I am seeking re-election as Group Assistant Secretary.

I have been a rep and a member of Left Unity for 21 years. I became the first female Chair of the DWP Glasgow Branch in 2015, and held this position until stepping down in 2022.

I was elected as Chair of the PCS Scotland Committee in 2022, before being elected as co-convenor of the newly established Scottish Executive Committee in 2024. Having previously sat on the Devolved Areas Committee as an NEC member, I was involved in setting up the SEC, so it was an honour to take up this role, and to be re-elected 2 years running.

I was elected to the National Executive Committee in 2021, and was a member for 3 years until the Coalition of Chaos gained a majority on the NEC in 2024. Thankfully in 2025, the elections returned a majority Democracy Alliance NEC and work was able to be done without as many blockers and obstacles put in place by the opposition.

I was elected onto the Group Executive Committee in 2019. I was co-opted to the role of Group Journal Editor in 2020, and elected to this post in 2021, before being elected as Group Assistant Secretary in 2022.

I have been involved in a variety of Equality Committees throughout my time as a rep. I currently sit on the National Women’s Forum, and I also represent PCS on the STUC Women’s Committee as a Vice Chair. The SEC are also working to reinvigorate the equality networks in Scotland. I believe our members are the lifeblood of our union, and that we should be representative of all of our members.

As Group Assistant Secretary I have responsibility for consulting with Universal Credit, Work Services and Working Age, meeting with the advisory committees for these directorates to establish the issues to take forward, as well as meeting the employer at Departmental TUS level. I also have responsibility for Scottish Social Security, and I sit on the Pay Team. I have also recently been covering one of the Vice President roles due to absence.

As part of my remit covering UC, I am contacted on a regular basis about issues within UCR. Meetings have been held with UCR management to help to resolve these issues, and members briefings issued to update on these. Reps meetings have also been held following a motion to DWP Group Conference last year, and I have set up a MS Teams chat to allow the reps in the various UCR sites to keep in touch about ongoing issues.

I have been trained in the JEGS process and am using this to look at grading in a number of directorates, alongside other officers. I have participated in a JEGS exercise for the Welsh Language Line, alongside management, but have not been given full access to the scoring system. PCS are pushing for the trained officers to be given this access.

The Left Unity led GEC has worked tirelessly throughout the year to defend our members’ rights. We hear from members and reps on a daily basis about how the work is piling up and there is not enough staff to do the job. Our members are telling us that they are at breaking point, and we continue to push for a resolution.

As a member of the Pay Team, I continue to push for better pay for all members when we meet with the employer. I have continuously argued against penalising members who opted out of the Employee Deal by giving them a lower pay rise. The pay deal of ED was a 4 year deal, and therefore those who opted out for legitimate reasons should not still be receiving less than their colleagues years later. The same applies to TUPE members who choose not to opt in to DWP terms and conditions.

I also continue to argue against the low pay, in particular the lower grades having to receive an uplift every April to the National Living Wage. The DWP should be ashamed of this position, however they have refused yet again to put a business case to address the pay anomalies and the issues of low pay.

The pay award was unacceptable, and the GEC did vote unanimously to reject this and ballot members for industrial action following a successful consultative period which showed members were willing to campaign for more.

I am proud of the campaign run by the Left Unity led GEC during the ballot period, and believe that members are up for the fight despite the fact we missed the ballot threshold. I believe there were other factors working against us, and that the campaign is far from over. A Left Unity led GEC will continue this campaign in a way that will deliver for our members.

I am proud to be a member of Left Unity, and if re-elected as Group Assistant Secretary I will continue to be a strong voice on the GEC, campaigning on behalf of all of our members.

I urge all members to vote for me and for all of the Left Unity candidates in order to ensure we have the strongest team possible to continue to fight for our members.