Tower Block Safety Update - 30th November

MSF Health & Safety reps have asserted their right to see reports concerning the safety of the MAN05 tower block, resulting from the falling masonry. This issue was escalated to ICL board level, and we were almost forced to call in the enforcing authorities. Today we finally received copies of the reports, and will be examining the contents.

Book Offer for Members - 30th November

With Xmas on the way, don't forget that the MSF group at MAN05 has negotiated a deal for members with Bookmarks, official bookseller to the TUC, to get mailorder books cheap or with free postage. Details available on our Resources page, or from José Baranguan.

Moves to Linkwise - 14th November

A number of staff have recently been moved to Linkwise. If this happens to you we STRONGLY advise you to consult your MSF rep as soon as possible, whether or not you wish to contest the move.

Pensions & Benefit Statement - 31st October

There have been major changes to the way the ICL Pension Plan operates AVCs, which are detailed here on CafeVik. We note that the "announcement" withdrew the option to start an AVC to buy pension in the ICL plan from 1 October 2000, yet it appears that it was posted on CafeVik on 16 October. Nothing like plenty of notice!

YOU NEED TO TAKE ACTION.

ICL has stopped producing the paper annual benefit statement, replacing this with an online version, which does not include all the information you used to receive. The online version is here on CafeVik. Once you've logged on, you'll need to choose SelfService Update Process, then Employment Details.

MSF STRONGLY RECOMMENDS THAT YOU TAKE THE FOLLOWING ACTIONS NOW:

• Print off a copy of the SelfService screen, and keep it. It provides evidence of the history of your Terms and Conditions.
• Check the details carefully against your previous benefit statement, or another record of your Terms and Conditions. The data is created from the HR database, which is far from infallible. Challenge any inaccuracies you find immediately.

It's particularly worth checking the Life Assurance figure quoted, which is often 3x pensionable pay. The old benefit statement included several relevant figures [page 11 of the 1999 statement], including Accident Insurance which was more than 3x for many ICL staff.

UKCF and ECF - 31st October

The new ICL UK Consultative Forum (UKCF) met for the second time on 17-18 October at Footscray. Three MSF members from MAN05 attended: Hilary Robinson, Suresh Patel and Ian Allinson. Minutes of the meeting will be published on the UK Consultative Forum community on CafeVik as soon as they have been cleared for confidentiality. The forum is proving to be a useful tool for downward communication, and for raising issues affecting staff which cannot be resolved locally.

The ICL European Consultative Forum met on 23-24 October at Beaumont, and Ian Allinson was the delegate representing Scotland and the North. The forum met the new Chief Executive, Richard Christou, along with a number of other senior managers. A report is available here on CafeVik.

Health & Safety Issue: Laptops and Monitors - 28th September

ICL are currently investigating a potential problem with using Windows 2000 with FJ765 series laptops connected to a monitor. If you are being asked to use this combination please contact Rep Annie Leach.

Part-Time Pensions Ruling: Update - 27th September

Further to the part-time pensions ruling we covered in June, forms and the standard wording for submitting a claim to an industrial tribunal are now available from Rep Annie Leach.

You can still put in a claim.

Pensions Update - 22nd September

Most of you will have received a notice explaining changes to the ICL Pension Fund due to come into effect on 1 September.

Entry to the old pension plan, where "defined benefits" are based on final salary, was closed from 31 August 2000. Anyone joining the ICL pension fund after that date will only be able to join a "money purchase" or "defined contribution" scheme which does not guarantee benefit levels.

The new defined contribution scheme has much lower levels of company contribution - saving the company a significant amount of money at the expense of new staff.

Elections to ICL's pension consultative committee took place recently, and two MSF reps from MAN05 stood - Suresh Patel and Annie Leach. The very pleasing results have not yet been announced. Many thanks to everyone who supported them. We're confident that our new representatives will do an excellent job in representing the interests of staff.

The announcement closing the "defined benefits" plan, which can be found on CafeVik, stated that:

"All existing members of the Plan at 31 August 2000 are unaffected. They will continue to accrue the same final salary benefits in the same way as they do at present."

We believe this is a misleading statement.

Our concerns include:

• How will ICL justify paying large contributions for staff in the defined benefit scheme working alongside staff in the defined contribution scheme for whom the company makes low contributions. Won't ICL seek to "harmonise" us all onto the worse scheme at some point in the future?
• The rising average age of members of the defined benefit plan will increase the average cost of the plan to the company, potentially giving them an added incentive to close the scheme.
• Now that the defined benefit plan has a finite life, what will happen to any funds left when the last pensioner dies?
• Will new employees expect higher pay to compensate them for their worse pension provision?
• How will employees in the old "defined benefit" scheme be protected against discrimination - for example being chosen for redundancy in preference to new, cheaper employees?
• How will new employees afford a decent pension in retirement?

At a time when there is a skills shortage in the IT industry, it is remarkable that ICL is responding by WORSENING the terms and conditions of staff - longer hours and less sick pay for some, shorter notice periods or more unsocial hours for others, along with meaner expenses and worse pensions. The need for a strong union throughout ICL has never been clearer. MSF is organising staff to press ICL for a better deal at work.

New era for unions as CSC announces big recognition deal - 14th September

CSC and MSF have announced a voluntary recognition deal. Details are available from Computer Weekly.

Disciplinary Cases - 5th September

We've been dealing with a number of disciplinary cases recently.

As always, we would remind members to seek advice from a rep at the earliest opportunity if you may be the subject of a disciplinary hearing, whether you wish to contest it or not.

We're coming across a lot of irregularities in the conduct of disciplinaries, which are often avoidable. It is a lot harder to correct a bad decision than avoid it.

Health & Safety - MAN05 Tower Block - 22nd September

MSF Health and Safety Reps were invited to a briefing by HR on 18/9/00. The structural survey of the Tower Block has been completed. It concludes that although the problem with the cladding remains, the building is structurally sound. ICL Properties have yet to finish reviewing the options for dealing with the cladding problem, and for the time being, the current arrangements involving the cordoning-off of the main site entrance area and the use of the alternative entrance will continue. ICL and CWM are, however, looking into the conditions under which the main entrance could be reopened.

HR undertook to follow up a number of issues raised by Reps in the meeting, including checking the risk assessment status, supplying copies of recent assessments, and checking whether the walkway glass is shatterproof and whether TB1 is at any special risk of falling masonry bouncing back off the canopy. They will also ensure a new statement is issued to all staff.

Pension Fund - 1st August

Most of you will have received a notice explaining changes to the ICL Pension Fund due to come into effect on 1 September.

Entry to the current pension scheme, where defined benefits are based on final salary, will be closed from 31 August 2000. Anyone joining the ICL pension fund after that date will only be able to join a "money purchase" scheme which does not guarantee particular benefit levels.

The change is intended to save ICL money, presumably be reducing the level of employer contribution. The details of the new scheme are not yet available, so we are unable to assess it yet.

The announcement, which can be found on cafevik, states that:

All existing members of the Plan at 31 August 2000 are unaffected. They will continue to accrue the same final salary benefits in the same way as they do at present.

Staff who are not yet members of the scheme should consider whether they want to join before 31 August.

The decision to worsen pension provision would seem to contradict ICL's goal of being the "employer of choice".

We are currently seeking expert advice on the long-term viability of the final salary scheme if no new staff can join it, as well as needing to understand the new deal.

OSD Helpdesks - A Significant Victory - Updated 1st August

ICL have been seeking to introduce new contracts for the staff on OSD's call-centres (about 1100 staff). At MAN05 these changes are coming in later than the rest of ICL because our union recognition gives staff greater rights to be consulted.

The new contract worsens terms and conditions for staff in a number of ways. We are particularly unhappy with the shift arrangements and the sick-pay provisions, but they are significantly better than ICL's original proposals, thanks to the involvement of MSF reps and members.

MSF are now taking up further issues within the helpdesks, particularly around proposed new shift patterns.

Detailed information is available here.

Information about contract changes can be found here on the MSF ITPA website.

Access to pay information - 19th July

Back in March MSF wrote to Karen Meakin (HPS HR Director) asking for a variety of pay-related information to which, as a recognised trade union, we are legally entitled to enable us to conduct pay bargaining on our members' behalf. This included such readily available (to HR) information as professional community payscales.

A month later, HR responded that although individual members of staff were entitled to know the payscales for their own community/role/ benchmark, the company would not provide MSF with payscale data. At this point, we involved our MSF Regional Officer for him to consider bringing a formal complaint against ICL for non-disclosure. Of course, although we remain keen to have the payscale data, the delayed response from HR ruled out any chance we had of influencing the 2000 pay round. Following a further meeting at which we queried the legality of ICL's position, we are still waiting for the information.

Thanks to our union recognition, HR did supply us with some useful information, including statistical charts aimed at demonstrating that the pay process had been conducted fairly with regard to sex and age discrimination. However the data presented was for HPS only and despite requests we do not yet have equivalent information for other ICL divisions.

New rights at work - 19th July

The provisions of the 1999 Employment Relations Bill are steadily becoming law.

New statutory recognition procedure

allowing groups of employees to gain union recognition, either automatically if union membership is high enough or by winning a secret ballot.

New right to be accompanied

by a colleague or a trade union official in grievance and disciplinary hearings. This was sensibly anticipated by ICL before it became law, and effectively ends the right of employers to keep unions out of any workplace. The right extends to agency workers and contract staff.

New safeguards for union members

- existing protection to members against discrimination due to union membership or activities has been strengthened. No employee can be discriminated against in the workplace because they belong to a union, and union membership can be kept completely confidential. Staff are now protected against dismissal during an official industrial action for at least the first 8 weeks and longer if the company has not taken 'reasonable steps' to resolve the issue.

Unfair dismissal

- qualifying period for the right to claim unfair dismissal reduced to one year of employment and maximum award to an employee winning a tribunal raised to £50000.

Family Friendly Policies

- include improvements to maternity and other parental leave rights, right to time off for domestic emergencies.

Training

- employer must now consult recognised unions about training

Part-time workers

- protection against discrimination on grounds of working part-time.

MSF welcomes these new legal rights as a significant step forward in redressing the imbalance arising from the anti-union legislation of the Thatcher years. Much more however remains to be done, and MSF continues to campaign for further improvements to peoples' employment rights. An example is the right to paid parental leave.

These gains resulted from unions campaigning to improve things for people at work. There are now better reasons than ever to join a union. It benefits you, it benefits your colleagues.

Part-Time Pensions Ruling by European Court of Justice - 15th June

There has been some recent publicity about an EU court ruling on pensions for part-timers. People affected are those who were excluded from the pension fund because they worked part-time. Several people submitted claims in 1994 and it was thought that this was the deadline for claims.

MSF now advises that those who submitted claims still have to wait as we are awaiting a further House of Lords ruling on the time limits for compensation. For members who have not put in claims, there is no problem if they are still employed. If however their employment has ended then it is certainly worthwhile entering a claim if it was less than six months ago and worth trying if it was up to six years ago, but not any longer than that.

MSF's Legal Department have produced a briefing about the ruling.

More details are available on the Court of Justice and Court of First Instance website. There is a press release and the judgement (case C-78/98).

For further info, please e-mail Rep .

ICL's New Travel and Expenses Policy - 18th May

If you think you may be adversely affected by ICL's new policy for travel and expenses, please contact .

The policy can be found on cafevik, as well as the associated guidelines.

The changed policy on travel expenses seems to be based upon the assumption that the employee will use the same means of travel for the business trip as he/she would have done for the normal journey to work. This is not necessarily the case. We believe the policy should be based on additional costs, not additional miles travelled, so that employees would never be out of pocket for business travel.

Also, the definition of "place of work" has been enlarged, and this affects some home-based employees, and those who work on more than one site.

Apparently the new policy has caused outcry, as well as being impossible to implement, and some parts of ICL have told staff to carry on using the old scheme until the new policy can be rethought.

Parental Leave - 4th February 2000

After years of Labour movement campaigning, legislation is finally coming in to extend the rights to parental leave. While this only goes part way to what MSF wanted, it is a step in the right direction.

ICL's new "partnership guide" (pdf format) which you can find in the Human Resources community on CafeVik (ICL Intranet Only) gives some information about the improved rights.

The main improvement in the ICL policy is the introduction of up to 5 days paid paternity leave.

MSF has a copy of the new Labour Research Department booklet on the subject of parental leave in its West Gorton library, or members can look it up on the LRD publications database online (see here for information).

Union Recognition Victory - 22nd November 1999

MSF has achieved a significant victory in protecting the rights of its members.

Following the announcement of transfers of HPS staff at MAN05 to A&TC, MSF asked a range of questions. On 25 October, we were told:

"For A&TC staff remaining at MAN05, recognition will not apply."

Union recognition gives employees many rights, for example to raise issues as a group, to get access to information, to have reps who are properly trained, to be consulted, to have reps who can deal with issues in work time.

ICL were saying they would withdraw these rights from employees moving from one part of ICL to another. On 4 November MSF wrote to ICL warning them of the seriousness of this attack. Given that ICL plan to move most staff to A&TC, and that half of the HPS reps were being transferred, this attack would have seriously threatened union organisation at MAN05.

We're delighted to report that on Monday 22nd November, ICL told us:

"we can state that former HPS staff who remain at MAN05, will continue to retain their current rights of recognition."

This not only protects the staff currently being transferred, but sets a valuable precedent for other A&TC staff in the future.

Redundancies - useful information - 11th October 1999

ICL must, by law, consult staff in a redundancy situation. However, in some areas they can do this without talking to the union! If there are redundancies in your area - contact a Rep.

We have the beginnings of a list of Frequently Asked Questions about redundancies in ICL. This will help us to represent members at risk, and gather our experiences from doing so.

If you're personally at risk, you may find the Beta version of the ICL redundancy calculator useful. You will need JAVA enabled in your browser for this to work. Its results are not guaranteed - get proper advice, but it is a useful first guide. Please .