' Meeting 20th December 2011

There will be a lunchtime members’ meeting for UNITE members in the Manchester bargaining unit:

12:00-13:00, Tuesday 20th December
Conference room 34GCR2
The agenda will be:
  1. Update on dispute / negotiations
  2. Nomination of candidates for the UNITE Executive Council
  3. Election of additional reps

Please note that this meeting has been organised for lunchtime, not work time. You are welcome to bring your lunch.

If you are on a fixed lunch break that does not coincide with the time of the meeting, please ask your manager now to make arrangements so that you can attend. If you have any difficulty arranging the time to attend, please contact your reps promptly.

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Manchester: Arrangements for November 30th

Tomorrow millions of union members working in public services will be taking part in a day of action against cuts and privatisation of our public services and striking over the government’s plan to make them work longer and pay more for lower pensions. Please show them your support, just as so many people gave us solidarity when we needed it.

Manchester TUC has published a list of local workplaces where pickets are planned. While the list is undoubtedly incomplete, it should give you some ideas if you want to visit a picket line on your way to work to show your support. The list includes One Central Park, next door to MAN33, the old MAN05 building on Wenlock Way, and the council depot on Grimshaw Lane from which so many vehicles hoot their support whenever we are protesting outside Central Park.

If you are available during the day, you could join in the TUC march and rally:

  • March assembles 11.00am on Liverpool Road, near Castlefield, off Deansgate, marching off at 11:30am. Salford feeder march assembles 10.30am, Bexley Square, Chapel St M3 6BZ. Education feeder march assembles 10:30 am, All Saints M15 6BH. Assembly point for disabled people attending: University Place, opposite Manchester Museum, M13 9PL 12.15pm.
  • Rally at 12.30 at Whitworth Park, opposite Manchester Royal Infirmary. The nationwide shout, calling for pensions justice, is at 1.00pm.

After the TUC rally there will be a “Unite the Resistance” meeting at around 1:30pm in the Kora Bar (formerly Saki), 2 Wilmslow Road, M14 5TP (on Corner with Moss Lane East, by Whitworth Park).

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November 25, 2011

Alan Jenney

Your reps have received the following statement on Alan Jenney following yesterday’s meeting:

“The parties have successfully resolved the position of Mr Jenney through the services of ACAS to both parties’ satisfaction”

Thanks to Alan for all the work he did on behalf of Fujitsu employees.

As a result of Alan having left Fujitsu, there is a vacancy on UNITE’s Combine Committee for the North-West region (not including the Manchester bargaining unit).

There are three seats for the North-West – the other two are held by Isabel Hay (WAR08) and Robert (Wilf) Williams (CRE02).

Combine Committee members are expected to:

  • Encourage members in their constituency to hold meetings, elect reps and get involved at a local level
  • Seek views from members, reps and contacts in their constituency
  • Work together as a team
  • Maximise members’ involvement in decision making
  • Take part in combine committee discussions and decision-making
  • Report back to members, reps and contacts in their constituency
  • Coordinate with reps and contacts in their constituency, including encouraging them to undertake training and gain accreditation
  • Liaise with the union full-time officers covering Fujitsu in their constituency

If you would like to stand for the vacant seat, please contact your reps by 13th December including:
  • Your name
  • Your contractual base location
  • Your work email address (and private email address if you have one)
  • Your work phone number (and a mobile number if you have one)
  • An election statement of up to 100 words (examples are available on request)

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November 24, 2011

Northern Ireland: November 30 – Day Of Action

On Wednesday the 30th of November, many public sector union members will be taking strike action to defend pensions and opposing cuts in the public sector.

UNITE’s communication on the 21st of November highlighted the importance of showing support and solidarity to public sector struggle: we believe in an alternative to trimming public services, and together, private and public workers should voice this alternative.

We encourage all Fujitsu UNITE members to take part in the rally either by booking a ½ day or by taking long lunch break (bear in mind all such activity needs to be agreed in advance).

The meeting point in Belfast is at the Central Railway Station at 12. We will then walk toward the City Hall and join other protesters.

If you intend to join in, please notify your manager as soon as possible to arrange time off. You can also let your local reps (see below) know, as banners and placards will be organised.

Local UNITE reps and contacts are listed here: http://www.ourunion.org.uk/fujitsu/wheretogo.htm

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November 21, 2011

Crewe Members’ Meeting Today

Please remember there is a Lunchtime Members’ Meeting in Crewe today to discuss the Unite – Fujitsu negotiations:

Monday 21st November
12.30pm – 1.30pm, prompt start
Conference room CR 0-3, CRE02 (behind reception)

Please encourage all members you know to attend. Please make arrangements with your manager in advance for cover whilst you attend the meeting if this is necessary.

Agenda:

  • Results of UNITE’s negotiations with the company
  • Decision on whether to proceed with the re-ballot
  • Any Other Business

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New Agreement

On Thursday members in Manchester voted to accept Fujitsu’s “offer 2”, which covers a range of local and national issues.

A copy of the resulting agreement is here.

This agreement means that the suspension of the current industrial action continues until 20th January 2012 while work continues in pursuit of a full settlement. The key points of the agreement from a national perspective are:

  1. The first conciliation meeting for Alan Jenney is due on 24th November.
  2. The form of the FJUK pension consultation body has not been finalised, but a timetable is included.
  3. The new statement on the contractual status of Defined Contribution pensions would give significantly better protection for employees, but is a little disappointing on the secondary issues of Permanent Health Insurance (PHI) and Life Assurance. This will be published within a week if the dispute is settled by 20th January.
  4. Fujitsu will consult UNITE in Manchester about the “interim guidelines” for Out Of Hours (overtime, shift, standby, callout), which could have an impact on this issue nationally. No more people in the Manchester bargaining unit will be put on these terms, and many of those who already have been will be put onto more appropriate terms.
  5. A new facilities agreement (Annex 2) would significantly cut the time Manchester reps Ian Allinson, Lynne Hodge and Phil Tepper can spend on behalf of members, but would also allow more members to become reps and allow reps outside Manchester to do more. This would come into effect if the dispute is settled by 20th January.
  6. The first national meeting with Fujitsu for over a year is scheduled for today.

If you’d be willing to be a UNITE rep or contact for your site/area, please get in touch.

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30th November Day of Action

UNITE members in public services including health, education and local authorities have voted by around 75% for strike action in defence of their pensions. The pensions strike on 30th November is part of much a much wider day of action against the cuts which are impacting on all the services the public relies on.

The media is full of misinformation about public sector pensions. UNITE has produced an excellent leaflet aimed at private sector workers to explain the issues, as well as a poster you can display to show your support.

As a result of the new agreement, Fujitsu staff are not striking on 30th November. However, many of us often work on sites where staff will be striking and there may well be picket lines. All trade unionists rely on unity and solidarity to achieve their goals, and the tradition of respecting picket lines and not crossing them is central to this. Fujitsu has prepared a statement which says:

“we recognise that some Fujitsu employees may not wish to cross a picket line, may wish to arrive at work later than normal, may need to make alternative childcare arrangements or may wish to take annual leave on the 30th November. In any of these situations it is essential that employees notify their line manager of such an intent no later than 23rd November to ensure appropriate arrangements can be made. Please note, I cannot guarantee that all requests will be accepted as managers will be required to ensure services are provided as usual but we will be flexible where it is viable.”

Wherever you are on 30th November, members should be careful that they are not being taken advantage of to undermine industrial action being taken by other trade unionists.

If you have any annual leave left, can you take a day off and go to show your support for the day of action? UNITE’s web site includes a map with details of events all over the country.

Even if you can’t make it along to one of the events, you could still pop along to a picket line on your way to work to show your support.

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November 18, 2011

Report from Manchester Members' Meeting

Thanks to all the members who attended today’s members’ meeting.

Members voted unanimously to reject offer 1, and unanimously to accept offer 2. The resulting agreement is here.

Amongst other things, this means that the suspension of industrial action continues until 20th January 2012. Members will be keeping a close eye on implementation during that period, as concerns about delays remain.

The new “Annex 2” agreement on reps’ “facility time” to work on behalf of employees would come into effect if UNITE ends the industrial action by 20th January 2012. Annex 2 would reduce the time available for Ian Allinson, Lynne Hodge and Phil Tepper, but remove the limit on the number of Manchester workplace reps and help reps elsewhere in the country to do more on issues and tasks which relate to members both inside and outside Manchester.

In the meantime, members unanimously elected the following as additional Deputy Workplace Reps:

  1. Christopher Jones
  2. David Bradwell (focussing on administrative support)
  3. Gavin Morrison (focussing on WINTEL Out Of Hours)
  4. John Lacey (focussing on Marketing redundancies)
  5. Phil Morris (focussing on WINTEL Out Of Hours issue)

Our Recognition Agreement allows members who are considering becoming reps to undertake the necessary training, so if you are interested, please get in touch as soon as possible to help minimise the impact of the new arrangements on the quality of your representation.

The acceptance of the offer means that we will not be striking on 30th November. Members were encouraged to show their support for both the public sector pensions strike and the wider day of action against cuts taking place on that day. For example, you could:

  1. Talk to colleagues and friends to dispel some of the misinformation in the media
  2. Visit a picket-line before work
  3. Book the day off and join one of the rallies and marches planned for the day

A collection for the strikers raised £100.

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MEMBERS’ MEETINGS

Manchester:

1:30-3:30pm, Thursday 17th November
MAN35 canteen

Members are entitled to attend this meeting in work time. If your manager might need to arrange cover for while you attend, it is important that you ask them now to confirm your release. If you have any difficulty securing release, please contact your rep immediately. If you leave this until the last minute, reps may not be able to resolve this for you.

The agenda will include:

  1. Pay review 2011 implementation issues
  2. Company offers
  3. Decision on whether to accept either company offer or to resume industrial action
  4. 30th November day of action
  5. Discussion on action plans (if the offers are rejected)
  6. Election of reps
  7. Any Other Business (notified in advance)
Crewe:

12:30-1:30pm, Monday 21st November
CR 0-3, CRE02

Agenda:

  • Results of UNITE’s negotiations with the company
  • Decision on whether to proceed with the re-ballot
  • Any Other Business

Please do your utmost to attend these meetings, which will have important decisions to take.

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Greater Manchester IT Branch Meetings

As usual, the UNITE Greater Manchester IT Branch has agreed to buy a batch of UNITE diaries for members who want one. As well as being a handy diary, and helping raise the profile of your union, the diary contains useful information.

If you would like a 2012 UNITE diary, please let your reps know as soon as possible. If there is an unusually large number of requests, they may be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.

The next meeting of the branch is:

5:30-7pm, Thursday 1st December at Fujitsu, Central Park, Northampton Road, Manchester, M40 5BP.
Conference room 34GCR2.
There’s a map here.

All branch members are welcome to attend. This meeting will consider nominations for two new seats on the UNITE Executive Council.

Non-Fujitsu employees should report to the reception at MAN34 (the middle building), from where you can be escorted on site.

Dates for branch meetings in 2012 are:

  • Thursday 12th January
  • Thursday 2nd February
  • Thursday 1st March
  • Thursday 5th April
  • Thursday 10th May
  • Thursday 7th June
  • Thursday 5th July
  • Thursday 2nd August
  • Thursday 6th September
  • Thursday 4th October
  • Thursday 1st November
  • Thursday 6th December

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November 17, 2011

Overview of Offers for the Manchester Members' Meeting

A number of members have asked for more information about the two offers which this afternoon’s members’ meeting will be voting on, as they are long and hard to compare. Below is a summary.

Please make sure you come along and take part in the discussion and votes:

1:30-3:30pm, TODAY Thursday 17th November, MAN35 canteen.

Each offer consists of three documents:

  1. The offer itself – these are different.
  2. A statement on the contractual status of Defined Contribution pensions. This is the same for both offers.
  3. A proposed Annex 2 agreement on reps’ time. The only significant differences in the versions in the two offers are in the timescales in the implementation section.
Overview Of the Offers

The dispute is over a breakdown in industrial relations, breaches of agreements and victimisation of reps, most notably Alan Jenney.

Offer 1 is an offer in exchange for ending the dispute.

Offer 2 is an offer in exchange for continuing the suspension of industrial action to 20th January 2012 while work continues on some issues.

The content of the offers is otherwise broadly similar, but Offer 2 keeps the option of industrial action open while working on the issues of Alan Jenney and pay implementation.

The two offers are otherwise similar, though Offer 2 has some small improvements in a few areas.
Key points:

  1. No recriminations against members.
  2. The “status quo principle” – try to resolve things through discussion rather than imposing change first – is reaffirmed.
  3. The first conciliation meeting for Alan Jenney is due on 24th November.
  4. The form of the FJUK pension consultation body has not been finalised, but a timetable is included.
  5. The new statement on the contractual status of Defined Contribution pensions would give significantly better protection for employees, but is a little disappointing on the secondary issues of Permanent Health Insurance (PHI) and Life Assurance.
  6. The company continues to fail to provide adequate pay data, so there is still no clarity on the size of the under-spend, but progress is being made on this. Under-spend on pay will be corrected in January or February, with back pay to August 2011.
  7. A timetable is agreed for Service Desks staff to move to Rise+ for pay.
  8. A handful of individuals will get their pay corrected with back pay, where mistakes were made in August.
  9. No more current or new staff in the bargaining unit will be put on “interim guidelines” for Out Of Hours until consultation has taken place. Many of those already on interim terms will have their previous terms restored. 10-20 employees are likely to remain on interim terms pending the outcome of consultation.
  10. The company broke its promises from the 3rd October agreement in relation to WINTEL Out Of Hours, by continuing to pay them at imposed lower rates, but UNITE has been assured this will be rectified now.
  11. Fujitsu has started Redeployment Priority Periods (RPP) for MAN23 staff.
  12. A new facilities agreement (Annex 2) would significantly cut the time Ian Allinson, Lynne Hodge and Phil Tepper can spend on your behalf, but allow more members to become reps and allow reps outside Manchester to do more.
  13. he Joint Working Group is up and running, and a Director (Stuart Broadbelt) has been appointed as an escalation point available to UNITE.
  14. The first national meeting with Fujitsu for over a year is scheduled for Monday.


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November 16, 2011

Company Offers

Further to yesterday’s notice, Fujitsu has now provided the second alternative offer for members to consider. Offer 1 and Offer 2 are both published on CafeVIK. The version of Offer 2 signed by the company will be provided tomorrow.

The offers cover a range of local and national issues.

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November 15, 2011

Company Offer

Today Fujitsu provided an offer to resolve the current dispute. The offer comprises:

  1. The offer itself, which covers a range of national and local issues
  2. A proposed new statement on the contractual status of Defined Contribution pensions for UK employees
  3. A proposed new “Annex 2” agreement covering time for reps to carry out their responsibilities

UNITE has published the three documents comprising the offer on CafeVIK.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The company has promised that tomorrow it will provide a second alternative offer for members to consider.

Members in Manchester are meeting on Thursday to decide whether to accept the offer and end their industrial action, or to resume industrial action.

Members in Crewe are meeting on Monday to decide whether or not to go ahead with their previous decision to re-ballot for industrial action.

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Your Choices

The period for employees to use the “Your Choices” system to select their “flexible benefits” closes on Wednesday 30th November, with changes effective from 1st January 2012.

Points to look out for:

  1. If you’re in the Fujitsu UK Pension Plan, you need to make sure that you have selected an additional contribution (often as an “ASC”) of at least 2% on top of the base contribution of 3% if you want your total contribution to be 5%. If you only contribute the base 3% you will miss out on 4% company contributions - it seems quite a few people have missed this by mistake.
  2. There have been some issues with confirmation statements not showing pension contributions correctly, so check yours carefully.
  3. If you currently use Retail Vouchers, any remaining balance in your account will be sent to you after 28th January 2012 in £5 denominations, and any balance below £5 will be sent to charity, so if you want all your money back, you need to use the web site to top up your account to a multiple of £5 before that date.

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Out Of Hours

Fujitsu recently caused confusion by sending notices to hundreds of people about changes to their Out Of Hours (overtime, shift, standby, callout) arrangements.

UNITE has since learned that the root cause of this was a success by our sister union, PCS, in winning increases to some Out Of Hours payment rates (for people on “interim guidelines”) as part of their pay settlement. Fujitsu decided to apply this to everyone on these terms, not just the PCS bargaining unit.

Unfortunately the company notice didn’t explain this and was sent to a lot of people who didn’t believe they were even on the interim guidelines, which are amongst the worst Out Of Hours terms in the company. The announcement also moved people from the IS Interim Guidelines onto the UK ones without any warning or discussion.

UNITE reps are trying to help members who have been affected by this, where those members have got in touch to raise the question. UNITE is also trying to resolve the “interim guidelines” confusion in Manchester where we have collective bargaining.

As a further confusion, it turns out that the claim form which the announcement linked to contained errors which would lead employees to under-claim. A corrected form for those on interim guidelines is available here, but the original one has not been removed.

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Members' Meetings

Manchester:

1:30-3:30pm, Thursday 17th November
MAN35 canteen

Members are entitled to attend this meeting in work time. If your manager might need to arrange cover for while you attend, it is important that you ask them now to confirm your release. If you have any difficulty securing release, please contact your rep immediately. If you leave this until the last minute, reps may not be able to resolve this for you.

The agenda will include:

  1. Pay review 2011 implementation issues
  2. Company offers
  3. Decision on whether to accept either company offer or to resume industrial action
  4. 30th November day of action
  5. Discussion on action plans (if the offer is rejected)
  6. Election of reps
  7. Any Other Business (notified in advance)
Crewe:
12:30-1:30pm, Monday 21st November
CR 0-3, CRE02

Please do your utmost to attend these meetings, which will have important decisions to take.

There is also a meeting planned in Belfast:

12:30-13:30, Wednesday 16th November
Conference Room 1 & 2, 1st floor, IRE11
Agenda:
  • ICL & Fujitsu UK pensions: what it means for us
  • Improvement of industrial relation - Manchester wins - Update on disputes.
  • Managing people out of business: Compromise agreements.
  • Demonstration on the 30th November: United to make things change.
  • Let’s talk about the Union
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Success Story

A member in Crewe writes:

A member in Crewe writes:
Recently I was involved in a TUPE transfer process after the contract I was on was terminated by the customer. A couple of months before I was placed in scope for TUPE I had also been told by my manager that he had been informed by HR that I no longer worked for his business unit, so he couldn’t do my appraisal. This left me in no man’s land, without a manager.

During TUPE I was assigned a different manager back in the same business unit, and a role in BreakFix was mentioned as an option. Shortly I found myself in a position of having to take a role that I didn’t really want. I felt as though this role was a demotion, as I had been a TSS4 working in Infrastructure. Consequently all TUPE options seemed to have been taken away from me.

Luckily I had joined the Unite union a few months before. I was so glad I did.

I felt as though I was being forced into the unwanted role, which was also making me feel a lot of stress.

I contacted one of my union reps who advised me that what was happening to me was wrong and helped me out with all the knowledge and confidence I needed to fight the decision.

I now know much more about my rights regarding my contract and the process involved if you feel aggrieved in your working environment.

I fought the decision to put me into a role that I didn’t want through the Grievance process and ultimately I managed to find a role myself that was much more suited, with career prospects.

I would highly recommend joining the Unite union, they give you the knowledge and confidence to stand up for yourself and achieve the rights you deserve
.

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November 14, 2011

Your Union Needs YOU

One of the issues UNITE has been discussing with the company is a new “facilities agreement” which deals with arrangements for reps to have time to work on behalf of employees.

The offer isn’t finalised yet, but it seems likely that the company will propose a new arrangement that includes:

  1. Significant reductions in the time available to some of our reps with the greatest UNITE workload (currently Ian Allinson, Lynne Hodge, Phil Tepper, Pauline Bradburn)
  2. A removal of the current limit on the number of workplace reps
  3. A limited facility for reps outside Manchester to get more involved
If members accept a proposal along these lines, the impact on the quality of your representation will depend on whether the reductions in what a few reps can do are offset by increased involvement by many more members.

UNITE is therefore asking you to considering volunteering to be elected as a rep at Thursday’s members’ meeting: 1:30-3:30pm, Thursday 17th November, MAN35 canteen.

Electing new reps is particularly urgent given that the impending reorganisation means there could be a significant volume of work supporting members at appeals if they have been wrongly allocated etc.

What does volunteering mean?

  • You would not be expected to step into the role of an experienced rep – we need lots of people contributing what they can
  • Reps training is provided and the reps work as a team supporting each other
  • Reps are allowed paid time in work to carry out their responsibilities
  • Being a rep can be challenging, but it is also rewarding – you can help make Fujitsu a better place to work
  • Reps can choose to take on a variety of different roles, rather than trying to do everything. Areas we would like to get more people involved in include:
    • Helping with admin, action tracking, planning etc
    • Organising the distribution of union notices
    • Writing newsletter articles
    • Organising induction events for new staff
    • Administering web sites
    • Accompanying members at appeals resulting from the reorganisation
    • Working on one specific issue you care about, e.g.
      • Pensions
      • Analysing pay data
      • Equality
      • Out Of Hours (overtime, shift, standby) arrangements
      • Use and treatment of agency temps
      • Company cars
      • Bonus and incentive schemes
      • Health & Safety
      • Learning, training and development
      • Environmental issues

If you are interested in volunteering to be a UNITE rep, please get in touch as soon as possible, so that one of the existing team can discuss this with you prior to Thursday’s members’ meeting.

Can you persuade someone else to stand who you think could make a useful contribution?

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November 02, 2011

Reorganisation

The company reorganisation continues apace. Lots of information about it is available on the Reorganisation Programme section of the Shaping Tomorrow CafeVIK collaboration site.

With so many people being moved about, it is inevitable that mistakes will be made, so the process through which individuals can appeal if they believe they have been allocated to the wrong unit is important.

UNITE has received a draft of this process from the company and published it here on Cafe VIK. To avoid people stumbling across it and mistaking it for a live document, it is inside a zip file with the password draftonly.

Please feed in your comments on the draft as soon as possible.

Posted by at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)

Update on Manchester Issues in the Dispute

Pay

UNITE is pushing for the full implementation of the Manchester Pay And Benefits Agreement.

By the time the deadline expired, the company says it had received 9 specific queries from employees about implementation issues, plus 127 people who had sent in the standard query about the shortfall in pay rises. The company has now looked at the 9 cases and indicated how it proposes to address each one - these individuals should hear from the company within the next week or so.

The company has now provided information to UNITE about the implementation of the August pay review. The delay in providing information both helped cause the implementation problems in the first place, and has delayed resolving them.

Once UNITE has reviewed the latest information it will respond to the company and update employees in the bargaining unit. The aim is to include resolution of the pay issues in the company offer on 15th November, but there is currently still much to resolve.

Rise+

The company has now restarted the work required to move Manchester Service Desks staff in TSS1, TSS2 and TSM1 roles from the D1-D4 pay system onto Rise+. If you’re in the area affected, please look out for specific communications and get involved. Getting the change right is important for your career progression and pay.

WINTEL Out Of Hours

Fujitsu issued letters to the team members reinstating the status quo pending the outcome of discussions. This creates the opportunity for the issues to be resolved through dialogue, rather than the company imposing cuts in terms and conditions and changes to working patterns.

MAN23 Closure

Fujitsu is in the process of handing out letters to MAN23 staff to start their Redeployment Priority Periods (RPPs). The RPP gives them protection and support through the redeployment process.

UNITE is also talking to the company about proposals to change staff role codes. This is intended to assist with redeployment but it will be important to get the process right so that it doesn’t have an unintended negative impact on career progression, job security or pay.

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Update on National Issues in the Dispute

A number of the key issues which led to industrial action in Crewe and Manchester affect employees across the UK, including pensions, victimisation of reps, and the time reps have to work on your behalf.

UNITE is working with the company to produce an offer by 15th November. If members accept the offer, the dispute will be over. If members reject the offer, industrial action could resume.

Pensions

UNITE has been campaigning for the full implementation of the national agreement reached through ACAS in February 2010. There were two important outstanding issues – contractual status and consultation arrangements.

Fujitsu had only given contractual protection to pensions for those members of the FJUK Defined Contribution plan who were previously in the ICL Defined Benefit plan. This left everyone vulnerable to future detrimental changes – even the ex-ICL DB members who would find themselves in a dwindling minority who could be picked off. Following the agreement on 3rd October, the company issued a statement which extends the contractual protection to everyone employed before 18th October 2011 – a big step forward. UNITE is talking to the company to finish off the job properly:

  1. Giving new employees the same protection to prevent existing employees becoming an increasingly vulnerable dwindling minority in future
  2. Giving equivalent protection to members of other Defined Contribution schemes
  3. Ensuring that the wording on Permanent Health Insurance and Life Assurance is legally adequate
  4. Correcting the typos in the statement

UNITE, along with colleagues from PCS and Fujitsu Voice (FV), has been in discussion with the company about the implementation of the commitment to set up a consultation body for the FJUK plan (which most employees are now in).

Significant progress has been made towards agreeing what the body could discuss. The composition of the body has not yet been agreed. UNITE (along with PCS and FV) believes it is important that some members of the consultation body are elected directly by FJUK for that purpose, to ensure the necessary specialist knowledge and focus.

If you haven’t yet signed, taken round and returned the joint UNITE-PCS petition on pensions, please help the campaign to protect your pension by doing so now.

Victimisation of reps

Stopping the victimisation of our representatives and achieving justice for Alan Jenney, deputy chair of our Fujitsu UK Combine Committee, are key aims in the dispute.

This week Fujitsu confirmed that it will meet with Alan Jenney and ACAS to explore a possible resolution to Alan’s Employment Tribunal claim. Alan was dismissed on 11th July through an unnecessary and unfair redundancy, in breach of agreements and his contract of employment. Alan was singled out as a result of the work he did on behalf of employees.

Reps’ time

UNITE is talking to Fujitsu about potential new “facility time” arrangements. “Facility time” is work time when reps are allowed to carry out union duties and activities on your behalf.

The company would like reductions in the facility time available to some of the most active reps in Manchester – Ian Allinson, Lynne Hodge and Phil Tepper.

UNITE is not opposed to such reductions in principle, but its priority is to ensure that any new arrangements do not undermine the quality of representation for members. The union has proposed that any new restrictions in Manchester should be offset by improvements for reps elsewhere in the country. Many of the issues affecting staff in Manchester also affect people elsewhere, and it would be better to spread the facility time and the workload around more fairly.

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Around 30th November

If you’ve seen any news in recent weeks you will be aware that UNITE, along with many other unions, is preparing for coordinated industrial action on 30th November. Around 3 million workers are expected to take part, which would be the largest single day of industrial action in the UK since the General Strike of 1926.

If our dispute isn’t resolved, it is possible that some UNITE members in Fujitsu could be taking industrial action that day.

Most of the strikers will be staff in the public sector defending their pensions – very similar to issues we fought over in Fujitsu. UNITE has produced a leaflet explaining why private sector workers should support their campaign.

Whether you’re striking on 30th November or not, please show your support and solidarity. You could visit a picket line or two before work, or join one of the rallies taking place around the country.

If you want to book leave for 30th November you are advised to do so as soon as possible – many parents will need to take the day off as most schools will be closed.

As part of the preparations for 30th and beyond, a major “Unite the Resistance” convention is being held in London on 19th November. Our Combine Committee has decided to support the event, both to show our solidarity with colleagues elsewhere, and because this will be a great opportunity to publicise our own campaign if the dispute has not been resolved by then.

If you could attend on 19th November, please let your reps know as soon as possible.

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Combine Committee Elections

Our notice on 14th October invited nominations for vacancies on our “Combine Committee”, which coordinates UNITE’s work across Fujitsu in the UK.

Nominations closed today so Matt Whaley (LDN03) is elected unopposed for the vacant seat for London, South & East.

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Terms and Conditions

Back in 2006 Fujitsu started discussions on “harmonisation” before abandoning the discussions and trying to introduce the awful new “IS Interim Guidelines” by the back door. More recently, the company rebadged these as the “UK Interim Guidelines” and continued to quietly put people on them, despite promises to the contrary.

Many of those who received the announcement had no idea they were on the interim out of hours terms. Given the general accuracy of the HR Database, many may not be. Far from improving consistency, manageability and fairness, the interim guidelines are making things worse. Recipients even included people in areas which had already “harmonised” onto other terms and conditions!

If you’ve received one of the company notices and believe you are on something better than the interim guidelines, make sure you object promptly in writing and keep a copy.

Where we have collective bargaining in Manchester, the company has not consulted over the introduction of the interim guidelines, so they should not be in use. This is one of the issues which UNITE is trying to resolve as part of the current dispute. If you are on the interim guidelines AND are in the Manchester bargaining unit, please contact us now.

Keeping records

If you ever have an issue, having good records of your employment, terms and conditions etc can make a huge difference. Without records, how could you resolve a disagreement about your contract, perhaps if you faced a TUPE transfer to a new employer, if you faced redundancy, or if Fujitsu suddenly claimed you’d been getting more than you were entitled to?

It’s a good idea to keep a file with all your employment related documents together, including your original contract and any letters changing it such as job changes, promotions, pay rises or relocations.

Good starting points for your file would be to:

  1. Print off the statement on pensions contractual status (see above)
  2. Print off the information from Employee Self Service:

    From CafeVIK, select “My Cafe VIK” -> “My Support Systems” ->”SELF Service”
    Log on
    Select “Personal Details”
    Select and print each of the “Employment Details”, “Pay and Benefits” and any other pages that are relevant to you.
    On the left menu select “Redundancy”, click “Redundancy” and print the “contractual details” information displayed.

  3. Request an Employee Record Print (ERP) which gives you the basic information held on the HR Database:

    From Cafe VIK, select “My CafeVIK” - > “My Support Systems” -> “HR Direct and Ask HR”
    Select “Online Requests”
    Select “Employee Record Print”
    Fill in your own name and personal number
    Click submit

When you get information, check it carefully. If anything appears wrong, ask the company to correct it straight away (and keep a copy of your request in your file)

Xmas Meals

It appears that the company will pay you up to £25 towards a Xmas party this year, but that this is not being announced. Make sure you ask your line manager about this so you don’t miss out. If this is handled as last year you will need to submit an expense claim with a receipt to get your money.

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Members' Meetings

With a company offer to resolve the dispute expected on 15th November, members’ meetings have been arranged at Manchester and Crewe:

Manchester:

1:30-3:30pm, Thursday 17th November
MAN35 Canteen
Crewe:
12:30-1:30pm, Monday 21st November
CR -03, CRE02

Please do your utmost to attend these meetings, which will have important decisions to take.

There is also a meeting planned in Belfast:

12:30-13:30, Wednesday 16th November
Conference Room 1 & 2, 1st floor, IRE11

Agenda:

  • ICL & Fujitsu UK pensions: what it means for us
  • Improvement of industrial relation - Manchester wins - Update on disputes.
  • Managing people out of business: Compromise agreements.
  • Demonstration on the 30th November: United to make things change.
  • Let talk about the Union

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Job Losses

UNITE continues to see piecemeal job losses in Fujitsu. There are currently small redundancy exercises going on in HR and Marketing.

If you are affected by a redundancy situation or approached about a Compromise Agreement (CA), then please contact one of your local reps as early as possible for advice and guidance.

For some key points on Compromise Agreements, see our previous newsletter. Many members approached about a CA have ended up keeping their jobs or leaving with a (much!) better package a result of getting advice from UNITE. Don’t be a mug – make informed decisions about your future.

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