FOLLOWING an intense and busy electioncampaign, members have voted for AlisonMillar to be the next General Secretary andtake up the key role in leading NIPSA for-ward over the next few years. The ballot result was issued on Friday,

November 6 with Alison Millar receiving6,352 votes and Patrick Mulholland 4,958.Ms Millar told NIPSA News: “It is a privi-

lege to be elected as the new NIPSA Gen-eral Secretary and I would like to take thisopportunity to thank every single personwho worked on my campaign and everysingle member who took part in the elec-tion. “Whether you voted for me or not, what

is critical is the future of NIPSA and thetrade union movement. It is vital we moveforward together and united to ensure weremain the strong independent trade unionwe have always been. “Whilst there must be room for debate

about the future direction of NIPSA, therecan be no room for division. Our oppo-nents do not exist within the ranks ofNIPSA. We have a common enemy that wemust unite against and that is the enemy ofausterity and those who would dismantleand destroy our public services. “We must place real member issues at

the heart of everything we do and we mustwork together to build and strengthenNIPSA.”She added: “Thanks again to all those

who worked tirelessly on my behalf toelect a General Secretary for All. I intendliving up to that pledge.”Ms Millar admitted that the task ahead

was not without its challenges but urgedmembers to unite behind the cause offighting the cuts as well as building a

union that is there for its members whenthey need it. The union would be strengthened, she

suggested, by developing a strong ethosof organising and recruitment. “During the election campaign it really

was brought home to me – if I didn’t al-ready know it – that there are thousands ofpublic sector workers who are not inNIPSA (or any trade union for that matter). “This is where we must focus our efforts

in seeking to recruit those members – notjust for NIPSA’s gain but to ensure we havethe strongest trade union possible – whereworkers across the public sector belong toand know the benefits of belonging to thisgreat trade union. “The next General Secretary cautioned

against “sitting back and making assump-tions” that it was up to someone else to re-cruit and organise pointing out that it was“all our responsibility… and we must makethis a key element of our work going for-ward”. Ms Millar continued: “We also have a

major battle to fight to ensure that mem-bers’ pay, terms and conditions are pro-tected and improved in these verychallenging times.“I believe that with hard work and deter-

mination – which I am fully committed to –that we can make this great union – evenstronger – but we must do this by focusingoutwardly on who the real enemy is andstop any internal union rivalry which is adistraction from the real work we as aunion should be concentrating on.”She concluded: “I am committed to

working with all members to build an evenstronger union and I look forward to thechallenge that this new role will bring.”

NIPSA NEWSThe newspaper of the leading public sector trade union November 2015 Tel: 02890661831 www.nipsa.org.uk

Download your membership application here: http://www.nipsa.org.uk/About-NIPSA/Join-US/Application-Form

Members set to receive combined discount and membership card

Alison voted in as nextNIPSA General Secretary

IN THE December issue of NIPSA News,which will be sent to you directly at yourpreferred nominated address, you will re-ceive your 2016/17 combined MembershipPlus discount card and NIPSA member-ship card.The Membership Plus card has over the

years proven to be very popular with mem-bers, securing discounts on a range ofservices such as: meals, days out, hotelbreaks, shopping, entertainment and manyother offers. The Membership Plus discount card

gives you access to more than 1,500 of-

fers, this continues to expand with an ad-ditional 250 having been added over thepast 18 months. In addition to the offers there are various

competitions for registered card-holders,some exclusive to NIPSA members. Overa third of NIPSA members are registered.Registered members also receive update

emails to advise them of special time-lim-ited discounts as well as new offers. To register all you have to do is use the

link on the NIPSA website home pagewww.nipsa.org.uk to take you to the Mem-bership Plus NIPSA site.

The card also doubles up as your NIPSAmembership card, detailing your NIPSAmembership number and branch. This isneeded when you contact NIPSA and/ormake use of other service providers suchas legal services, financial service or in-surance services.To ensure your details are up-to-date for

distribution, you should advise NIPSAHeadquarters of any changes. The easiestway to do this is again through the NIPSAwebsite and utilising the ‘update your de-tails’ page, accessed via the scroll bar onthe home page.

Page 2 NEWS

BY THE TIME members readthis edition of NIPSA Newsthere may – or may not – havebeen an agreement amongNorthern Ireland’s main politi-cal parties that will resolve atleast for a further period oftime the political impassehere. There is a clear optimism

among most parties that a dealwill be done but much will de-pend on the UK and Irish gov-ernments’ attitude to somefinancial alleviation and apractical recognition thatNorthern Ireland experiencesadditional pressures on publicexpenditure as a result of thelegacy of the Troubles.It remains to be seen

whether the two governments– especially the UK govern-ment – will step up to theplate. To date, the CameronGovernment has resisted anydrawing back from the deepausterity programme that isbeing implemented across theUK. It considers that a conces-sion to Northern Ireland onwelfare spending or on publicexpenditure allocation gener-ally could signal the beginningof a retreat across the wholeof the UK.The revolt in the House of

Lords against the attacks onworking tax credits for work-ing families is a reminder thatdespite its majority in Parlia-ment, the Government can bedefeated on its most dracon-ian policies.While the Northern Ireland

Executive is implementingcuts, albeit as a result of budg-ets having been drastically cutby Westminster, the prospectof a significant period of DirectRule poses a greater threat tothe interests of NIPSA mem-bers both as public servantsand citizens in the wider com-munity.A Direct Rule administration,

unless it takes a minimalist ap-proach in the expectation thatlocal political parties will beback running the administra-tion after a brief hiatus, wouldin all likelihood implement theworst elements of the UK Gov-ernment’s ideologically-driven,pro-market agenda.

Increased privatisation, in-cluding the selling off to theprivate sector of Translink andNI Water, would be the order ofthe day. Increased marketiza-tion of the Health Service, ram-pant in England, would featuresignificantly more than todate. Water charges would accom-

pany the privatisation of NIWater, free transport for theover 60s would be a casualtyand a host of other negativepolicies would be introducedwhich take no account of thespecial circumstances thatpertain to Northern Irelandarising out of 30 to 40 years ofconflict not to mention that thesame public expenditure poli-cies being pursued in GreatBritain are devastating serv-ices to communities and dis-appearing decent publicsector jobs from the economy.In order to build a society

emerging from conflict anddecades of underinvestment,Northern Ireland needs im-proved public services notmassive cutbacks. It needs in-vestment in skills and trainingand it needs jobs, in both thepublic and private sectors. It cannot afford the “down-

sizing” of the public serviceworkforce with the loss of po-tentially 30,000 over the nextfew years. By the end of Marchnext year, more than 3,000Civil Service jobs will havebeen disappeared – hundredsof jobs have been destroyed in

the NI Housing Executive at atime when homelessness isstill a major problem, the Mod-ern Languages faculty at theUniversity of Ulster will close,hundreds and hundreds ofcommunity-based jobs in thevoluntary and community sec-tor have already been cut. Thislist can be added to and addedto almost ad infinitum.We have seen our local

politicians railing against theloss of jobs of 800-plus jobs atMichelin and a further 1,000 atJT Tobacco in Ballymena butthey fail to notice the ironywhen it is pointed out that theythemselves will be responsiblefor the loss of more than 3,200jobs in the NI Civil Service byMarch next year.Think of all these jobs that

were contributing to the well-being of the community andthen think about the untolddamage that will be causedwith their destruction. Northern Ireland, as a matter

of fact, is part of the sixthlargest economy in the worldin the early 21st Century yetwe are told we can no longerafford to do the things that wetook for granted and whichwere a matter of course sincethe end of World War Two – aproperly-funded health and so-cial services system, adequatesocial security protection forthose who lose their way ortheir jobs or who are too ill tosurvive without state support;annual wage increases for

those employed to deliver theimportant public services thatsociety relies on; and decentemployment opportunities foryoung people leaving schooland college.The trade unions are the

only organised groupingstanding up for the principlesunderpinning a decent and fairsociety. And in order tosmooth the way for the furtheradvance of the “market”, thetrade unions, already subjectto the most stringent legisla-tion in Europe, have to be fur-ther emasculated. The Trade Union Bill, which

under devolved governmentNorthern Ireland will bespared, is designed to make iteven more difficult for tradeunions to defend their mem-bers and to make it more diffi-cult to take action to defendpublic services.Ultimately we would be in a

better position to conduct ourbattles with our own regionaladministration, with our lo-cally-elected political partiesand with local employers’ bod-ies than having to do so withthe Westminster-based elitethat care little or nothing forNorthern Ireland and for whomthere are no electoral conse-quences for decisions theymake in a Direct Rule sce-nario.The prospect of a Northern

Ireland Government imple-menting further cuts is daunt-ing enough but at least ourlocal masters are more likelyto heed the demands of thepeople of Northern Ireland inpart if not in total and we needto recognise that the politicalarrangements that we haverepresent an historic compro-mise which, while far from per-fect, has at least ensured thatwidespread violence, deathand destruction has been con-signed to the past.Be that as it may, the trade

union movement must con-tinue to do battle with both ourown local political administra-tion and the UK Government inthe struggle for economic andsocial justice and equality.

Brian Campfield,General Secretary

Whatever happens at Stormont, thebattle against cuts must continue…

EDITORIAL

TUC leader Frances O’Grady swore to con-tinue the fight against the Tories’ TradeUnion Bill despite it being passed by MPs.

The Bill received a procedural first reading inthe Lords on Nov 11 after the Tories won thefinal Commons vote by 305 to 271.

Ms O’Grady admitted that the defeat was“disappointing” but said: “The campaign against

the Bill is far from over. We will continue to op-pose it as it goes through the House of Lords.”

Ms O’Grady said she found cause for opti-mism in the final Commons debate.

The government was forced to delay by ayear changes to the check-off system underwhich many members’ trade union dues aretaken directly from their salaries on pay day.

NIPSA NEWSNIPSA Harkin House, 54 Wellington Park,

Belfast BT9 6DP, Tel: 028 90661831 Fax 028 90665847or email: alison.millar@nipsa.org.uk Editorial contact details: Bob Milleremail: bob.miller@nipsa.org.uk

Correspondence should be sent to the above address.Unless otherwise stated, the views contained inNIPSA NEWS do not necessarily reflect the

policy of the trade union NIPSA.

Trade Union Bill battle goes to the Lords

Page 3NEWS

LAW Centre (NI) successfully repre-sented a former civil servant who hadappealed a decision to reduce her Inca-pacity Benefit because the Social Secu-rity Agency had said her civil serviceinjury award was equivalent to a pen-sion and therefore affected her entitle-ment.The Department of Finance and Personnel,which is responsible for the scheme, pro-vided evidence that this type of payment isnot a pension but is discretionary andsolely attributable to accident or illness,and therefore an Appeal Tribunal allowedthe appeal.Meanwhile, the client migrated to Employ-ment and Support Allowance (ESA) and theLaw Centre ran a parallel appeal for ESA.The ESA office has now revised its decision

in the client’s favour, paid arrears of £1,200and increased ESA by £20 per week. How-ever, ESA office stated that the decisiononly applies to this case.Patricia Carty solicitor, social security legaladviser at the Law Centre, said: “Althoughthis is a good result for the client, the deci-sion unfortunately leaves the issue unre-solved for other former civil servants insimilar circumstances. People who con-tinue to be affected by this issue shouldcontact the Law Centre for advice. Wewould seek to join their cases together andhopefully obtain a positive decision foreveryone in receipt of the civil service injuryaward.”The Law Centre’s advice line can be con-tacted Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 1pm:028 9024 4401 or 028 7126 2433.

NIPSA has hit out atplans for “yet anothershake-up” in the waythat health provision isdelivered in NorthernIreland.It comes as Stormont

Health Minister SimonHamilton released in-formation about thestructural changes tothe Health Service lo-cally in advance ofbriefing staff or tradeunions.Deputy General Sec-

retary Alison Millarsaid: “This is yet an-other shake-up/reviewof the Health Service.The Health Service hasspent hundreds ofthousands of poundson reports and otherinitiatives such asTransforming YourCare, which eithergather dust or are notimplemented.“This latest expected

announcement fromthe Minister will leavestaff and NIPSA mem-bers in the PHA andHSCB worrying for upto a further two years

about their jobs, theirfuture careers andwhat this will mean forthem in terms of loca-tion of jobs and a raftof other terms andconditions issues.”She added: “It is un-

acceptable that theMinister ignored themany requests fromNIPSA for a briefing inadvance of the an-nouncement so thatNIPSA would be in aposition to address themany questions thatmembers will haveabout this announce-ment.”NIPSA has now

called for an earlymeeting with the ChiefExecutives and Perma-nent Secretary overthe implications of theMinister’s announce-ment in early Novem-ber. And Ms Millar vowed

that whatever the out-come, the union wouldensure that members’terms, conditions andjob security was “fullyprotected”.

UNDER the NICS Comprehensive Pay and GradingReview, management proposed that focused gradingexercises should be held in a number of key areas.

However, NIPSA, responding to representations froma number of branches, proposed the inclusion of furthergrades (Branch Secretary Circular CS 17/14 provided in-formation on the generic terms of reference and the in-dicative grades to be examined).

NICS management intended to conduct reviewsacross each of the functional areas as grading analystresources became available.

Currently three reviews are under way – the Agricul-tural Inspectorate of the Department of Agriculture andRural Development as well as two NICS-wide reviewscovering librarian and legal grades.

The latter two reviews are at an early stage with, in thecase of legal grades, ongoing discussions to agree arepresentative sample of posts that will be subject toevaluation.

Job questionnaires have been issued in the librarianreview. A number of these questionnaires have alreadybeen returned and a limited number of job descriptionshave been drafted. It is understood management willshortly be chasing up job questionnaires that have notbeen returned.

NIPSA has conducted JEGS awareness sessions withmembers in the Agricultural Inspectorate and the librar-ian grades. Sessions will be arranged for members inthe legal grades on completion and agreement of therepresentative sample group.

The review of the Agricultural Inspectorate is at a more

advanced stage. Representations at an earlier stage re-sulted in the representative sample of posts being ex-panded to capture some important functional areasomitted from the sample originally proposed.

Members and representatives had also expressedconcern about the lack of engagement in terms of localconsultation particularly on the part of the grading ana-lysts.

A number of meetings were also held with departmen-tal management as members had a lack of confidence inthe JEGS process, believing that important operationalfactors would not be captured by the JEGS review.

More recently informal discussions were held betweenNIPSA, Corporate HR and DARD departmental manage-ment when JEGS scores had been requested.

In these discussions it became evident that a numberof key reviews of processes being undertaken by DARDmanagement could lead to a significant change in rolesand responsibilities for Agricultural Inspectorate posts.

In such circumstances it would not make sense to con-clude grading determinations and it has therefore beenagreed not to proceed to the next stage of the JEGSprocess.

DARD management will continue to develop the pro-posed future work structure of the Agricultural Inspec-torate, taking account of changing business needs.

Corporate HR will be consulted about this in order toinform their review of the Agricultural Inspectorate inconsultation with Central Trade Union Side under theComprehensive Pay and Grading Review process.

THE number of zerohours contracts recordedby official statistics hassharply increased in thelast year, according to theOffice for National Statis-tics.

There were 744,000 peo-ple working in contracts thatdo not guarantee a mini-mum number of hours be-tween April to June 2015,the ONS said.

This amounts to 2.4 percent of people in employ-ment, or approximately one-in-forty people with a job.

The figures posted a sub-stantial rise from the sameperiod last year when624,000 or 2.0 per cent ofpeople in employment wererecorded as being on azero-hours contract.

The year-on-year in-crease is roughly 19.2 percent.

The ONS howeverwarned that part of the risecould be due to increasedrecognition of the term“zero hours contract”.

“It is not possible to sayhow much of this increaseis due to greater recognitionof the term ‘zero hours con-tracts’ rather than new con-tracts,” the organisationexplained in the summaryto its statistical release.

Update on NICSgrading reviews

Zero hour contracts rise by 20%

Law Centre client wins ESACivil Service injury award case

NIPSA vows to protecthealth members jobs asnew shake-up announced

PAY in the public sector is growing atless than half the rate of that in the pri-vate sector, official figures showedyesterday.Heroic public servants’ dosh has in-

creased by just 1.2 per cent in the pastyear compared to a 3.4 per cent rise forthose toiling at private firms.Office for National Statistics figures

also showed that pay rates have fallen

over the past two months.“While private-sector wages have

made up some lost ground, public-sec-tor workers are increasingly falling be-hind,” said TUC general secretaryFrances O’Grady.“We need a recovery that works for

everyone across the country, regard-less of which region or sector theywork in.”

Pay rise half as fast for public servants as for private staff

IT’S the time of year when NIPSA brancheshold their Annual General Meetings (AGMs)and elect their branch committee, which willbe central in the fight against the publicspending cuts facing our members.The fight will be on the ground…NIPSA will be taking continuous action against

austerity measures that target Northern Irelandpublic sector workers. In whatever form that ac-tion takes in your workplace, local representa-tives will be key in contributing to NIPSA’sresistance to these attacks.

Industrial action is only as strong as the peo-ple in support of it and the more representativeswe have, the stronger we will be.

Branches need to be growing committees andreaching all areas, levels and diversities in yourworkplace so your members are connected withNIPSA and what we are doing for them.

With greater organisation and membershipnumbers in a branch, comes a stronger footingfor the committee, allowing it to deliver moremeaningful and successful industrial action.

Benefits of having a rep in every workplace…

It is encouraged that in all areas of your

branch there is a representative on site, to en-sure direct access to the many benefits NIPSAprovides.

Trade union-organised workplaces are safer,more harmonious environments. Every building,department, floor and office in your branch canbenefit from having a closer link with NIPSA andthe information, advice and representation weprovide.

Represented workplaces have a greaterknowledge of changes taking place in the widerpublic sector and in their workplace. You will findoffices without on-site reps may feel detached orsuffer from a delay in the flow of information.

Representatives build the branch, recruit newmembers and maintain NIPSA’s strength. Thefurther spread your committee is, the more likelythe branch will be able to reach new staff andpotential new members as well as mappingworkplaces more accurately.

Benefits for the new rep…There are many benefits to becoming a repre-

sentative. Being a rep is interesting and educa-tional. You learn more about your workplace andmanagerial procedures.

You can attend our fully-accredited trainingcourses to increase your knowledge and skills.

You can tailor your representation to one of yourinterests (Health & Safety, Equality, UnionLearning & Training).

It’s also rewarding to know that you are help-ing your colleagues and improving your work-place.

New reps will have the support of the existingBranch Committee and NIPSA’s employees andstarting out as trade union representative is notas hard as members may think. Members canstart off small, as points of contact and slowlybuild up their experience.This time is vital…

We ask branches to convey these benefits totheir members in the build-up to their AGM andpay additional attention to strengthening theircommittees at this vital time.

It has never been more important to have thesupport we will need and on-site representativesare the most well-equipped with local knowl-edge and expertise, in order to rally support, ad-minister industrial action and recruit moremembers.

Strength in numbers is key – whether it is atthe higher reaches of your union or right downto the shop floor.

THE Annual General Meeting of the Depart-ment of Justice Departmental Committeetook place in July.

Though the AGM was held against a backdropof deepening cuts within the DOJ, NIPSA repsare more determined than ever to protect the in-terests of staff.

NIPSA Deputy General Secretary Alison Millarwas the principal speaker at the AGM which wasattended by representatives from branchesacross the Department including the NI Courts &Tribunal Service, the Legal Services Agency, NIPrison Service, Youth Justice Agency (YJA),Forensic Services NI and directorates within the

core Department.Over the previous 12 months there had been

a significant amount of activity in each of theseareas including an industrial dispute within theYJA, consultation over Courthouse closures,staff and grading reviews as well as a range ofvery important health and safety issues acrossthe Department.

Also since the holding of the previous AGM,the Legal Services Commission had become anAgency within the Department. As a result,NIPSA officials and the local branch were heav-ily engaged in resolving a range of pay and pen-sion issues.

DOJ reps also played a crucial role in organis-ing the widespread industrial action againstbudget, staff and pay cuts on March 13 andthere was much discussion at the AGM aboutthe way forward. Concerns were also voicedabout the loss of more staff in the event the VESscheme proceeds.

In her address Alison Millar outlined thethreats faced by public servants and by NIPSAin other areas of the public sector as well as thecontinuing work of building opposition to theausterity agenda.

She gave the AGM an outline of previousmass reorganisations within both the Housing

Calling all potential reps– taking the next step…

DOJ reps determined as they face an

Page 4 NEWS

THE last few years has seen anincrease in the number of foodbanks operating in Northern Ire-land. The Department for SocialDevelopment (DSD) recently un-dertook research to better un-derstand why people need touse these.

Their research, An Insight intoFood Banks in Northern Ireland,found that a third of people inNorthern Ireland have to use thefood banks.

Who is using the food banks?Based on the data provided to

the DSD by the individual foodbanks, they were able to tell thatthe primary user of food banks isaged between 25 and 64.

For one smaller independent

Belfast food bank they visited,benefit issues were the main rea-son that people had to use theirfacilities. However, outside ofBelfast ‘low income’ generallytopped the list as the main reasonfor using food banks.

In order for the researchers toget a more in-depth picture, face-to-face surveys with users werecompleted at food banks in Belfast(two food banks) Bangor, Ban-bridge, Cookstown, and Strabane.There are other food banks oper-ating in other NI towns.

The surveys results showedthat:l Almost three quarters of respon-dents who completed the surveyhad used a food bank previouslylThree-quarters (75%) of the sur-

vey respondents said they wereunemployed, with the remainingquarter (25%) stating they were inemployment.l Almost four-fifths (78%) of sur-vey respondents were receiving atleast one benefit.l The most common single bene-fit received was ‘Housing Benefit’,with 80% of respondents on bene-fits receiving it.

Why do people need to use the food banks?

l A third (33%) of respondentsstated ‘low income’ as a reason forwhy they needed to contact thefood bank. This can include bothlow income from employment and/or social security benefits.l Just over a fifth (22%) of those

who were surveyed cited ‘difficultybudgeting’ as the cause for visitingthe food bank.l Delays with social security ben-efits and debt were each men-tioned by 18% of respondents asan explanation for being referredto a food bank.l ‘Changes to a benefit claim’ wasnoted by 16% as being a con-tributing factor for referral.

The full report can be found onthe DSD website(http://www.dsdni.gov.uk/ssa-food-bank-research.pdf).lSee more at: http://housin-grights.org.uk/news/low-in-come-top-reason-food-bank-use-ni#sthash.wv30hsjk.dpuf

Low income is the top reason for

Executive and Health Service and underlinedthe urgent need to draw on the union’s collectiveexperience as members dealt with similarthreats in the NICS.

The AGM was also an opportunity to elect anew Departmental Chairperson and Vice-Chair-person with Sean Brown and Lorna Glass suc-cessfully elected.

Tribute was also paid to current DepartmentalSecretary Bryan Milford on what was likely to behis final DOJ AGM. Bryan has been a NIPSAstalwart since the early 1970s and a genuinedefender of workers. His hard work and determi-nation will be missed.

For the first time the AGM was held in Hyde-bank Wood Secure College. Reps took the op-portunity to sample the menu at the Cabin Café,a new project where young offenders are incharge of running the restaurant.

The restaurant is self-supporting and was ahuge hit with AGM participants – a fact also notmissed by The Guardian in a recent review ofthe food on offer there.

NICS staff based in and around Hydebankhave the opportunity to order food from the Café– something DOJ reps were particularly jealousof!

PAST editions of NIPSANews have carried articlesrelating to overtime and thecalculation of holiday pay.

In 2011, the case law estab-lished in Williams & Others -v- British Airways stated thatany aspect of pay that is in-trinsically linked to the per-formance of tasks that theworker is required to carry outand in respect of which amonetary amount is providedhas to be included in the cal-culation of the worker’s totalremuneration.

Since then there have beenother significant rulings.These included Neal -v-Freightliner Ltd 2012, Elms -v- Balfour Beatty UtilitiesSolutions Ltd 2012 and,more recently, Bear ScotlandLtd & Others -v- Fulton &Others, Hertel (UK) Ltd -v-Woods & Others and, ofcourse, Patterson -v-Castlereagh Borough Coun-cil where Mr Pattersonworked a significant numberof hours on voluntary over-time.

In June this year, the North-

ern Ireland Court of Appealjudges expressed surprise atthe Tribunal’s assumption thatpurely voluntary overtimedoes not need to be includedin holiday pay. The Court ofAppeal judges indicated thatin light of the employer’s con-cession, the appeal was al-lowed and judgement wasdelivered on June 26 confirm-ing that position.

The significance of theserulings for Northern Irelandcivil servants, has been raisedwith the Management Side ofthe Central Whitely.

Trade Union Side hasraised the need for the StaffHandbook chapters to be up-dated reflecting the implica-tions of the Stringer case onannual leave entitlement andsick absence, the revised divi-sor for calculation of over-taken/undertaken annualleave and the implications ofPatterson et al cases on over-time and holiday pay.

NICS management acceptthe need for a number of StaffHandbook provisions to beupdated and NIPSA under-

stands that following TradeUnion Side representations,Departments are being ad-vised of the range of legalcases resulting in overtimebeing taken into account, incertain circumstances, in rela-tion to paying holiday pay.

Departments are being ad-vised to be frugal when con-sidering overtimerequirements in the current fi-nancial climate and in light ofthe legal judgements such asthe Patterson -v- CastlereaghBorough Council case.

Departments are beingtasked with providing informa-tion to Corporate HR to assistin the negotiations beingtaken forward through CentralWhitley. This will hopefully re-sult in direction being given toDepartments on the require-ments and circumstanceswhere the calculation of holi-day pay takes account ofovertime worked.

After all, surely NICS man-agement and Departmentswill wish to avoid further litiga-tion.

other challenging year

Overtime and holiday payon Central Whitley agenda

Page 5NEWS

food bank use in NI

THE July budget saw Chancellor George Os-borne having another major go at pensionsand, in particular, public service pensions.

It has been the mantra of successive govern-ments that people should plan for their retirementand, in particular, do so through joining an occupa-tional pension scheme or, at least, the defaultNEST scheme run by government. Yet at everybudget – and more often than not – at each au-tumn statement there is a further assault on pen-sion provision.

It is not surprising, therefore, that Osborne gaveus more of the same in his July budget.

This time there were three attacks – one tar-geted solely at the public service with a cap beingplaced on the total value of exit (redundancy) pay-ments. The other two related to tax relief on pen-sion contributions and the amounts of tax reliefboth for annual pension contributions and the totallifetime value of pensions.

The proposed cap on public sector exit pay-ments not only seeks to limit the value of the pay-ment but also would include the actuarial cost ofearly payment of pension which can be very signifi-cant, so much so that it could totally erode the re-dundancy payment lump sum.

Osborne is also seeking to attack contractual en-titlements by including the value of any paymentfor pay in lieu of notice and also any payment tocompensate for accrued leave which was nottaken.

NIPSA responded to the consultation objectingnot just to the specific proposals but to the veryovert threat in the consultation document of yet fur-ther attacks on public sector redundancy pay-ments.

These could include limiting the value of the paylevel for calculation purposes to the statutory maxi-mum weekly cap for the state underpinning redun-dancy scheme and/or the number of years to becounted.

The proposals require legislative consent andNIPSA in conjunction with NIC-ICTU is opposingnot only this measure of convenience but in provid-ing evidence to the Northern Ireland AssemblyDFP Committee has raised significant objections tothe proposals.

It would be grossly unfair to introduce suchchanges from April 1 next year in the midst of vol-untary early retirement schemes – this would resultin unfair differential treatment depending upon exitdates.

The other changes, while technical and relatedto tax, will – if introduced – ensure that peoplehave to pay a lot more for their pensions due to re-ductions in tax relief.

In the main this will assist the very well paid whocontribute to private pensions and whose account-ants will find the usual loopholes and workarounds. These proposals are in the main aimedat further undermining defined benefit pensionschemes such as the public service schemes – somuch for the last government’s commitment to nomajor changes for 25 years.

All this, of course, doesn’t recognise the alreadylegislated-for changes from next April with the end-ing of contracting out. This will see a 1.4% in-crease in employee National Insurancecontributions and a 3.4% increase on the employercosts.

With yet further attacks on public service pay,working family tax credits being the main target forphase II of Welfare Reform, it would not be a sur-prise to see massive opt-outs from pensionschemes especially as they become more costly.

How does this all square with the policy of plan-ning for retirement through individual responsibilityto ensure workers have an occupational pension tosupport the inadequate flat rate state old age pen-sion to be introduced from April 2016?

Then there is the autumn statement still to comeand no doubt more adverse changes to pensionprovision…

Governmentwon’t leavepensions alone

SOME of the NIPSA members, reps and of-ficials who took their fight for equal paycompensation to Stormont on October 12. They were there to lobby MLAs and

watch them debate a motion tabled by theUUP which calls on the resolution of thelongstanding injustice which has meantstaff working for the DOJ/former NIO andPSNI have lost thousands in equal paycompensation because their public servicein these areas has been discounted. Mem-bers met representatives from most of themain parties and put pressure on them totable the issue during the current cross-party talks. UUP leader Mike Nesbitt confirmed after

meeting the delegation that he was pre-pared to add this to the talks agenda. Politicians were left in no doubt that

NIPSA members were determined to seethis issue through to the end.

Page 6 NEWS

Equal pay compensationfight goes to Stormont

NIPSA gave a cautious welcometo the August 25 statement fromthe three Finance Ministers ofNorthern Ireland, Scotland andWales, describing the cuts as toofast and too far.Commenting on the joint com-

muniqué, Deputy General Secre-tary Alison Millar told NIPSANews: “While this is a welcomejoint initiative, it really just re-peats similar comments made in2010 by the previous FinanceMinisters of the devolved coun-tries – yet no real action wastaken by the devolved adminis-trations to resist these cutswhich will eventually devastatecommunities.”She called on the devolved ad-

ministrations to “develop a planof action that will maximise thepressure on the WestminsterGovernment and force a halt to

the massive and unprecedentedcuts to public services and so-cial security provision”.Ms Millar warned: “The Nasty

Party is back in power and is act-ing ruthlessly in the interests ofbig business as it takes a wreck-ing ball to our public serviceswhile at the same time reducingtax on company profits andemasculating the trade unionmovement’s capacity to maintainwage levels and protect jobs.”She added: “The devolved re-

gions have everything in com-mon with many of the poorerregions of England and MPsfrom Northern Ireland shouldalong with their counterparts inScotland, Wales and England de-vise a plan to thwart any at-tempts to force through furthercuts in the Westminster Parlia-ment.”

NIPSA welcomes Finance Ministers’words but calls for action too RECENTLY elected UK

Labour Party leader JeremyCorbyn pledged to solveUK’s joblessness crisis bycreating a new Ministry ofLabour.Mr Corbyn (pictured right)said a Labour governmentunder his leadership wouldimmediately introduce a“comprehensive” law pro-tecting workers’ rights andrepealing curbs on union or-ganising.The pledge comes as a

group of 12 academics spe-cialising in labour relationssaid the Tories’ Trade UnionBill was “the most sustainedattack on trade union andworkers’ rights since theCombination Laws.”Mr Corbyn said the UK re-

quired a “specific govern-ment department whose jobis to deal with work andworking conditions, healthand safety and the issuesthat go with that.”

He said Britain’s work-places were plagued by aculture where it was “tooeasy to sack people, thereare too few employmentrights and too little accessto employment justice andto employment tribunals.”l NI Minister in vow not tointroduce latest round ofTory anti-union laws here -See page 10.

Corbyn in newMinistry ofLabour pledge

www.facebook.com/nipsaunion

@nipsaVisit the union’s website forall the latest updates at:

http://www.nipsa.org.uk for

IT IS estimated that around 166,700 em-ployees, or 23% of the total in Northern Ire-land earned below £7.20 per hour in April2014.

On the face of it, UK Chancellor, GeorgeOsborne's announcement that the UK mini-mum wage would rise to £7.20 by next year isgood news for many of these workers.

In the most recent UK budget the Govern-ment has committed itself to the gradual im-plementation of a ‘National Living Wage’defined with reference to an hourly gross payof £7.20 for all workers in the UK, includingNorthern Ireland, aged 25 and over by April2016.

This would be roughly equivalent to €10.30at current exchange rates but not taking ac-count of differences in the cost of living, socialcharges as well as the ‘social wage’.

The idea of a living wage can be a conven-ient and cosy one for politicians and variousorganisations in so far as it can be producedas a saving conscience measure while the re-gressive nature of wider social policy is notconsidered.

While definitions and measurements vary,the incidence of low pay is high in the UnitedKingdom, including Northern Ireland. My col-league Paul MacFlynn has profiled the extentand distribution of low pay in Northern Ireland(http://www.nerinstitute.net/download/pdf/hours_and_earnings_in_ni_neri_wp17.pdf –Hours and Earnings in the Northern IrelandLabour Market). In 2014, over one in four em-ployees were low paid and the rate is above50% in the ‘hospitality’ sector (restaurants, ho-tels and retail).

Care is needed in defining and measuring a‘living wage’ as well as its converse ‘povertywages’. This is not an exact science. It shouldbe remembered that the hours of paid work aswell as the various monetary and non-mone-tary conditions surrounding a job such as paidleave as well as contributions (if any) towardspensions and job tenure are vital to determin-ing the impact of work on household income.

Moreover, there is a world of a differencebetween a household comprising someonewho earns half a million pounds and a partnerwho earns the current UK National Minimum

Wage (NMW) £6.50 an hour. A rate of £7.20per hour would represent an increase of 70pence per hour over the current NMW. Itwould still be 65 pence short of what the UKLiving Wage Foundation (http://www.living-wage.org.uk/calculation) consider a livingwage for those parts of the UK outside of Lon-don.

The long-term aim of the conservative gov-ernment is to increase the NLW to 60% of me-dian hourly earnings by 2020 (about £9 perhour in current value terms).

This seems like a positive development es-pecially as it might help to undo some of thedamage caused to living standards among the‘working poor’ – those living below an agreedpoverty line.

However, at the same time, the UK Govern-ment is to reduce UK universal credits verysignificantly. For many workers, this will morethan negate the impact of any increase in theminimum wage. Ironically, the cut in the uni-versal credits will have the impact of raisingthe estimated UK living wage since included inthe calculation is the interaction betweenearnings, taxes and the minimum standard ofliving.

Furthermore, there is an angle that has notreceived much attention – businesses will re-ceive new tax reductions by way of lower cor-porate tax (the ‘headline’ rate will fall to 18%by 2020). It would not be at all surprising ifthe Irish Government runs with the recom-mendation of the Irish Low Pay Commissionto increase the Irish National Minimum Wageby 50 euro cent and, at the same time, pro-vide tax relief by way of lower employer pay-related social insurance to be announced inOctober 2016.

To be blunt – both UK and Irish Govern-ments are offering a limited uplift to some lowpaid workers to compensate for reductions inreal pay over recent years but by means of asubsidy to employers who, by comparisonwith other European States, pay much less byway of social insurance.

Indeed, both Governments are proud of

their record in removing more and workersfrom the income tax net. It is a faustian pactby which the State partly subsidises employ-ers to pay somewhat higher hourly wage ratesthan might otherwise have been the case butin return for a lower social wage – in the lon-grun. The bigger picture is:l Rising levels of low pay in some OECDcountries including the UK and Irelandl Lower incidence of income tax generally in-cluding those on low payl Poorer social insurance support and provi-sionl Lower corporate/employer tax contributions

And countries competing for workers and in-vestment (such as Ireland and UK) are ad-vised not to step out of line by raising taxes orover-pricing labour. It is a slow, gradual andregressive crawl to the bottom of the equalityladder and tax and welfare policy is part of thestory.

Frequently, the idea or policy of a ‘livingwage’ (no matter who measured or imple-mented) is dismissed as irrelevant or danger-ous because of its potential impact onenterprise costs and employment (the claim isthat any significant increase in wages will leadto fewer workers being hired or higher priceswhich put businesses at greater competitiverisk). In last month’s Inflation Report(http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publica-tions/Pages/inflationreport/2015/aug.aspx)released by the Bank of England the impact ofthe UK ‘National Living Wage’ was describedas ‘uncertain but estimated to be small’. Echo-ing similar findings from the UK Low PayCommission, analysts at the Bank concludethat:

“Past evidence suggests that companieshave partly responded in ways other thanby increasing prices: for example, theyhave adjusted pay structures and reducedother labour costs, such as overtime pay.There is also limited evidence of increasesin the National Minimum Wage affectingaggregate employment in the United King-dom.”

lFight for living wage - see pages 8/9

NIPSA’S latest Policy and Researchpublication, ‘A Failure of Imagination –The Stormont House Agreement andBudget Choices for Northern Ireland’,produced in conjunction with NERIeconomist Paul MacFlynn, exposes thefailure that lies at the heart of the Stor-mont House Agreement. General Secretary Brian Campfield

told NIPSA News: “The booklet looksbehind the ’spin’ and explores whatmoney from the Treasury is REALLY onthe table. “It also looks at the threat the Agree-

ment poses in terms of massive publicsector job losses; the sale of public as-sets on a huge scale; the weakening ofpublic sector delivery models and a di-lution of the principles that underwriteuniversal Social Security provision. “In short, the publication highlights

how the matters under debate go far be-yond who agreed what on welfare re-form.”

NIPSA Policy/Research Officer JohnMcVey said: “Against the backdrop of amainstream media coverage that onlyfocuses on in-fighting in the Executiveor ‘crisis’ talks about Stormont’s future,we should not lose sight of what budgetdecisions were made at StormontHouse and how regressive and damag-ing these were – both for public ser-vants and for society in general.”He added: “In particular it is essential

that we emphasise that the economicchoices on offer do not HAVE to displaythis ‘failure of imagination’ and that bor-rowing for economic purposes could beused to build and invest – not to destroyjobs and cut services.”

l The booklet can be downloaded athttp://www.nipsa.org.uk/NIPSA-in-Ac-tion/Policy-and-Research. Printedcopies are also available from Lesley-Anne Scott at NIPSA HQ. Email les-leyanne.scott@nipsa.org.uk

UK 'Living Wage' move does not go far enough

Exposing failure at heartof Stormont House deal

Page 7NEWS

By Tom Healy, Director of NERI

Matthew Austin, 25, from Bristol, is celebrat-ing some very good news. A PhD student atthe University of Reading specialising in kin-ship in Anglo-Saxon England, he is also a re-cruit to the People’s Movement, launched onSunday, November 1, as part of Living WageWeek (http://www.livingwage.org.uk/living-wage-week).

Eighteen months ago, he and a friend begancompiling a cost benefit analysis to persuade theuniversity to adopt the living wage for its staff.He involved hundreds of students, organising apetition with a bungee rope game at the fresh-ers’ fair to show what it feels like when economicsecurity is always just out of reach.

And on Tuesday, October 27, Austin heardthat the university will vote on his proposal to be-come a living wage employer at its next councilmeeting. “It’s cracking news,” he says. “Gettinginvolved in the campaign is one of the bestthings I’ve ever done. A living wage makessense ethically and from a business point ofview. An ordinary person like me can bring aboutchange. That’s powerful.”

Day after day last week, across the country,the plight of the working poor was brought vividlyto life, as employee after employee gave testi-mony in the media on the impact of the pro-posed tax credit cuts to their minimal wages.

According to the charity, the Child Poverty Ac-tion Group (http://www.cpag.org.uk), withoutthe improvement that the chancellor, GeorgeOsborne, now promises in his autumn statementin three weeks, after the tax credits defeat in theHouse of Lords, a sole earner working full-timeas a hospital porter was set to lose £2,049 ayear; a dental nurse £2,027; and a teaching as-sistant £1,896. These are sums that also revealthe extent to which the public purse subsidiseslow-paying employers.

“These are grafting parents, often workinglong hours and trying to provide for their chil-dren,” says Alison Garnham, the Child PovertyAction Group chief executive. “The governmenthas had the message loud and clear from rightacross the political spectrum: there isn’t a casefor cuts that target working families, increasechild poverty and damage family security.”

Living Wage Week, an annual event coordi-nated by the charity and community organisersCitizens UK (http://www.citizensuk.org), islaunched with new research published at the be-ginning of November that reveals that almost sixmillion people (23% of the working population)are paid less than the living wage. This is nearlyhalf a million more than last year and an in-crease for the third year in a row – up from 21%in 2013 and 22% in 2014. The living wage is notto be confused with the lower-rate “national liv-ing wage” announced by Osborne in his summerbudget.

Against a backdrop of rising wages and fallingunemployment, the news for those at the bottomof the pay ladder remains bleak, especiallyamong women and young people. Seven out of

10 of those aged 18-21 now earn less than theliving wage and 29% of working women (com-pared with 18% of men). On Monday, November2, the new hourly rate for the living wage wasannounced – currently £9.15 an hour in Londonand £7.85 outside London – along with the nam-ing of the 2,000th organisation, a FTSE 100company, to pay the living wage and gain ac-creditation from the Living Wage Foundation(http://www.livingwage.org.uk). It follows thenews that Ikea, Oliver Bonas and Aldi are all toincrease their hourly rate.

The living wage campaign, initiated in 2001 bya group of churches, charities, trade unions andschools in the east end of London, has madehuge strides. That progress may be impeded,however, by Osborne’s political conjuring trick,which threatens to give the illusion of establish-ing a socially just wage floor for all. In July, Os-borne announced a compulsory “national livingwage” from next April, promising a pay rise for2.5 million people. For over-25s, the rate will be£7.20 an hour, rising to reach 60% of the medianwage across the country, possibly £9 an hour, by2020, although the Low Pay Commission will es-timate what the market can bear. Potentially, it isan increase that the Office for Budget Responsi-bility calculates will boost the income of thepoorest by 13% by 2020.

So why do we still need a Living Wage Week?Neil Jameson, founder of Citizens UK, says Os-borne’s “national living wage” is more accuratelya higher national minimum wage, now set at£6.70 for over-21s. “Of course, we welcome anincrease. By 2020 it will be the highest nationalminimum wage in Europe. But it still won’t beenough to live on,” he says. “It’s based on whatthe market can afford, not what a family needsso they can spend time together and have somequality of life. It’s compulsory, not voluntary; itwill be hard to police; and, in the long term, webelieve it will deliver far less for those who al-ready receive very little in their wage packets.The 2020 target, for instance, is already lowerthan the London living wage now and we knowthere are already over a million Londoners in

poverty in a working family – up 70% in adecade.”

Osborne may have kidnapped the language ofthe living wage and mutated its economic andsocial impact, but Jameson says the chancellorhas also created a new danger. Under-25s re-main on the minimum wage; for those aged 18-20 that is £5.70 an hour. “In social care, forinstance, we risk older people being looked afterby an army of the very young, because they willbe cheaper,” Jameson says. “The real livingwage includes everyone. Osborne’s higher na-tional minimum wage doesn’t. That is a vital dif-ference.” Citizens UK is considering how torefresh the real living wage campaign and makeit an even stronger brand for employers to signup to and feel the benefit. The living wage wasoriginally defined as “sufficient to provide an ad-equate level of warmth and shelter, a healthypalatable diet, social integration and avoidanceof chronic stress for earners and dependants”.

Even with Osborne’s increase, Jayne Mead-ows, 58, a care worker in a residential home forolder people, from Milton Keynes, Bucking-hamshire, says she will still face chronic stress.She has become a member of Citizens UK’sPeople’s Movement, launched as part of an ef-fort to make living-wage high streets the normacross the country. For more than a decade, Cit-izens UK has been composed of institutions andorganisations, now numbering 400, but now indi-viduals can become supporters, campaigning intheir own ways, in their own areas. Meadowssays her Quaker faith encouraged her to be-come active. She recently addressed a businesspeople’s meeting. “I stood up and told them whatit was like to take home £945 a month. I work12-hour shifts on the minimum wage. If I don’twork overtime, my rent takes up 50% of mywage packet.” She is delighted that two of thebusinessmen subsequently signed up to be-come living-wage employers.

Osborne’s change may mean she has to worksix hours fewer a week, she says, “but it won’tmake all that much difference financially. In resi-dential homes, competition means costs have

The fight for a living w in parliament, but in The launch of the People’s Movement is th living wage campaign that is uniting million

Page 8 NEWS

been cut to win contracts, so it’s difficult to seewho can afford to pay the living wage, but some-thing has to be done.”

The idea of the People’s Movement came fromEmily Kenway, 29, a former opera singer andnow campaigns organiser at the Living WageFoundation. At Christmas 2013, she was recu-perating from pneumonia when she read aboutthe pay and conditions in Amazon warehouses.“It struck a chord. I’d been a customer for yearsand was appalled by the treatment. I’d neverdone anything like that before, but I set up an e-petition in protest and it went viral. Then welisted a fake book for sale – called A LivingWage for Amazon Workers – on Amazon’s ownwebsite to hit it where it hurts, and we used so-cial media to spread the word.”

A remarkable interactive map launched by Citi-zens UK(http://www.livingwagemovement.org/map)on Sunday, November 1 shows how the livingwage is spreading across the UK. If you enteryour location, accredited living-wage employers– small shops and cafes, businesses and majorcompanies – in your area are listed and will beadded to, as numbers increase. “Consumershave clout,” Kenway says. “Shoppers canchoose to give their cash to employers who payfairly.” She acknowledges some businesses withvery narrow profit margins may find it difficult topay a living wage, but many who can don’t doso. “To be on the new map,” she adds, “employ-ers have to guarantee all their workers, includingcontract workers, are paid the living wage.”

According to research by KPMG, a living-wageemployer, while a quarter of FTSE 100 compa-nies are now accredited by the Living WageFoundation, 880,000 employees under 30 –many with degrees – earn less than a livingwage.

Torsten Bell, from the Resolution Foundationthinktank, has calculated that, if the cuts to taxcredits originally planned had gone ahead, a sin-gle earner on a minimum wage earning £15,000a year would have faced a drop in income of£1,500. That would not have been much offsetby Osborne’s rise in the “national living wage”.For every extra pound earned, 80p would be lostin reduced benefits and higher taxes. UnlessOsborne makes significant changes, a livingwage will still be out of reach.

The Gloucestershire towns of Dursley (popula-tion 5,500) and Cam (8,500) were once thrivingcommunities based on wool and then agricul-tural engineering. Now most people are on theminimum wage, sole traders and self-employed.Jobs are scarce, shops closing, transport linkspoor. “It costs £5.70 for an unemployed personto take the bus to sign on in Stroud. How muchdoes that leave in a pocket?” says London-bornMiriam Yagud, 59, a long-time local resident.

A qualified plumber, she founded the organisa-tion Women in Manual Trades in 1975. She wentto university as a mature student, retrained as ateacher and taught maths, English and farming

skills to 16- to 25-year-olds until taking voluntaryredundancy. She and her partner are also part ofNight Stop, a charity that provides accommoda-tion for homeless young people whose numbersare rising. “I have to do something that’s sociallyactive,” she says. “I don’t see any other purposefor being alive.” For Living Wage Week, she hasbeen asking people to fill in surveys on the costof living in a rural community like Dursley. “Itstimulates awareness of what is spent – anddebt is an issue – and triggers a conversation inthe community about what’s needed for a decentstandard of living and for businesses to survive.”She says that, despite the low income, the un-dertaker’s, a company run by women providingsocial care, a hardware shop and an eventscompany all pay the living wage. “A group of uswere thinking how we could reward local busi-nesses committed to paying the living wage. Wethought about bouquets then decided definitelynot. Paying the living wage is what should hap-pen.

Every person interviewed in the People’sMovement survey conceded that Osborne’s “na-tional living wage” had confused the public. Hismove has also resulted in other setbacks. Afteryears of negotiations, campaigners say thatJohn Lewis, Diageo and Tesco have cancelledmeetings with Citizens UK on the grounds thatthey are waiting for the government’s compul-sory living wage.

“Osborne’s higher minimum wage is welcome,but it’s not a wage on which families can sur-vive,” says Neil Jameson. “No chancellor or gov-ernment can take the people’s struggle for fairwages away from society. It’s a battle, but it’sone we are determined to win to ensure that thiscountry is built on a genuinely decent standardof living for all.”lTax Credits are our greatest weaponagainst inequality - See page 12.

■ The living wage is based on the calcula-tions of a decent standard of living. It is vol-untary. It applies to all employees apartfrom apprentices, interns and trainees. Theliving wage in London – updated on Mon-day, Nov 2 – is £9.40 an hour, comparedwith a median hourly rate of £15.82. OutsideLondon the rate is £8.25 (hourly median of£11.08).■ The government’s new “national livingwage” is compulsory and based on whatthe Low Pay Commission decides the mar-ket can bear. From April 2016 it will be £7.20an hour. It applies only to those over 25. Itis a single rate for London and the rest ofthe country.■ The national minimum wage is £6.70 forthose 21 and over; £5.30 for 18- to 20-year-

olds. Anyone aged 24 or under will receiveonly the national minimum wage from nextApril .■Women are considerably more likely tobe paid less than the living wage than men.With 280,000 more women in work than lastyear, this year’s data shows 29% of workingwomen – 3.6 million – earn less than the liv-ing wage, compared with 18% (2.3 million)of working men.■ 72% of those aged 18-21 earn less thanthe living wage (17% of 30- to 39-year-olds).This equates to 880,000 employees of tradi-tional university age failing to earn enoughto pay for basic necessities.■ People working in accommodation andfood services, retail, administrative andsupport services are most likely to earn

What is the living wage?

Employers andgovernment needto pick up the pace on living wage, says TUCTHE Living Wage Foundation has an-nounced on (Monday, Nov 2), an increase inthe living wage by 40p to £8.25 per hour. TheLondon Living Wage has increased by 25pto £9.40 per hour.Commenting on the increase, TUC general

secretary Frances O’Grady said: “This risein the Living Wage is welcome. It’s great tosee more and more employers sign up tothe living wage, but we should rememberthat nearly six million people still earn lessthan this.“More companies should do the right

thing and become Living Wage employers.Adopting this important minimum standardbrings valuable reputational and personnelbenefits that help to make it affordable.“But we also need strong unions who can

negotiate with employers and win the LivingWage for their members too – not just relyon employer goodwill. “The government needs to do more to pro-

mote the Living Wage and ensure everyonein the public sector is paid it. Both employ-ers and the government need to pick up thepace and get Britain on a real Living Wage.”

wage will not be won a shop near you he latest step in the onward march of the s of people who seek a fairer society

Page 9NEWS

THE Roddens Resident Home in Ballymoney, is, likea number of other statutory residential homes thatincludes Westlands (Cookstown); Chestnust Groveand Pine Lodge in Belfast; the Slieve Roe in Kilkeeland William Stret and Rectory Field in Londonderry,is under threat of closure.

And this has prompted an outcry of protest from localsangry that what has been a key part of community life inBallymoney for more than 40 years could be lost forever.

Deputy General Secretary Alison Millar, who spoke ata Save the Roddens protest meeting on June 24 alongwith the union’s President Carmel Gates and formerPresident Padraig Mulholland, pledged the support ofNIPSA’s General Council in the group’s campaign tosave the home from closure.

She pointed out to the meeting that this approach hadbeen clearly signalled “as one means of deliveringTransforming Your Care (TYC)”.

“As I am sure everyone in this room will recall therewas public outcry when the previous consultation waslaunched regarding the closure of statutory residentialhomes – we had an almost daily Nolan Show updateand various residents appearing on TV and other mediaabout the impact on the elderly residents who were ef-fectively been evicted from their homes.

“While it stoked political controversy, the possible clo-sure of so many old people’s homes should not havebeen a surprise having been clearly sig-nalled as one means of delivering TYC.

“Its delivery document ‘Vision to Action’made this clear with shutting down thestatutory sector’s provision the default po-sition. For this reason, the Trusts wereoperating a policy they must have as-sumed any Minister would find unprob-lematic – limiting admissions to statutory(public sector) homes to the point theycould be described as ‘unsustainable’,closing them and then faciliting either pri-vate provision or transfer to home care.”

Ms Millar informed the meeting that ad-missions to both private and statutoryresidential showed that there was noquestion of reduced need for such carebut the such need was “unanswered”through the policy of referring patients toprivate facilities.

“This inevitably means that a vast sumof our money as taxpayers is being chan-nelled to private providers. This figureamounted to nearly £53m in 2012/13alone. The consultation on ‘What Next?’aims to ensure that this policy will notchange.”

And Ms Millar described the review asbeing merely a PR means of “easing thetransition to the privatised future”.

“The new approach will simply meanthat the public sector homes will ‘outlive’the last residents in them – but not bymuch… In short, the rejection of this pol-icy by the general public has had nolonger-term effect on the overall priva-tised policy direction.”

She added: “Crystal ball gazing obvi-ously works – this projection has now come to fruition inrelation to 11 statutory residential homes across North-ern Ireland – and in particular the Roddens.”

Ms Millar continued: “As everyone in this room thisevening will know – the Roddens Residential Home hasbeen part of the Ballymoney community for over 40

years, with communit now appe close the

Listing f the “pitfall these werl All resid would be p as well as care.l She ask future resp to look aft “The North graphical rea, White Cookstow elderly to communit l Pointin care that w that their p asked the to opt out care that t ber, this is at.”l Ms Milla people pre cause the homes” as tion” at hol She als provide re who had f at home. “

where do they go? We ar tense pressure that the h going to keep people in lo Surely the pressures will involved in [doing] this?”

Ms Millar continued: “W on a campaign which I an

‘Trust may no home closur

Page 10 NEWS

Closing residential carehomes puts pressure onacute anddomiciliaryservices and is short-termeconomic madness –NIPSA PresidentCarmel Gates

‘

‘

A SECOND public march and rally to save the Roddens Statu-tory Residential Home was held in Ballymoney on Saturday,August 22 outlining the level of support for the campaign.

Organisers claimed the united campaign – backed by NIPSA,Unison, other community representatives as well as the families ofRoddens’ residents – has flagged up just how much the Roddens isvalued not just locally but further afield.

The drive to save the Roddens is a major cornerstone of NIPSABranch 731’s campaign to defend public service jobs and servicesin Ballymoney – a town with relatively few public sector jobs.

Following the march through the centre of the town, the crowdheard from a number of speakers who all called for the home to besaved from closure.

A key demand from many of the speakers was that the Trust im-mediately lifted its “non-admissions” policy for permanent residentswhich has been in place for a number of years and which will effec-tively lead to the home’s closure by stealth over the coming years.

Other speakers raised health and safety queries and called onthe Trust to act to ensure residents were able to have a dignified,safe and enjoyable time in their home.

The rally closed with those taking part committing themselves tocontinuing the campaign to Save the Roddens and the other Statu-tory Residential Homes earmarked for closure across the Trust.

All members and their families are encouraged to contribute tothe public consultation response which closes on October 2, 2015.A copy of a draft consultation response is available here:http://www.northerntrust.hscni.net/pdf/Consultation_Document_-_Proposed_Changes_in_Residential_Care.pdf

Alison Millar, Deputy General Secretary told NIPSA News: “Thisis not just an issue for members working in the Health Sector, it isan issue for all NIPSA members – please therefore do you small bitby contributing to this consultation response and help NIPSABranch 731 and ensure we have a health service for all into the fu-ture.”

Bid to saveRoddensnursing home goes on

Supporting NIPSA 731’s bid to save t nursing home from

h involvement from the localy. It is with great dismay that it

ars that the Trust intends to Roddens.”

or the meeting what she called s” of closing the Roddens,

e: dential care on the North coast provided by the private sector,

s a large amount of domiciliary

ked who was going to provide pite care for families struggling

er their relatives with no relief? hern Trust has a large geo-

spread – from Bushmills to Kil- eabbey to Carrickfergus,

wn to Larne. Do we want our be moved out of their own

ies for respite care?”g out that Trust staff provided

was “more robustly regulated” private sector counterparts, she

audience, “Are we now going of providing them with the best

they are entitled to? Remem- s a future that we are all looking

ar pointed out that many elderly eferred residential care “be-

y felt safer than in their own s well as facing “social isola-

ome. o queried who was going to ehabilitation for elderly people

allen and sustained fractures “When they get out of hospital

re told all the time of the in- ospitals are under, are they onger to rehabilitate them? increase? What are the costs

We need to use tonight to build

nd NIPSA are fully committed

to, to ensure that we ‘Save the Roddens’ – for the cur-rent and future residents of this area so that as a com-munity we can be proud that both the elderly in ourcommunity have a real choice of how they can be caredfor in their old age. People of all ages deserve dignity –especially those ending the twilight years.”

Concluding, she added: “Remember, Bevan said inthe creation of the Health Service, it was to be a cradleto grave service – not to be farmed out to the privatesector at the whim of whoever.”

In her contribution, NIPSA President Carmel Gatescongratulated the organisers for the tremendous start tothe campaign.

Thanking a number of individual politicians for theirsupport for the campaign, she urged them to back totheir parties and secure backing for keeping all residen-tial care homes open.

Ms Gates pointed out that decisions (such as movesto close residential homes) “did not make economicsense”.

“The health service is interconnected and cuts to onepart puts pressure on other services which are alreadystretched to breaking point.

“Closing residential care homes puts pressure onacute and domiciliary services and is short-term eco-nomic madness.”

She told the audience that whoever is responsible forthe current economic crisis – governments, bankers orthe capitalist system itself – one thing was certain –“that the residents in the Roddens and the other carehomes are not responsible”.

“They, in fact, are the people who fought to build thehealth service and paid for it throughout their workinglives. We cannot allow that provision to be taken awayfrom them.”

Former NIPSA President Padraig Mulholland, who ad-dressed the meeting from the floor, received a hugeround of applause in response to his statement that ifthe politicians in the room and their parties and the Ex-ecutive really meant what they were saying, they couldkeep the residential homes open.

He said: “The Minister could change the decision withone phone call”, before demanding that the Minister“make that phone call”.

ot care about res but we do’

Page 11NEWS

THE Northern Ireland Executive is to cut the number ofgovernment departments in Northern Ireland from 12 tonine – with a new set-up in place after the Assemblyelection which will take place in early May 2016.

The new departments will have to be in place for the allo-cation of Ministers following that election and this will in-volve a large amount of work on the part of bothManagement Side and Trade Union Side.

While there will be small changes to some departments,others will experience major changes.

Three departments are being completely abolished – De-partment for Employment and Learning (DEL), Departmentof the Environment (DOE) and Department for Culture, Artsand Leisure (DCAL).

Other departments, such as Department of Education(DE) and Department of Health, Social Services and PublicSafety (DHSSPS), will see minor changes.

The Department of Education will take on additional re-sponsibility for childcare issues from OFMDFM which willconsist of about 20 new staff.

The DHSSPS will lose its public safety function to the De-partment of Justice.

Tony McMullan, the NIPSA Official with responsibility forDSD, DEL, DE and DHSSPS, told NIPSA News: “Thechanges to government departments are, in some cases,wide-ranging and challenging. While DEL is to be abol-ished, two-thirds of its current function – i.e. the Employ-ment Service function – will transfer, along with the whole ofDSD, into a new department called the Department forCommunities.

“In addition to encompassing the functions currently pro-vided by DSD and the Employment Service function of DEL,the new department will also take on board most of thefunctions currently undertaken by DCAL including its sport-ing, Irish language and Ulster Scots functions along withother members transferring from the DOE and staff transfer-ring from OFMDFM.”

The remaining one-third of DEL will merge with the exist-ing Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI)to form a new Department for the Economy.

Discussions have begun in all four departments about thedetailed negotiations and consultations that will need to takeplace so that the new departments can be ready for May2016.“Two new Trade Union Side Forums have been created forthe Department for Communities and the Department forEconomy. These will consist of a lay representative and aSeconded Officer from each of the Departments transferringinto the new Department. In the case of Department forCommunities that is 5 Departments –DSD/DEL/DCAL/DOE/OFMDFM. For the Department forEconomy a Trade Union Side Forum will consist of repre-sentatives, both a Seconded Officer a lay representativefrom the existing DEL and DETI Departments.”

The Department for Communities will be the most chal-lenging as it brings together staff from five different depart-ments.

And it is understood there will be a considerable differ-ence in the level of staff transfer – DSD will transfer all of itscurrent 7,500 staff while OFMDFM will transfer about 30 to40 staff.

Overall the new department, once in place, will representmore than 9,500 civil servants and will be by far the largestin Northern Ireland.

It will have a very significant brief and the transferring in ofthe new functions poses a considerable challenge to bothManagement and Trade Union Side.

Mr McMullan said that the primary concerns of TradeUnion Side, at least in the initial stages, will be to ensurethat jobs are not lost through this process and that membersof staff have good quality jobs – preferably in their currentlocations.

He pointed out that there would need to be changes to thecurrent Whitley structures in all departments to ensure newmechanisms are in place so that consultation and negotia-tion will be ready “to hit the ground running” in May 2016.

Major job ofwork over departmental restructuring

A branch the Roddens m closure

The Victorian historian JR Seeley famouslysuggested that Britain acquired its empire in a“fit of absence of mind”. The Government likesto argue that today’s tax credit empire grew in asimilar unplanned fashion.

In his summer Budget speech George Osbornecomplained that the national bill for these benefitshas spiralled from £1bn when it was introduced to£30bn today. He argues that Labour, which bol-stered the scheme inherited from the Tories in1997, never intended it to sprawl to such bloatedproportions.

That may, or may not, be true. But let’s considerwhat would have happened if Labour hadn’t over-hauled and expanded the income support systemin 1999. Thanks to the Institute for Fiscal Studies(IFS), we have some estimates.

Labour made a decision to target families withchildren through the expanded programme, withthe explicit goal of slashing child poverty rates. Andthere was clear success in this respect. Childpoverty, defined as the number of children living inhouseholds with an income below 60 per cent ofthe median, fell from 26 per cent in 1997 to 18 percent in 2010. The ambitious target Labour had setitself of halving the rate was missed. Yet theprogress was nevertheless substantial.

Moreover, the IFS’s estimates suggest that if theold benefit system inherited from the Conservativesin 1997 had remained in place, child poverty wouldhave risen to 31 per cent. There were 13.2 millionchildren in the UK in 2010/11. So without Labour’stax credits, 1.8 million additional children wouldhave been in poverty in 2010. That’s the counter-factual that critics of tax credits must address.

IFS research shows that overall income inequal-ity would also have increased without Labour’s taxcredits and its other new benefits targeted at re-ducing pensioner poverty. Some commentators,keen to push back against the rising tide of con-cern about the skewed distribution of rewards inour economy, point out that inequality, as meas-ured by the Gini co-efficient, has actually been flatsince the late 1980s. So why, they ask, all the fussabout inequality?

It’s true that the Gini hasn’t budged significantlysince Margaret Thatcher left office in 1990. Butthat’s largely because of Labour’s redistributionsystem, which has been like a fire hose trained onthe forest fire of inequality. The system has man-aged to keep the fire contained (at least beyondthe very top of the income distribution). But thesystem needs to spray out increasing volumes ofwater to do the job. Hence the fast-rising tax cred-its bill. It’s intellectually dishonest to point to the be-nign overall inequality trend under Labour as a signof the egalitarian nature of free markets while fail-ing to acknowledge the redistributive policies thathave delivered the stabilisation. If you care aboutinequality, you should give credit to tax credits.

David Cameron claims to care about it. In his2014 party conference speech, the Prime Ministerboasted that inequality rose under Labour and fell

under the Coalition. It was a cheap point: the Giniticked up very slightly between 1997 and 2010. Butthe greater cheek was that the Prime Ministerfailed to acknowledge what would have happenedto inequality without the tax credits system that hisgovernment now plans to slash.

That impact will be made plain if the Treasurydoes follow through on its plans to make these sav-ings. The Resolution Foundation think-tank haspredicted an immediate 200,000 increase in thenumbers of children living in poverty due to thesecuts. And some fear that all the gains made byLabour in curtailing child poverty are going to bereversed over the next five years.

But are tax credits part of a more general prob-lem? Some argue that they are partly responsiblefor the underlying trend of rising inequality becausethey subsidise employers, enabling them to paylower wages than they otherwise would. This is aline that was repeatedly brandished in last week’sHouse of Commons debate on tax credits – and it’sa criticism that’s sometimes voiced by people onthe left who would normally be sympathetic to re-distribution.

It’s a misguided criticism. Research suggests thattax credits have not put downward pressure onwages. Nor is there evidence that they create adisincentive for people to take up work. Indeed, theevidence suggests that the system has encour-aged more people into jobs, particularly single par-ents.

Labour’s tax credits did weaken the incentive forcouples with children to have two earners ratherthan one. And they did result in high marginal ratesof taxation on extra income for a relatively largenumber of recipients. But these effects are an in-herent property of any means-tested redistributionsystem. The only feasible goal is to minimise thedisincentives, rather than eliminate them alto-

Tax credits a best weapon against inequ

One year ago, the LuxLeaks scandalrevealed publicly the content of taxrulings issued by Luxembourg tomore than 340 multinationals between2002 and 2010. These secret dealsfrom Luxembourg allowed many ofthese companies to slash their globaltax bills. Some firms enjoyed effectivetax rates of less than 1%.

This was further proof that Europeancountries are competing with each otherby offering a variety of creative taxmeasures, thus depriving other countriesof important parts of their due tax rev-enues – and lowering total tax revenuesacross the whole of Europe. This ismoney that countries could have usedfor public services, healthcare orschools.

One year has passed and still no ambi-tious measures at European level havebeen agreed upon. Across Europe, gov-ernments are failing their citizens, whosuffer from weaker public services andhigher taxes on labour, consumption andincome, and their SMEs, which cannot,like many multinationals, hire expensivetax firms and artificially design their busi-nesses in order to lower their tax ratesand, as a consequence, face unfair com-petition.

Strong and effective action is urgentlyneeded; business as usual is not an op-tion. The European Union should ensurethat multinationals pay their taxes wherethey make their profits. We strongly ad-vocate for ambitious reforms to clampdown on tax fraud, close legal loopholes,effectively sanction tax havens, fight cor-ruption and money-laundering, and im-prove transparency and cross-bordercooperation.

Specifically, we call on EU memberstates and the European commission tosupport the obligation for public country-by-country reporting. This measurewould oblige listed companies to makepublic their activities and the taxes theypay in each country in which they oper-ate, in order to allow tax authorities, in-vestors and all stakeholders to properlyassess their activities and tax strategiesand to take action in case of inappropri-ate or illicit corporate behaviour. Suchtransparency requirements would not en-tail any negative consequence for com-panies’ competitiveness, as highlightedin the results of the European commis-sion’s impact assessment of public coun-try-by-country reporting for large financialinstitutions.

A year after the scandal of LuxLeaks,European citizens and responsible busi-nesses cannot wait any longer for mean-ingful action. It is high time for memberstates to learn the lessons of LuxLeaks,finally put an end to multinationals’ tax-dodging, and start working towards a fairsystem of company taxation. This is anessential precondition for finally reignit-ing economic growth in the EU for thebenefit of both citizens and companies.The stakes could not be higher.

LuxLeaks: it ishigh time for EU action on corporate tax-dodging

Page 12 NEWS

gether. An objective look at Labour’s tax creditssuggests a pretty good balance was struck.

There are certainly problems with the structure ofour economy, which redistribution alone cannotsolve. There’s not enough training and investmentin human capital by firms. This hinders the produc-tivity development of workers and the wages theycan command. Employment growth in recent yearshas also been skewed towards relatively low pro-ductivity jobs, such as shop assistants. It’s wel-come that the present government says it wants toaddress these causes of low pay directly. And thereis a respectable economic case for the Chancel-lor’s chunky increase in the minimum wage. Me-dian wages stagnated from around 2003, evenwhile the economy was still growing strongly. It’sundoubtedly a problem that tax credits were neces-sary to make up the shortfall and that so manyworking people in receipt of tax credits remain onthe cusp of poverty. But ministers can addressthese fundamental problems without dismantlingtax credits.

Cameron and Osborne talk of “low wage, high-welfare” as if one leads to another, implying thatcutting welfare will help to push up pay. But this ismere rhetoric, designed to provide cover for theirchosen cuts to public expenditure and their chosentimetable to achieve an overall budget surplus.

“Those who oppose any savings to tax creditswill have to explain how on earth they propose toeliminate the deficit,” said the Chancellor in thesummer. Simple: close the deficit more slowly. Thesky will not fall in if there is no absolute surplus in2019-20 – a date Osborne has fetishised. Decentgrowth will take care of the deficit. And let ministers– and indeed all of us – think more deeply abouthow to lift the wages of the least well-off so that thetax credit bill can fall organically and without cutspushing more working families into poverty.

re our n

uality

Page 13NEWS

NIPSA criticisesfake DWP sanctions leafletsNIPSA Official Tony McMullan hasslammed as “outrageous” the use offake sanction leaflets issued by the De-partment of Work and Pensions (DWP).Department chiefs have admitted that

two leaflets which appeared on the DWPwebsite and which dealt with claimants’positive experiences of benefit sanctionswere made up. The DWP is tasked with administering

the benefit system in Great Britain.The leaflets included alleged com-

ments from two fictional sicknessclaimants, ‘Zac’ and ‘Sarah’. Welfare claimant ‘Sarah’ commented

that she was “really pleased” to havehad a cut in her benefits which – sheclaimed – had encouraged her to im-prove her CV. After a Freedom of Information request

by Welfare Weekly website, the DWP ad-mitted they were not real claimants andpointed out that the stories had beenused “for illustrative purposes only”.Although the Social Security Agency

(SSA) operates the benefit system inNorthern Ireland and has not used thesefictional claimants on its leaflets, thereare more than 500 SSA staff working inthe Plaza in Belfast and at Lisahally inDerry who do work for claimants in Lon-don as part of a contractual arrangementbetween the SSA and DWP.Mr McMullan, who is the NIPSA Official

with responsibility for the SSA, toldNIPSA News: “It is outrageous that theDWP have attempted to con the publicinto believing that claimants are happy to

have their benefits stopped.” Mr McMullan pointed out that it was the

experience of NIPSA members that thiswas not the case. He claimed that sanc-tions had the real potential to make cir-cumstances much more difficult forclaimants and would hinder their capac-ity to search for jobs. This also had the potential to under-

mine the relationship between DWPclaimants and the SSA staff working inthe Plaza and at Lisahally. Mr McMullan said that for a major gov-

ernment department to make up storiesto illustrate their belief that sanctionswere welcomed by claimants was “a steptoo far”.Under the sanction system, introduced

by the DWP Secretary Iain Duncan-Smith,in Great Britain, people can lose benefitsfor up to three years if they fail to meetthe Government’s requirements for job-seekers. Commenting on the revelation,

Labour’s acting Shadow Work and Pen-sions Secretary Stephen Timms said:“You couldn’t make it up – but it seemsIain Duncan-Smith can. The only way hecan find backers for his sanctionsregime is by inventing them.”When Duncan-Smith was Tory Party

leader, he dubbed himself “the quiet manwho is turning up the volume”. Mr McMullan said: “It is strange that

the ‘quiet man’ has gone quiet again –Maybe Iain Duncan-Smith may now wantto say something about this shockingdevelopment.”

Review agreed for NICSuniform appeals policyAFTER Trade Union Side raised concernsover how the uniform appeals policy wasapplied in the NICS, Management Sideagreed to a review.It was understood this will begin in the

summer and be completed within aroundsix months. The review’s draft terms ofreference were to:l Review and analyse uniform appealspolicy wage for period 2014/15 and todraw comparisons with the grievance pol-icy (where applicable);l Consider if the policy was applied cor-rectly, including timescales and compareoutcome trends;l Issue questionnaires to contact pointsin main stakeholder groups;

l Review/analyse all feedback and con-sider options for way forward;l Consult with stakeholders on way for-ward/changes to policy;l Implement agreed changes to policyand associated documents (if appropri-ate).Trade Union Side submitted a detailed re-sponse that underlined the need for con-sistency across Departments over boththe interpretation of the policy and how itis implemented in practice. Draft questionnaires were later pro-

duced by Management Side for appellantsand appeal officers with a view to takingthe review forward. These are currentlybeing considered by Trade Union Side.

Concern makes special appeal to NIPSA members – See page 18/19

Page 14 NEWS

A BIG shout out has to go to Branch 733members who travelled to Calais recentlyafter volunteering to help deliver aid torefugees at the French port.The much-needed aid was collected after

NIPSA Branch 733 activists issued the ap-peal in October.The branch collected warm clothes, hats,

scarves and gloves, bicycle kits andtubes/tyres, tents, blankets, sleeping bagsand toiletries, as well as minor injury itemssuch as bandages, strapping, plasters andcreams.Branch official Brian Smith told NIPSA

News: “I am privileged to be part of agroup of NIPSA volunteers heading toCalais with donations for refugees. Due tothe phenomenal response from people, thedonations far outweigh the room in trans-port. We will be delivering another con-tainer.”He went on to thank a number of people

for their generosity in providing transport,items and time.“A massive thanks goes to Liam and Lisa

from Corrigan transport rentals – they weresuperb in their generosity to this cause,”said Brian.And he explained that local Ranger

guides saved the day by carrying out anenormous amount of work.“Everyone there agreed we could not

have done without them.Thank you Caitlin Cassidy, Shannon

Creasey, Aoibhin McCarron, Eimear Nee-son, Anna Daggot, Rachel Laverty andleaders Joanne Cassidy.”Brian joked: “They had to put up with

Branch 733 chairperson GerardetteMcVeigh, myself and activist Cara Malonephoto-bombing them!“These young people were fantastic, an

absolute credit to the Girl Guide organisa-tion. Well done girls and thank you.”

He also thanks volunteers from WolfeTone GAC who helped with the mammothtask of preparing donations for the trip. Brian also paid tribute to Majella and

Niamh who worked hard in the comman-deered warehouse, kindly lent to thebranch by Patrick McCann from SimplyFruit. “We are still collecting cash donations to

cover the cost of the container going outnext week. We have far exceeded all ourexpectations when we commenced thismission. Thanks again from all in NIPSAbranch 733 Southern Trust.”Praising the branch for their efforts,

NIPSA Deputy General Secretary AlisonMillar said: “Branch 733 activists andmembers have responded magnificentlywith this appeal to aid refugees. NIPSAwould like to thank all those who offereddonations and time in getting this worth-while project off the ground.”

Branch 733 mercy mission to Calais ‘exceeds all expectations’

THE Employment and LearningMinister for Northern Ireland, DrStephen Farry, has confirmedthat the Trade Union Bill beingtaken forward by the UK govern-ment will only apply to GreatBritain and that he has not plansto initiate similar reforms inNorthern Ireland.

In Great Britain, the Departmentof Business, Innovation and Skillshas opened a public consultationover the proposed introduction of a40% threshold for public sectorstrikes.

The consultation, which will closeon September 9, also proposeschanging the rules and code ofpractice on picketing and protestslinked to industrial disputes, as wellas on the use of agency workers tocarry out functions while peopleare on strike.

Tony McMullan, NIPSA Officialwith responsibility for the Depart-ment for Employment and Learning(DEL), told NIPSA News: “Thetrade union movement in NorthernIreland will be grateful for therecognition that the DEL MinisterStephen Farry has regarding theneed for a balanced industrial rela-tions approach.

“The vindictive and punitivemeasures which are being con-

sulted upon in Great Britain are acompletely one-sided approach toindustrial relations. Despiteprotests from the InternationalLabour Organisation, to which theBritish government has been a sig-natory for many years, the indus-trial relations mechanism in GreatBritain and Northern Ireland is themost draconian in the westernworld.

“Taking strike action is muchmore difficult in Great Britain andNorthern Ireland than it is else-where in the developed world. Toimpose even further restrictions isuncalled for and we are gratefulthat Dr Farry has recognised this.”

Dr Farry said he did not believethe reforms constituted a “bal-anced or proportionate response”to concerns about strikes butrisked “undermining traditionalrights to strike action”.

He continued: “At times, I per-sonally believe that local strike ac-tion has been unnecessary, futileand counter-productive but I re-spect the rights of trade unions tomake their own decisions.

“In that regard it is important thattrade union members seek to playa fuller role in internal decisionmaking, and that we also recog-nise that trade union members re-

tain the right to participate and notto participate in any industrial ac-tion.”

Dr Farry added: “I do not believethere is a case for winding backthe clock in terms of trade unionreform or that such regressionwould be supported by the Execu-tive and the Assembly. Instead,the way forward in Northern Irelandlies in building stronger and moreconstructive relationships betweengovernment, business and tradeunions.”

Farry confirms: Trade Union Billwill not be implemented in NI

UK PM’s bid towater downworkers’ rights RESPONDING to claimsthat UK PM DavidCameron is planning towater down employmentrights ahead of the EUpoll, TUC General Secre-tary Frances O’Grady said:“These reports confirmthat we were right to warnabout Cameron’s designson workers’ rights in hisEU renegotiation strategy.“These claims clearly indi-cate that the paid holi-days, rest breaks andlimits on the working weekof the Working Time Direc-tive are still under threat.So too, we believe, areprotections for temporaryagency workers.“Cameron must stop lis-tening to the hard right onhis backbenches, whowant flexibility only for bigbusiness while denying itto workers’ families, andstart listening to tradeunions and the workingpeople who repeatedly tellpollsters that if staying inEurope might mean losingrights and protections atwork, they might chooseto vote to leave.”

MinisterFarry - noplan tobring innew Toryanti-tradeunionlaws

Page 15NEWS

MOST NIPSA members areaware that they are protectedfrom being dismissed for takingpart in trade union activities.This article addresses both theextent of that protection regard-ing and the definition of “tradeunion activities”. It also dealswith the reasonableness ques-tion which must be addressedby the Office of Industrial Tri-bunals and the Fair Employ-ment Tribunal (OITFET) todetermine if a dismissal is fairor unfair.

Trade union activitiesThe right not to be dismissed for

taking part in trade union activitiesis contained within Article 136 ofthe Employment Rights NorthernIreland Order. Article 136 states:

(1) An employee who is dis-missed shall be regarded for thepurposes of this Part as unfairlydismissed if the reason (or, if morethan one, the principal reason) forhis dismissal is that the employee—…(b) had taken part, or proposed totake part, in the activities of an in-dependent trade union at an ap-propriate time

In the case of Chant vAquaboats Limited [1978] 3 ALLER 102 which examined themeaning of the phrase “activitiesof an independent trade union”.Kilner Brown J at 103 stated:“There is a dearth of authority toassist in the interpretation…Thereis no definition of 'activities'. Itseems to us that this was deliber-ate parliamentary policy due to theprobability that the word itself con-notes a variety of possibilitiesvarying with the circumstances ofa particular case. This means thatto decide whether or not the rea-son for dismissal was involvementin activities of a trade union is verylargely a question of fact.”

That point was again underlinedin The Marley Tile Co. Ltd vShaw [1980] IRLR 85 by EveleighLJ who stated at paragraph 33that: “I would not wish to say any-thing which would fetter the judg-ment of members of the Tribunalwho are experienced in industrialmatters when they come to theirtask of deciding whether or notsuch conduct amounts to trade

union activity. I think it is essen-tially a question of fact for themand I would not wish to encouragethe advocate who seeks to dis-cover a question of law whereverpossible.”

The issue of what constitutestrade union activities was alsodealt with in the case of F M Lyonand M A Scherk v St JamesPress Limited [1976] IRLR 215.

In that case the EmploymentAppeal Tribunal (EAT), at para-graph 16 stated: “the special pro-tection afforded … to trade unionactivities must not be allowed tooperate as a cloak or an excusefor conduct which ordinarily wouldjustify dismissal; equally, the rightto take part in the affairs of a tradeunion must not be obstructed bytoo easily finding acts done forthat purpose to be a justificationfor dismissal.”

After finding on the facts of thatcase that the employee had beenunfairly dismissed by reason oftrade union activities the EAT wenton to state at paragraph 20: “Wedo not say that every such act isprotected. For example, wholly un-reasonable, extraneous or mali-cious acts done in support of tradeunion activities might be a groundfor a dismissal which would not beunfair.”

In Drew v St EdmundsburyBorough Council [1980] IRLR458 the Tribunal stated it was veryconscious of the distinction ofcases between the activities of anindividual who may happen to be-long to a trade union and activitieswhich are the activities of thetrade union itself.

Fairness of Dismissal –Misconduct and Reasonableness

Once the employer proves the

reason for dismissal, the tribunalmust decide whether, in all of thecircumstances, the employeracted reasonably in treating thatreason as sufficient for dismissingthe employee (Art 130(4) Employ-ment Rights (Northern Ireland)Order 1996).In Rogan v South Eastern

Health and Social Care Trust[2009] NICA 47, para 16, theCourt of Appeal reiterated the cor-rect approach to the question offairness.

The Court cited the principlesset out in Iceland Frozen FoodsLtd v Jones [1983] ICR 17,namely that the tribunal “mustconsider the reasonableness ofthe employer's conduct, not simplywhether [it] consider[s] the dis-missal to be fair...[the] tribunalmust not substitute itsdecision...for that of the em-ployer...the function of the...tri-bunal...is to determine whether inthe particular circumstances...thedecision to dismiss the employeefell within the band of reasonableresponses which a reasonableemployer might have adopted."The Court in Rogan also ap-

proved the guidance in BritishHomes Stores v Burchell [1980]ICR 303 regarding misconductdismissals, i.e. that the tribunalmust decide "whether the em-ployer entertained a reasonablesuspicion amounting to a beliefin the guilt of the employee ofthat misconduct...first...theremust be established by the em-ployer the fact of thatbelief...secondly, that the em-ployer had in his mind reason-able grounds upon which tosustain that belief...andthirdly...that the employer...hadcarried out as much investiga-tion into the matter as was rea-sonable in all the

circumstances...it is not rele-vant...that the tribunal wouldthemselves have shared thatview...it is not relevant...for thetribunal to examine the qualityof the material which the em-ployer had before them, for in-stance to see whether it was thesort of material, objectively con-sidered, which would lead to acertain conclusion on the bal-ance of probabilities, orwhether it was the sort of mate-rial which would lead to thesame conclusion only upon thebasis of being "sure"...the testis reasonableness.” [My empha-sis]

Gross misconductAn employer is entitled to dis-

miss an employee summarily forgross misconduct, i.e. conductwhich “so undermines the trustand confidence which is inherentin the particular contract of em-ployment that the employer shouldno longer be required to retain theemployee.” (Neary v Dean ofWestminster [1999] IRLR 288,p291)

Whether conduct amounts togross misconduct hinges on thefacts in each case. Categories andexamples of misconduct in theemployer's disciplinary rules arerelevant. Yet the absence of a dis-crete rule labelling a given type ofconduct as gross misconduct isnot conclusive.

Disciplinary rules “are not ex-haustive...a catalogue of offenceswhich carry the potential sanctionof dismissal contained in companyrules may occasionally be usefulin assessing the quality of an of-fence but it does not follow that nooffence which does not fall withinit can ever merit dismissal.” (TheDistillers Company v Gardner[1982] IRLR 47, p 50. See also Ul-sterbus Ltd v Henderson [1989]IRLR 251, p 254)

The above article does not pur-port to be a comprehensive state-ment of the law of dismissalrelating to trade union activities,which would take considerablymore space than this article allowsto explain, but is my attempt tooutline some of the main factorsrelevant to the definition of “activi-ties” and the law relating to “rea-sonableness” of dismissal whichmakes a dismissal fair or unfair.

Chancery House, 88 Victoria Street, Belfast BT1 3GNTel: 029 9032 9801 www.mtb-law.co.uk

By John McShane

The right not to be dismissed for taking part in trade union activities

COMMENTING on figures released by theOffice for National Statistics on September2, which show the number of workers onzero-hours contracts has increased by 19per cent to 744,000 over the past year, TUCGeneral Secretary Frances O’Grady said:“Zero-hours contracts are a stark reminderof Britain’s two-tier workforce.“People employed on these contracts

earn £300 a week less, on average, thanworkers in secure jobs.“I challenge any minister or business

leader to survive on a low-paid zero-hours

contract job, not knowing from one day tothe next how much work they will have.“Try telling zero-hours workers who have

been turned down by mortgage lendersand landlords that they are getting a gooddeal.“We need a stronger and fairer recovery

that works for everyone, not one thatforces people to survive off scraps ofwork.”Research published by the TUC shows

that average weekly earnings for zero-hours workers are just £188, compared to

£479 for permanent workers.Two-fifths (39 per cent) of zero-hours

workers earn less than £111 a week – thequalifying threshold for statutory sick pay– compared to one in twelve (8 per cent)permanent employees.The TUC estimates that in addition to

Britain’s zero-hours workforce there areanother 820,000 UK employees who reportbeing underemployed on between 0 and 19hours a week.

Zero hours-contracts a sign of Britain’s two-tier workforce, warns TUC

THE first week in August was WorldBreastfeeding Week and this year thetheme was ‘Breastfeeding and Work, LetsMake it Work’.

The organisers of World BreastfeedingWeek, the World Alliance for BreastfeedingAction (WABA), are calling for concertedglobal action to support women to combinebreastfeeding and work.

Breastfeeding in Northern Ireland

There is good reason for supporting moth-ers to continue breastfeeding. The WorldHealth Organisation (WHO) advises that in-fants should be exclusively breastfed for sixmonths and breastfeeding should continuealongside other foods into the second year oflife and beyond1.

In Northern Ireland we have one of the low-est breastfeeding rates in the world. While64% of mothers start breastfeeding at birth, bysix months only 16% are still breastfeeding. InEngland, 83% of mothers breastfed at birthand at six months 36% are still breastfeeding2.

Why breastfeeding mattersResearch has shown that the longer a

mother breastfeeds, the more significant thehealth benefits. Children who have beenbreastfed are at reduced risk of infections, dia-betes, allergy, obesity, childhood cancer andsudden infant death.

Mothers who breastfeed are at less risk ofbreast cancer, ovarian cancer, type 2 diabetesand osteoporosis.

Good practice in the workplace

Legislation relating to breastfeeding supportin the workplace includes the Management ofHealth and Safety at Work Regulations (North-ern Ireland) 2000. Health and Safety Execu-tive guidance6 recommends it is good practiceto accommodate the needs of breastfeedingemployees.

The business case for workplace support forbreastfeeding is strong and includes: l More economical – organisations will savemoney as valued employees will return to theirjob – reducing recruitment, training and tem-porary staff costs.l Less absenteeism – as breastfeeding helpsto protect babies from infections and allergies.This means fewer visits to the doctor and lesstime off to care for sick children.l Better organisational image – any organisa-tion that supports its employees becomesmore attractive as an employer. Mothers willbecome more productive, happy and loyal.

Information and supportThe Public Health Agency (PHA) provides

useful leaflets for employees and employerson breastfeeding and the workplace 3,4. Inparticular PHA has produced a useful sampleworkplace policy5. A good workplace policy in-volves management discussing the employ-ees’ needs in advance of returning to workand making the necessary adjustments to en-able the employees needs to be met.

If a mother wishes to express milk while atwork, providing a suitable private space andallowing some extra time at breaks to express

milk is good practice. PHA publications on breastfeeding support

in the workplace can be obtained from HSCTrust health promotion resource centres ordownloaded fromhttp://www.publichealth.hscni.net/publica-tions

More info on all aspects of breastfeedingcan be found at www.breastfedbabies.orgReferences

1. WHO (2002) Global Strategy on Infant andYoung Child Feeding. 2. Infant Feeding Survey - UK, 2010http://www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB086943. Breastfeeding and Returning to Work; aguide for mothershttp://www.publichealth.hscni.net/publica-tions/breastfeeding-and-returning-work-04. Promoting breastfeeding for mothers return-ing to work ; a guide for employershttp://www.publichealth.hscni.net/publica-tions/promoting-breastfeeding-mothers-return-ing-work-guide-employers-05. Sample policy on supporting breastfeedingemployeeshttp://www.publichealth.hscni.net/publica-tions/sample-policy-supporting-breastfeeding-employees-06. New and expectant mothers who work;Health and Safety Executive NIwww.hseni.gov.uk/new_and_expectant_moth-ers.pdf

Support for breastfeedingmums in the workplace

Page 16 NEWS

WE all know the impor-tance of an organisedand union active work-place when it comes tomaking real gains forworkers.

Training and educationof workplace representa-tives and activists is a cru-cial element of organisedand effective representa-tion and the NIPSA/ICTUWinter 2016 Trade UnionTraining and EducationProgramme has some-thing for everyone.

Whether you are newlyelected to your branchcommittee or a represen-tative with some experi-ence behind you, there arecourses available to assistyou in your role, help re-fresh your skills and buildyour confidence as aworkplace leader.

The programme pro-

vides a broad range ofcourses, all of which aredesigned to assist theunion representative ingoing about their day-to-day union duties and pro-vide them with a broaderunderstanding of union is-sues in today’s society.

Representatives whoavail of the courses onoffer will gain a better un-derstanding of trade unionpolicies and priorities andwill also gain the personalsatisfaction and enrich-ment that comes throughvocational learning.

Our courses are taughtby trade union tutors withmany years’ experience inthe trade union movementand they are designed toencourage everyone tolearn in a supportive andfriendly environment.There are no tests or

exams and tutors are onhand to help supporteveryone’s learning.

The purpose of tradeunion education is to pro-vide a quality learning ex-perience, with a system ofaccreditation that points tofuture learning opportuni-ties and qualifications.There are no fees forunion reps attendingcourses.

We would encourage allunion representatives toavail of the training andeducation on offer.

How to enrol:l Choose a course fromthose detailed in the pro-grammel Ask your employer forpaid release from work toattend the course. Ensureyou follow the proceduresagreed between yourunion and your employer.

If you experience difficultywith this, contact yourunion representative orfull-time official for advice. l Fill in the applicationform and get it approvedand signed by a branch of-ficer or your full-time offi-cial.l Send, fax or email ascanned copy to NIPSAHQ.l Apply in plenty of timeas many courses can fill

up quickly. Should any further infor-

mation be required on anyaspect of trade union edu-cation and training, pleasecontact the NIPSA Train-ing Officer, Naomi Connor,at NIPSA.

Naomi Connor – Tel:0289 0661831 Email:naomi.connor@nipsa.org.uk

Full details also avail-able www.nipsa.org.uk

Trade union education –something for everyone!

Page 17NEWS

YOU WILL be aware that Health Branches,the Deputy General Secretary, the HSCHigher Executive Officers and myself havebeen co-ordinating with members affectedin taking this extensive exercise forward.This is an update on the various strandsinvolved.

NegotiationsRegrettably, there is little to report on this. A

discussion was held with a number of HR Di-rectors at the end of June/beginning of July2015.

During this meeting we reminded Manage-ment Side that despite several letters and of-fers to engage in this matter, nothing hadhappened at a regional level.

Letters had also gone to DHSSPS andHSBC inviting them to take part in theprocess, at the request of HR Directors, but nomeetings have taken place to date.

Management Side accepted that there hasbeen no regional engagement but talks hadtaken place locally with TU representatives.Management Side agreed they would write toTUS in the near future setting out their posi-tion as a basis for the starting of negotiations.To date this has not been received.

GrievancesNIPSA has ensured that grievances on this

dispute have been lodged in all Trusts on ei-ther a collective/or individual basis. Therewas a suggestion that grievances could be de-ferred on a regional basis to allow time to bedevoted to the Management/TUS negotia-tions.

However, no regional agreement wasreached on this matter as NIPSA registered itsobjection that to do so could compromisethose IT applications that had been lodgedwith the Tribunal Office – who would have anexpectation that all Trust internal procedures

had been exhausted before presenting claimsto the Tribunal Office (OIT FET).

Branches and Officials have continued topressurise Trusts to have grievances heardand facilitated as soon as possible.

IT applicationsNIPSA has lodged more than 530 IT1 appli-

cations with the Tribunal Office. This was inno short part due to people, both at Branchlevel and at NIPSA Headquarters, ensuringthis work was done and in a standardised/uni-form manner.

Forms were lodged in early July. Theseforms have been acknowledged and a CaseManagement Discussion is scheduled forTuesday, September 15 to timetable a wayforward for proceedings, i.e. this will considertest cases; legal and factual issues; wit-nesses; number of days required at tribunaletc.

In lodging the forms, NIPSA legal represen-tatives prepared a template setting out thebasis of each claim in terms of legal points forfull-time, part-time and casualemployees/members.

Joint Steering GroupA Joint Steering Group comprising NIPSA

and Unison representatives has been estab-lished and details of that group have beensent to employers urging them to engage innegotiations.

This group has met on a few occasions andwill meet once proposals from ManagementSide are received. NIPSA has the majority onthis group and will lead negotiations as andwhen they commence.

RotasTrusts advised us that meetings and en-

gagement is taking place locally with a view to

exploring how rotas in facilities can becomeWTD compliant.

NIPSA is aware of this development but as-surances were sought and received that therewould be no changes on rotas unless agree-ment was reached at regional level as this hasservice-wide implications.

Apart from SEHSCT (William Street Facility)there has been no change to rotas in anyother Trust. If NIPSA is mistaken on this pointand if there is any evidence to the contrary,please bring this to the attention of yourNIPSA Representative locally or at NIPSAHeadquarters.

Legal writs (People who previously workedSleep-ins but no longer do and/or have left theservice)

This is a further category of staff we haveidentified who cannot pursue IT1 claims asthey do not qualify as they are no longer doingthe role. However, NIPSA proposes coveringthis group of staff by identifying such peopleand lodging civil writs with their employing au-thority.

As far as possible NIPSA Branches haveprovided names of such people but a widerexercise is necessary in order for NIPSA tosatisfy that they took all reasonable steps toidentify such persons who may have a causeof action.

The union will undertake such an exerciseand further documentation will follow on thispoint but NIPSA Branches are being asked tocirculate both correspondence that has beensent to branches and this edition of NIPSANews to all facilities within your Trust so as toencourage staff and colleagues to see if theycan identify people previously doing or in-volved in Sleep-ins.

NIPSA continues to acknowledge the effortsby Branches in taking these issues forwardand I hope you find this update/report useful.

PROPOSALS put forward by ManagementSide two years ago aimed at significantly di-luting special leave provisions for civil ser-vants, and which were strongly opposed byTrade Union Side, have since been the re-drafted following lengthy talks. Management had pushed for the changes

citing escalating financial costs resultingfrom existing provisions.Since then the revised policy went

through numerous re-drafts during negotia-tions as Trade Union Side sought to main-tain as many of the existing provisions aspossible. According to NIPSA, these talks were

largely successful and most of these provi-sions were retained. However, a few remaining areas of con-

tention were referred to the Central Whitley

Council Executive Committee as registereddisagreements. These included:(a) Domestic Crisis: Management Sidesought a reduction to three days and paidspecial leave in any rolling 12-month pe-riod, however they subsequently agreed tofive days rather than three, within a 12-month period;(b) Care of Dependants: A 12-month periodwas also introduced for allowances foremergency care of dependents but TradeUnion Side successfully argued for the re-tention of the facility for up to five days anda line management discretion to extendthis; and(c) Bereavement Leave: Management Sidewanted to reduce the allowance of up to fivedays down to one day for special circum-stances such as the necessity of taking

charge of funeral arrangements, or wherethe deceased was a member of the house-hold. Trade Union Side successfully arguedfor the retention of the five-day allowance,at line management discretion.These three outcomes are covered at

paragraphs 3.13, 3.14 and 3.15 of the Spe-cial Leave chapter (3.08) in the NICS Hand-book. The new arrangements reflect the agree-

ment that was reached following very diffi-cult and protracted negotiations. While theprevious wording in the Handbook couldnot be maintained in its entirety, the agreedchanges modified in important ways theoriginal Management Side proposals with aview to affording as much protection aspossible to members who need to avail ofthe special leave provisions.

Kevin McCabe, Assistant Secretary with responsibility for the HSC, reports on the WorkingTime Directive – Sleep-ins issue where NIPSA has lodged a considerable number of claimsover a breach of the Working Time Regulations and Unlawful Deduction of Wages cases

UPDATE: Working TimeDirective – Sleep-ins

‘Difficult and protracted’ talks over NICS special leave policy

Page 18 CONCERN APPEAL

Helping families com ARMED conflict, disease, floods andearthquakes devastate the lives of mil-lions of people every year. In fact, thenumber of people affected by humanitar-ian emergencies has almost doubled inthe past decade and is expected to keeprising.Often, it’s the poorest and most vulner-

able who are hardest hit – loved ones arelost, homes and belongings are de-stroyed, and livelihoods are wrecked.When the immediate crisis is over, sur-vivors face the enormous challenge of re-building their lives. This autumn, NIPSA members can help

families recover from disasters by sup-porting Concern Worldwide’s Comebackfrom Crisis appeal. All donations madebefore December 13 will be matchedpound for pound by the UK government.Your support will enable struggling

communities to rebuild their lives andcope in the future after surviving emer-gencies such as the Nepal earthquake,the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone andfloods in Malawi.Concern works with some of the

world’s poorest communities in placesoften at greatest risk from disasters, bothnatural and man-made. They act quicklyin emergencies to save lives, and thenstay to help people recover. Right now, itis responding to 33 emergencies in 23countries, directly supporting 2.8 millionpeople.For more info: www.concern.net/nipsa

Nepal earthquake

“Life is miserable here. I am very worried, I don’t haveanything. My biggest fear is, what next? Where am Igoing to stay?”

Messy Gomani, Mchere camp, Nsanje district, MalawiMessy’s family climbed on to the roof of their home in

Nsanje in a desperate attempt to escape the rapidly ris-ing floodwaters. Rescue boats arrived but could not takeeveryone, so Messy’s husband stayed behind. A boat re-turned for him but it capsized and he drowned, leaving

Messy’s children without a father. The family heard aboutother people sheltering in schools in Mchere so they trav-elled there to find refuge.

Concern gave Messy and other families urgentlyneeded items including soap, buckets, blankets and mos-quito nets to help their short-term recovery. As families goback to their villages, it is now providing seeds, tools andtraining so they can rebuild their lives.

“I am happy I am alive butequally sad because I lostmy husband. I have toomuch burden. I have chil-dren – how can I feed andeducate them?”Sallay Kargbo, Tonkolili

district, Sierra LeoneWhen Sallay displayed the

signs of Ebola she had totravel 300 miles for treat-ment. She was away for sev-eral weeks and her familyhad no idea how she was.Presuming the worst, theyheld a funeral for her. ButSallay managed to beatEbola and returned to herfamily. She is remarkable,the only person in her vil-lage to get Ebola and re-cover. But she now faces anew battle – to grow enoughfood and send her childrento school. To supportwomen like Sallay, Concernprovides food vouchersuntil they can grow theirown crops again.

“In this recent earthquake, everything in thehouse was destroyed. My grandson helped me.He dragged me out of the house. Life is a trouble.I can’t walk, I can’t see – it is a hard time.”Ratna Khatri, Dolakha district, NepalRatna has survived several earthquakes in her88 years. Now, hard-of-hearing and partially-sighted, she is less able to cope. Her extended

family cannot afford to build a new home so theylive together in a small makeshift shelter. Whenthe earthquake struck, Concern and its partnersresponded quickly to ensure that people likeRatna, living in the worst-affected districts, hadbasic household essentials. Then Concern gavehomeless families corrugated iron sheeting andtools to build stronger shelters.

Malawi floods

SierraLeoneEbola outbreak

Page 19CONCERN APPEAL

me back from crisisPhilippines typhoon“I learned I would get a boatfrom Concern and was sohappy when it arrived be-cause I could go fishingagain. It is a really well-builtboat. I was also given an en-gine and new fishing gear.”Roy Ascura, Polopina Is-land, PhilippinesTyphoon Haiyan de-

stroyed both Roy’s homeand his livelihood. He hadbeen a squid fisherman,working day and night tosupport his young family.When Typhoon Haiyan de-stroyed his boat, he couldnot earn a living. Roy ini-tially relied on food andclothes supplied by localauthorities. Concern gavehim shelter and building ma-terials, solar lights andkitchen equipment, so hecould start rebuilding hishouse. Although he foundsome work, he longed forthe day when he could havehis own boat and becomeindependent again. Sixmonths later, Concernhelped him achieve that.

Uganda conflict“All that you see todayhas come from the help Ireceived. I would neverhave dreamed that I’d bewhere I am today. Now, Ifeel I can do anything.”

Nasa Oyoo Oit, Pader,Uganda

When soldiers from theLord’s Resistance Army(LRA) threatened to killhim, Nasa thought his lifewas over. However, heescaped to a settlementcamp nearly 150 milesaway. Nasa’s hope of re-turning home to rebuildhis family’s lives neverfaded. After returning tohis village ten years later,Concern gave himseeds, tools and theknow-how to start culti-vating land.

Nasa’s crops were sosuccessful that he man-aged to buy a plot of landand build a small shop.He also bought oxen anda portable grinding mill,and started a clothesmending business tosupport his family.

Page 20 NEWS

IF you are interested injoining our LGB&T Group,please complete the appli-cation form below or joinconfidentially by callingour direct line on 02890686566 or emaillgbt.group@nipsa.org.uk.NIPSA’s LGB&T Group

is open to both LGB&Tmembers and non-LGB&Tmembers. The objectives

of the Group have beenformulated around theprinciples of equality, in-clusiveness, raisingawareness, enabling ac-tivism, holding employersto account, ensuring con-fidentiality and a safe en-vironment for the Group.Strict confidentiality pro-cedures have been put inplace.

CIVIL Service members in the De-partment for Employment andLearning (DEL) and the Departmentfor Social Development (DSD) tookpart in lunchtime protests outsideoffices across Northern Ireland onSeptember 30.

September 30 was chosen becausethat was the date when hundreds ofcivil servants – who will never be re-placed – left their posts under the Vol-untary Exit Scheme.

A NIPSA source toldNIPSA News: “Whilemany of them have beenhardworking and dedi-cated members of staffand indeed NIPSA mem-bers – and we wish themwell – nevertheless theirjobs are not to be filled.

“This is at a time whenthe Northern Ireland Ex-ecutive has not deter-mined to cut anyfunctions which the CivilService are required tocarry out. This inevitablymeans that more andmore pressure will be puton those members of staffthat remain.”

Pointing out that bothDEL and DSD had thehighest sick leave figures in the wholeof the NICS, the source continued: “Itis not surprising given that the staff onthe front line in Jobs and Benefits Of-fices, Social Security Offices and Job-Centres, face a number of difficulttasks – advising claimants that theyhave been turned down for benefit orthat the individual claimant’s expecta-tion of benefit entitlement is too highbecause of government policy or theyare trying to find them work in a situa-tion when good quality work is beinglost to be replaced by call centre andservice industry-type work.

“This inevitably leads to frustrationsamong some claimants who then venttheir frustrations out on the staff.”

Members took part in protests out-

side Jobs and Benefits Offices acrossNorthern Ireland but the biggestdemonstration was outside the DEL’sAdelaide Street HQ in Belfast.

The protesters were determined toshow the Northern Ireland Executiveand politicians from all parties thatNIPSA members are not prepared tobe pushed around, take on additionalresponsibilities at a time when theirpay, pensions and jobs are under very

severe attack by the gov-ernment.

Tony McMullan, aNIPSA Official with re-sponsibility for both DELand DSD, said: “Therewere magnificent demon-strations outside Jobsand Benefits offices, Job-Centres and Social Secu-rity Offices throughoutNorthern Ireland.

“Members in DEL andDSD are determined toshow not only the politi-cians but also seniormanagement that theyare not prepared to bepushed around.

“They are proud to becivil and public servants,they want to serve thepublic and they want to

provide the highest quality work butthis cannot happen if job losses con-tinue.

“ All the indications are that with fur-ther tranches 2, 3 and 4 of the Volun-tary Exit Scheme will lead to almost3,000 Civil Service posts being lost bynext March.”

He added: “No-one is telling me thatyou can take 3,000 jobs out of a sys-tem without having a direct impact notonly on the staff who remain but alsoon the service provision to the public.

“The Northern Ireland public de-serve high-quality public services, ourmembers want to provide high-qualitypublic services and we want politi-cians to provide the resources in orderfor that to be done.”

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Widespread protestsagainst Voluntary ExitScheme job losses

Join NIPSA LGB&T Group

VES willlead to almost3,000 CivilServiceposts beinglost by nextMarch

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