PCS Strike & Demo in Nottingham

Published: March 21, 2013 21:18 by WORKFARER

Great pictures and report of the day as ever Tash.
The day after the bloody Labour Party, sides with the government on the illegal use of sanction on people objecting to workfare programs and the overturning of the Cait Reilly case ..... This lot from the job centres are out there crying about their own situations concerning pay & pensions. Yet they and the decision makers amongst them are sanctioning the poorest people in society to further poverty and homelessness. They seem to confirm their self interests, don't they..

Oh yes! of course, I suppose they are just following order. FFS, wasn't that all discussed and settled at the Nuremberg trials??

Noticed the PCS squirming and trying to justify their position in comments on Tash's last posting -------------

http://nottingham.tachanka.org/articles/3305

were someone says-
I assume from the amount of dodging the question here that these PCS members ARE responsible for putting people on workfare.

Solidarity my arse.

and another agreees.
It's still all about you, isn't it?
The only positive here is that your refusal to give a straight answer might just mean that you know you are guilty of crapping on those less fortunate than yourselves.
Next time you feel like whining about your "special leave" spare a thought for those you condemn to sanctions, poverty, hunger and homelessness.

These PCS folks have got to start joining in on anti-workfare protests and pickets themselves AND include these in their own actions , OR, is it everyone for themselves?

ditto. Solidarity my arse.

I'll stick up for you if you stick up for me. If not.... well I guess we all sink together:-(
Is this news to you? Expecting more obfuscation

Published: March 21, 2013 22:08 by Tash

Cheers WORKFARER

ExactlY "I'll stick up for you if you stick up for me. If not.... well I guess we all sink together:-( "

Well yes, a lot of union activity is so self-centred about their own situations. There seems little shared empathy with others.

on the PCS website today:

"Advice for members
The GEC fully understands that some members wish to refuse to carry out work which they see as above their pay grade, especially as there are workload and safety issues at play too. The GEC is seeking a legal opinion on what constitutes ‘a reasonable management request’, in the meantime members are not advised to refuse to conduct these duties in order to prevent disciplinary action being taken against them.
Branches and members will be updated as soon as possible after future meetings take place or when further information is available."
http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/department_for_work_and_pensions_group/dwp-news.cfm/id/7081D5DB-AF38-4186-AAD7D9358A078BCD

Think Ken Loach probably got a point in his latest pronouncements that we need a new party of the left. http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/video/2013/mar/13/ken-loach-spirit-45-video

Some of us with more anarchistic inclinations have known this for years, but the workfare debate and the attitude of politicians to this provision of slave labour for big corporations has brought a lot to a head this week for many people.

Recent article points out:
"Senior members of the shadow cabinet were obliged to follow the instruction to abstain from the Commons vote. Following a briefing from Ed Miliband at Monday's meeting of the parliamentary Labour party, they had been warned that anyone who stepped out of line would be sacked."

The jobseekers bill: a shameful retroactive stitch-up
The coalition claims to be proud of our legal sector, but after the Cait Reilly case it has simply rewritten the law in its own favour
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/21/jobseekers-bill-cait-reilly

Labour abstention on workfare bill prompts party infighting
Liam Byrne defends 'difficult' decision not to vote against government after resignation of shadow ministerial aide
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/mar/21/labour-abstention-workfare-bill-byrne

Kodos to NCCLols on twitter:

RT @NCCLols:
30 pcs of silver to
@GrahamAllenMP
@LilianGreenwood
@ChrisLeslieMP
@Vernon_CoakerMP
@GloriaDePieroMP
@JohnMannMP
#workfare

NONE of the East Midlands MP's voted. ONLY 44 Labour MPs rebelled against the party whip and voted against the jobseekers (back to work schemes) bill. Bugger the lot of them!

Published: March 21, 2013 23:16 by Tash

Jobcentre was set targets for benefit sanctions
• Inquiry launched after league tables revealed
• Leak shows pressure on staff to refer claimants

A leaked email shows staff being warned by managers that they will be disciplined unless they increase the number of claimants referred to a tougher benefit regime.

Ruth King, a jobcentre adviser manager, discloses in the email that she has received "the stricter benefit regime" figures for her area, adding: "As you can see Walthamstow are 95th in the league table out of only 109" – the number of jobcentres in London and the home counties. The employment minister, Mark Hoban, had assured MPs on Tuesday: "There are no league tables in place. We do not set targets for sanctions. I have made that point in previous discussions."

The league table could only have been drawn up through information provided by senior managers in the Department for Work and Pensions.

Hoban had told MPs that decisions on sanctioning claimants "need to be based on whether people have breached the agreements they have set out with the jobcentre, and there are no targets in place".

Faced with the email, the DWP said: "We are urgently investigating what happened in this case. If a manager has set a local target for applying sanctions this is against DWP policy and we will be taking steps to ensure these targets are removed immediately."

King says in her email: "Our district manager is not pleased …

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/mar/21/jobcentre-set-targets-benefit-sanctions

Published: March 25, 2013 19:19 by PCS member

There is as yet no official PCS position or advice for members regarding refusal to refer to workfare, sanctions etc. Several branches do have motions going to conference this year calling for a boycott of these policies and full PCS support for any members threatened with disciplinary action as a result of this.

In the meantime there are some of us working in jobcentres who refuse to refer to workfare and sanction people's benefits - myself among them. I have been threatened with disciplinary action but have managed to avoid it so far. The problem is of course that if you are unemployed you may get an adviser who is ethically opposed to these policies and has the bollocks to oppose them, or you may not.

Published: April 23, 2013 23:59 by johnnyvoid

In a disappointing and sadly all too predictable move, the leadership of the PCS Union have blocked any meaningful discussion about fighting the ruthless benefit sanction regime which many of their members are now expected to administer and police.

Under draconian new rules claimants can have benefits stopped for up to three years for failing to carry out the endless requirements imposed on them by Jobcentres. Sick and disabled claimants can be sent on unlimited, unpaid work as part of the Work Programme, whilst single parents can also see benefits docked or even stopped completely.

The misery and poverty this regime has already created is without recent precedent in the UK and in truth has barely even begun. Despite ever more desperate spin from DWP ministers, these changes certainly haven’t helped anyone find a job and serve merely to punish claimants for being unemployed, disabled or unwell.

Claimant groups have long called on the PCS for action, not words, in their supposed support of benefit claimants. The union has been told, time and time again, of the all too real suffering that is being created in people’s lives due to benefit sanctions. Every plea for action has come with a full and realistic acknowledgement of what the PCS can legally and legitimately do to support claimants, along with calls for solidarity between claimants and low paid Jobcentre staff.

Many rank and file members of the union have been all too aware of the suffering which is being inflicted on the poorest and often most marginalised people in the UK. PCS workers have marched, fought and taken direct action alongside claimants to fight the shambolic and callous welfare reforms. Two motions on how the PCS as a whole could now solidify that support had been proposed at the union’s annual conference in Brighton on 20 May this year.

The motions have been excluded from the conference by the PCS leadership on the grounds that if successfully implemented they could leave the union liable to legal action. One of these motions calls for complete non-co-operation with the sanctions, which could be interpreted as a call for industrial action beyond the specifics of the law. The other motion however only calls to include the tactic of non-cooperation in “any industrial action campaign”. Not even this can be up for debate according to the leadership of the PCS.

This is despite the fact that sanctions are soon to be very much an industrial issue for the union and therefore almost certainly could be the target of legal industrial action (as has been admitted at senior level within the union). When Universal Credit is finally rolled out as many as 30% of DWP staff will be brought under the sanctions regime themselves. New measures to force those working part time to continually look for better paid jobs or longer hours could lead to Jobcentre staff having to sanction each other’s in-work benefits. It is hard to imagine a more toxic introduction to the workplace then staff being required to grass each other up because they didn’t apply for enough jobs to work somewhere else that week.

It will not just be DWP staff affected by the new rules, but part time workers across the PCS Union’s membership – along with millions of members of other trade unions. This is an issue which could rip the PCS Union apart unless action is taken, yet the leadership want to sweep any debate under the carpet.

Claimants and public sector workers alike should now lobby at all levels to demand the PCS take the nightmare of benefit sanctions seriously. For many claimants it is already too late. The tragic lack of real action so far begs the question at what point will the PCS leadership say enough is enough? Just how much are they prepared to allow unemployed and disabled people be abused before they decide to act and say not in our name?

Most decent people might have assumed that forced work for sick and disabled claimants would have been the point at which the union made a stand. But it seems that not even this regime being inflicted on their own members is enough to allow it to be discussed at their annual conference.

The Civil Service Rank and File Network are discussing holding a rally outside the PCS Conference and have said that if the if the PCS leadership continue to refuse to act then claimants and others should help enforce an unofficial rank-and-file boycott of sanctions.

The PCS Union are on facebook and twitter @pcs_union. Contact them if you want them to reverse this decision and allow the motions to be presented.

http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2013/04/23/pcs-union-leadership-refuse-to-even-discuss-fighting-benefit-sanctions/