For DWP Assistant Secretary

Assertive leadership is essential to protect, promote and improve member’s rights in the workplace. There is nothing more powerful than organised workers led by assertive leaders with a record of achievement and experience, with proven ability, to win gains for members under democratically decided policies.

Strike action across the civil service, including DWP, in support of our PCS national campaign to secure a 10% pay increase, get pensions justice, save our jobs and protect our redundancy pay must maximise pressure on the employer but minimise the financial pressures on members. This campaign will be more of a marathon than a sprint but unity in action will deliver success. Our objectives will be achieved by building the widest possible campaign over the cost-of-living crisis under democratically decided policies.

Together with the national campaign, PCS in DWP must be vigilant against attempts to alter terms and conditions of employment to the disadvantage of our members and continue to argue and negotiate for improvements.

I ask for your support in the 2023 PCS elections , as a candidate for Group Assistant Secretary, so that I may continue to work to promote and protect the interests of PCS members in DWP for equality, natural justice and procedural fairness, under DWP policies for Attendance Management, Discipline and Grievance, and for compliance with the Employee Deal Collective Agreement with its safeguards and protections.

I have been supported as a Left Unity candidate for Group Assistant Secretary since 2001. I am committed to defending and improving member’s workplace rights and stand for re-election on the basis of my record as a negotiator at department level, including the achievement of:

• A Flexible Working Hours Agreement which supports flexi-time as the primary means of managing hours and working patterns for all DWP members
• A Breaks Policy for breaks in paid working time for all DWP members
• A new approach for Performance Management with abolition of ‘guided distribution’, ‘validation’ and the discredited ‘must improve’ rating for all DWP members
• A welfare orientated approach for Attendance Management which has delivered a significant reduction in warnings and dismissals

These achievements must be used as a platform to win further gains on these and other issues:

• Job security and safety from COVID must be priorities for PCS under all DWP employee policies, together with FTA permanency and opposition to office closures/compulsory redundancy.

• Pay must be levelled up and increased by uprating the pay system for everyone to equally receive the pay rate for their job/grade with annual increases to cover cost of living rises and compensate for years of austerity since 2010.

• Sick pay entitlements must be levelled up for all members to have a right to at least 6 months’ full pay and 6 months’ half pay, with extensions, to support ‘Long COVID’ and other long-term illnesses.

I am a socialist. I support the achievement of Union policies through negotiations, legal action when appropriate and industrial action as a last resort.