NIPSANEWSOctober/November 2014 Tel: 028 90661831 www.nipsa.org.ukTHE NEWSPAPER OF THE LEADING PUBLIC SERVICE TRADE UNION

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1,000s OFJOBS TOBE AXED

UNION DRAWS UP BATTLEPLAN TO SAVE JOBS

Full story on pages 2/3

NIPSA in landmark WorkingTime Directive case See full story on page 6

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 trade union NIPSA.

Page 2 NIPSA NEWS News www.nipsa.org.uk

THE background to the current crisis in publicfinances involves the outworking of the UKGovernment’s austerity and anti-public sectorprogramme. This attack on the public sectorhas intensified since the Tory/Liberal DemCoalition came to power in 2010. NIPSA is very clear that the UK Government is

taking advantage of the financial and economiccrises to undermine permanently the WelfareState. The Welfare State, set up in the aftermath of

World War II, has lead to significant improve-ments in Health, Education, Housing, Social Se-curity and brought about the expansion of publicservices, which have, in turn, provided importantprotections for working people and their families. This development of public services has not

only fundamentally improved the lives of citizensbut it also contributed to the UK becoming a fairerand more equal society. All this is threatened by the current UK Govern-

ment’s plan to “shrink the state” – in effect anagenda that threatens public sector jobs, pen-sions, pay levels and services which are deliv-ered to the community. The fact that this is their declared ambition

makes this a matter of grave concern to all publicservants as well as to society in general.

2015/16 Financial YearWhile we have already experienced significant

cuts since 2010, the scale of cuts forecast for2015/16 and beyond is significantly greater. Youwill be aware of First Minister Peter Robinson’srecent statement that £160m could be saved an-nually if a Voluntary Exit Scheme was madeavailable to public servants. NIPSA estimates, depending on the salaries of

those who might avail of any such scheme, thatmore than 6,000 public sector jobs could be lost. It should be borne in mind that this would be in

addition to the almost 6,000 public sector jobs inNorthern Ireland that have already been cut since2010.

Where the cuts will fallThe Northern Ireland Executive is tasked with

agreeing a budget for the next financial year(April 2015 to March 2016) by the end of Octoberthis year. It is not clear as yet whether there will be

agreement within the Executive on this. If the Ex-ecutive fails to set a budget, then it becomes theresponsibility of the Permanent Secretary of theDepartment of Finance and Personnel to do so.It is the normal practice that any draft budget issubject to a public consultation process, usually a12-week period although it is not clear how anypublic consultation would proceed if the DFP Per-manent Secretary sets the budget. In this context,substantial cuts in the budget for next year andindeed beyond are expected.Until the budget is finalised it is not possible to

state exactly where the cuts will fall. While there are competing demands including a

view that Health and, possibly, Education shouldbe protected, we will have to await the draftbudget to establish where the bulk of the cuts aregoing to fall.If the Health budget or Health and Education

budgets are “protected” (though in reality this is acut in real terms accounting for inflation), theother public sector areas will experience the fullforce of the cuts. That is because the Health andEducation budget constitute more than 60% ofthe Northern Ireland Block Grant allocation. Thetotal cuts would then be placed on the remainingservices and the impact would be disproportion-ately severe on both staff employed in thoseareas and the services they provide.

Types of pay bill reduction measures

To date a number of public service employershave been engaged in what is termed “scenario planning” where various options for achieving

the cuts are considered depending on the extentof the budget reductions they say are required. NIPSA has met with the Northern Ireland Civil

Service Management Side to discuss the situa-tion and we have been advised that the main em-phasis will be on pay bill reduction. The type of measures being considered include

some of which have already taken effect – afreeze on all promotions and recruitment, reduc-tion or discarding of agency and temporary staff,as well as a halt to overtime and pay freezes. It is likely that savings based on these meas-

ures will be costed and that pay bill reductionsfrom the impact of any Voluntary Exit Schemeswould then be factored in or considered.The approach in other public bodies is likely to

be similar although it will be a matter for each Ex-ecutive Minister to request each of the NICS De-partments’ Permanent Secretaries to initiate suchexercises in those public bodies within the juris-diction of their own central government depart-ment. While we are aware that a number of public

sector employers, for example, Further Educationand a number of Non-Departmental Public Bod-ies, have started this type of work, it is unclearwhether this is the case across the public sector. NIPSA will be insisting that every public sector

employer properly consults with the union andother recognised unions on these matters.

Voluntary Exit SchemesThe First Minister commented that they would

THREAT TO PUBL By Brian Campfield,General SecretaryWhy should you

join NIPSA?NIPSA offers a wide range of services to itsmembers. As a NIPSA member you will enjoya great range of benefits, including:

1. Personal Representation: Access toadvice, information and personalrepresentation. Whether you areexperiencing difficulties at work in agrievance or disciplinary matter, feeloverloaded, or believe you are beingdiscriminated against, we are there to helpyou.

2. Collective Negotiation: NIPSA is viewedacross the public sector as a formidablenegotiator for improved pay and conditions.

3. Job Security: NIPSA campaigns forpermanent contracts, career progression,adequate staffing and resources.

4. Professional Support: NIPSA provides youwith a forum to raise professional issues,voice your concerns and influence decisionsthat affect your job.

5. Health and Safety Protection: NIPSApromotes good health and safety practices inyour workplace.

6. Legal Advice and Assistance: Free legalassistance – NIPSA members won around£1m in compensation last year alone.

7. Other Membership Services: MembershipPlus, latest discounts and offers.

8. Financial Services.

If you wish to become a member of NIPSAcomplete the application form or if you wouldlike further information about becoming amember then please contact us: Apply online:https://www.nipsa.org.uk/About-NIPSA/Join-US/Apply-Online-%281%29Or email us at: recruitment@nipsa.org.uk

reasonsto joinNIPSA8 It’s time to make a stand

to save the Welfare State

Page 3 NIPSA NEWSNewswww.nipsa.org.uk

“get knocked down in the rush” if voluntary earlyretirement or redundancy schemes were madeavailable to public sector workers. NIPSA appreciates that many staff who have

been working under unacceptable pressures for anumber of years may view these schemes as anopportunity to leave the public sector. However, as a trade union, NIPSA would cau-

tion members to consider if leaving the publicservice is the right choice. No doubt members will weigh up the pros and

cons and take into account their own financial po-sition and personal circumstances. Members should, of course, consider all rele-

vant matters before making decisions.Members within the Northern Ireland Civil Serv-

ice will be aware that the compensation termsavailable have been substantially reduced formany grades as a result of the passing by theNorthern Ireland Assembly of regulations whichwere detrimental to the interests of staff. These regulations were eventually introduced

after a four-year campaign by NIPSA to maintainthe previous more-beneficial provisions. When we objected to any dilution of redun-

dancy and early retirement terms, we were toldby Department of Finance and Personnel officialsthat there were no plans for redundancies in theNorthern Ireland Civil Service but we were wellaware of the meaninglessness of that projection!As a trade union we have a responsibility to

argue for the retention of public service jobs. It is clearly the case that with every reduction in

jobs, our ability to provide high quality services tothe public is reduced. This, in turn, undermines the services we pro-

vide and leaves public servants facing additionalcriticism in an understaffed environment. This results in a crisis of confidence and this

will obviously impact detrimentally on those left todeliver the services.In Northern Ireland any loss of public sector

jobs will have a negative impact on the localeconomy and young people leaving school andcolleges will be deprived of potential employmentopportunities. They face a situation where the only jobs avail-

able are low-paid, are part-time, or are on offer astemporary, zero hour contracts, etc. In the absence of such “opportunities”. the only

alternatives are unemployment or emigration.

What next?NIPSA will be actively opposing these dracon-

ian cuts to public sector jobs and the interests ofmembers will be paramount in all that we do. It isessential that we build opposition to these cuts,not only in the interest of members and their fami-lies but also to defend the wider community ofwhich we are a part. NIPSA will be working within the trade union

movement in Northern Ireland to build a cam-paign of opposition to these unprecedented pub-lic spending cuts. We believe that the Northern Ireland Executive

and Assembly must do more to oppose the cutsand to reverse policies being pushed through bythe Coalition Government at Westminster. Thesepolicies will undermine the very fabric of societyin Northern Ireland.Next year there will be a UK General Election,

by May at the latest. This gives an opportunity tosend a strong message to all those political par-ties who wish to form a Government that the peo-ple of Northern Ireland will not accept thedecimation of our public services and that theprogramme of cuts should be stopped and re-versed. In particular there is an onus on NIPSA and the

wider trade union movement – as the only organ-ised force which defends the interests of ordinarypeople – to take a lead in mobilising the popula-tion against these cuts.The NIPSA General Council, meeting on Octo-

ber 17, took the view that in the lead up to the UKGeneral Election, probably in the spring of 2015,we should be organising major public protests in-cluding a public sector-wide strike, in order to in-crease pressure on both our local andWestminster politicians and parties.We will be liaising with our colleagues in the

other unions and making the case both for com-munity opposition along with action by all publicsector trade unions.Remember the attack on public sector jobs is

part and parcel of the broader cuts that haveraised pension contributions, cut the value ofpensions, restricted promotion opportunities andreduced the real value of take -home pay. It’stime to demand, in as strong and as united avoice as possible, an end to all these attacks onpublic services and public sector workers.

IC SECTOR JOBS

Major protests and a public sector-wide strike being planned against job cuts

GENERAL Secretary Brian Campfield hasbranded as “very disappointing”, FinanceMinister Simon Hamilton’s decision to im-pose a 2014 pay package for the NorthernIreland Civil Service.It is understood DFP issued a note to all

NICS staff, setting out details of the pack-age, the principal elements of which are:(a) all eligible fully satisfactory or betterperformers receive one step progressionwith effect from 1 August 2014;(b) all eligible fully satisfactory or betterperformers receiving less than a 1% con-solidated increase will receive a non-con-solidated pensionable payment to bringthem up to the equivalent value of 1%;(c) with effect from 1 February 2015, thecap on Overtime Band 2 will be increasedto the maximum of the Grade 7 pay scale;(d) with effect from 1 February 2015, thecalculation for overtaken/undertaken an-nual leave will be amended to use a devi-sor of 260;(e) with effect from 1 February 2015, thecalculation for a daily rate for deputisingwill be amended to use a divisor of 260.Mr Campfield told NIPSA News: “The de-

cision of the Minister, while not surpris-ing, is nonetheless very disappointing.NIPSA have been to date involved in ne-gotiations with DFP officials on 2014 payand one of our primary objectives was, inaddition to the payment of incrementalprogression, to secure consolidated in-creases on all scale points especially atthe maximum. “Unfortunately we were not able to

reach a point in these negotiations whereManagement Side were prepared to offerconsolidated increases.”

Hamilton’s NICSpay decision ‘disappointing’

Page 4 NIPSA NEWS News www.nipsa.org.uk

NIPSA News understands De-partment of Justice officialsare trying to identify cuts ofbetween 10% to 15% in2014/15 amid fears that thesecan only be achieved by re-ducing programmes andceasing a number of currentinitiatives.The exact budget position for

this year has been described as“fluid” as the Department strug-gles to cope with more than £47million in cuts on top of £113million planned cuts. Describing the position as

“critical”, NIPSA Assistant Sec-retary Ryan McKinney said: “Al-though we are being told thatevery effort will be made to pro-tect the ‘frontline’ this is hardlycomforting for staff. “Justice Minister David Ford

has already announced the clo-

sure of the Northern Ireland LawCommission. Funding to other‘arm’s length bodies’ andNDPBs is to be slashed and thiswill put more jobs at risk.

“DOJ staff do a crucial jobwhich is often out of sight –however, it is no less importantto society in general. Backroompolicy work around prisoner re-habilitation or with vulnerableyoung adults pays dividends inthe long run.“Short-term decisions to slash

services will have long-term ef-fects and dangers. It is despica-ble that Tory budget cuts aregoing to once again impactmost seriously on working classcommunities.” It is understood union reps on

the ground are monitoring theimpact on the core directoratesof the DOJ and in agencies.Members are being asked toprovide feedback about whatimpact these cuts are having onservices.

HUGE numbers of workers are hiding men-tal health conditions from their employersbecause they fear it will affect their career,according to a new report published earlyin October.A survey of 2,000 adults by insurers Friends

Life showed that two out of five have sufferedfrom stress, anxiety or depression in the pastyear and not told their boss.More than one in four of those surveyed said

they had taken a day off sick and claimed thatit was for a physical rather than mental healthproblem.The most common cause of stress was ex-

cessive workload, followed by frustration withpoor management and long working hours, thestudy found.More than half of those polled said their ca-

reer prospects would be damaged if they wereopen about stress or anxiety.Younger workers were more likely to suffer

from depression, anxiety or stress, said the re-port.Friends Life group chief executive Andy

Briggs said: “Our research shows that there isstill much to be done in tackling mental healthissues in the workplace.”

MILLIONS of peope lie awake in bed atnight worrying about money, debt charityStepChange said in October.Those whose sleep patterns are being

disrupted typically lose 11 nights’ worth ofsleep a year, the group reported.Fifteen per cent of more than 2,000 adults

surveyed said that being plagued by late-night thoughts of their financial difficultiesis preventing them from sleeping properly.This equates to 7.4 million people acrossthe country.

WOMEN are still responsible for the lion’sshare of household and family tasks evenwhen working outside of home, Mumsnethas revealed.Britain’s largest website for parents said

that working mums undertake an averageof 10 hours of chores a week — twice asmany hours as men.Out of 54 tasks including arranging

childcare, managing routine health ap-pointments and buying birthday presents,mothers were chiefly responsible for 36 ofthem and 15 were roughly shared, the pollof 1,000 working mums revealed.Taking the bins out, changing lightbulbs

and DIY tasks were the only three thatmen primarily took responsibility for.Mumsnet chief executive Justine

Roberts said “One-in-three workingmums is the main family wage earner, arise of one million over the last 18 years.

Workers ‘hiding stressand depression’

Women 'still doing mosthousework' despite working

7.4 million losingsleep over money

Justice Minister DavidFord has warned jobs atrisk with deep cuts

DOJ jobs atrisk overdeep cuts

Gangmasters Licensing Authority to appeal 'shocking' sentenceTHE body that licenses the supply of temporarylabour has said it will appeal the sentencegiven to an illegal gangmaster (labour provider)who kept fellow Romanian workers in inhu-mane conditions in County Armagh.Gheorge Ionas pleaded guilty to operating as a

gangmaster without a licence at Craigavon Magis-trates' Court.He received a £500 fine.The Gangmasters Licensing Authority described

the punishment as "shocking".The maximum sentence under the Gangmasters

Licensing Act for working as an illegal gangmasteris 10 years in jail.The court heard that officers from the Gangmas-

ters Licensing Authority (GLA) and police searchedMr Ionas' home in Albert Avenue in Lurgan, CountyArmagh, on 2 October 2013.They discovered three Romanian men sleeping

in an outbuilding - the building was made out ofbare breeze blocks and had no heating and onlylimited electricity.It was later declared "unfit for human habitation"

by environmental health officers at Craigavon Bor-ough Council.The court heard the men were employed as

apple pickers, working in orchards in County Ar-magh, and were paid £100 per week, which wasbelow the minimum wage.

ForagingOfficers working on the case were told that at

one stage, up to five men had been living in theoutbuilding.It was alleged in a police interview that at least

one of the men had foraged in supermarket bins forout of date food.Mr Ionas took money from the men for food,

transport and accommodation before he paid them.GLA chief executive Paul Broadbent said he was

"appalled" by the leniency of the sentence andwould be seeking an appeal."I simply fail to see how this punishment fits the

crime and is in any way a deterrent for someonewho preyed on vulnerable men," he said."I will be writing to the public prosecutor for

Northern Ireland to seek leave to appeal this de-risory sentence and express my utter dismay thatslavery - for that is what this was - is seemingly notrecognised in the court where this defendant ap-peared."At a time when the proposed Human Trafficking

and Exploitation Bill in Northern Ireland stipulates aminimum sentence of two years for 'trafficking' of-fences, and the very offence that was admittedunder the Gangmasters Licensing Act carries amaximum of 10 years, this case must surely be re-considered."

Organise to protect services, jobs, pay and pensionsYOU HAVE A ROLE TO PLAY...SUPPORT YOUR UNION AND YOUR COLLEAGUES

NIPSA representatives have met with seniorHR and Finance officials following PSNIChief Constable George Hamilton’s dramaticannouncement that the organisation was fac-ing an impossible position due to budgetcuts.Since the announcement, the union’s reps

have been inundated with queries from con-cerned workers both within the civilian staff andthe managed service contract. PSNI have now confirmed that the DOJ has

asked the organisation to plan for up to £120million in cuts in 2014/15 – that is in addition toin-year cuts of £57 million. The last four years have already seen a

budget reduction of £135 million. In response to the most recent cuts to the

PSNI budget, the controversial ‘Grafton’ contracthas been axed with around 300 agency workerslosing their posts and the Historical EnquiriesTeam being wound up. And NIPSA Official Ryan McKinney told

NIPSA News he fears this is far from the end ofthe matter.He warned: “There is no doubting the serious-

ness of this situation. On top of the ending of theassociates’ contract, there will now be a reviewof all so-called managed services and I believethat it is highly likely that some NIPSA members

working on those contracts are likely to be af-fected. “The budget reductions will be sought from the

running costs so civilian staff will potentially bein danger too. “This is not about identifying efficiencies – this

is cuts and there can be no doubt that the publicwill notice a reduced capability.”Mr McKinney added: “NIPSA has asked for a

meeting with the Chief Constable and in themeantime further engagement with HR isplanned.”

Page 5 NIPSA NEWSNewswww.nipsa.org.uk

BREAST cancer tests in the UK doubledafter actress Angelina Jolie (picturedabove) revealed her own preventive mas-tectomy.The number of GP referrals for genetic

and DNA tests for breast cancer grew bytwo-and-a-half times between July 2012and last year.Researchers said the rise in awareness

was welcome as most of the women test-ing had family histories of breast cancer.

FATALITES at work have fallen by almost80 per cent since Labour introduced theHealth and Safety at Work Act in 1974.Non-fatal injuries are down by more than75 per cent.The beginning of the month, October 1,

marked the Act’s 40th anniversary.But one union leader said the protec-

tions provided by the Act are at risk be-cause of the Coalition Government’s“obsession” with de-regulation, cuts andpolitical interference.He said “Cuts and political interference

from Ministers mean that most work-places are no longer being inspected.Local authorities enforce health andsafety in shops and they have sufferedcuts, with latest estimates indicating thatlocal authority inspections have plum-meted by 90 per cent or more since 2010.“The law is needed just as much today

as it was in 1974, to protect the health,safety and welfare of all workers.”

Work deaths down 80%

Jolie good result ascancer tests rise...

..but many cancersare being found lateALMOST half of cancers diagnosed inEngland are detected at a late stage whentreatment is less likely to be successful,Cancer Research UK reported yesterday.The group says catching cancer early could

improve the prospects of more than 52,000patients a year in England, saving nearly£210 million.Experts estimate that if the best early diag-

nosis rates were delivered an extra 5,000 pa-tients would survive five years or more.

PSNI faces‘serious’ cutsas 300 tempjobs slashed

Chief Constable George Hamilton indramatic announcement

Fury over disabled pay commentsDAVID CAMERON was chal-lenged to come clean onwhether the government hadinvestigated Lord Freud’ssuggestion of slashing theminimum wage for disabledpeople.Labour demanded that the

Prime Minister reveal all internalpapers and details of work com-missioned about cutting pay fordisabled workers. Shadow work and pensions

secretary Rachel Reeves wroteto Mr Cameron after it was re-vealed that Lord Freud said dis-abled people were “not worththe full wage.”Her letter was issued as at

least one Tory backbench MPdefended the Welfare ReformMinister’s statement.

He had told fellow Tories at aconference fringe meeting thathe was “going to go and thinkabout that particular issue,whether there is something wecan do nationally.” Mr Cameron insisted “those

have never been the views ofthe government” when EdMiliband confronted him with thecomments at Prime Minister’squestions. But Ms Reeves challenged

him to prove it by releasing allrelated research carried out byor for departments over the last12 months. She also called on the PM to

order Lord Freud to come andexplain his comments beforeParliament.The Tories had told their Lords

frontbencher not to take part intoday’s social justice debate in abid to hide from the growingmedia storm over his comments. But Ms Reeves said: “If you

cannot agree to this, people willonly conclude that your govern-ment has something to hide —that you cannot publicly defendyour position in relation to dis-abled people’s entitlement to theminimum wage — and your in-action will haunt you.”A Number 10 spokeswoman

told the press yesterday morningthat Mr Cameron had not evendiscussed events with LordFreud. She said the PM’s office had

instead “made clear the PM’sviews.”

Page 6 NIPSA NEWS News www.nipsa.org.uk

NIPSA recently settled Industrial Tribunal proceed-ings with the South Eastern Health and Social CareTrust, recording an important victory over theproper implementation of the Working Time Direc-tive (WTD).This involved the employer’s obligation to ensure mem-bers of staff are not made to work excessive hours with-out adequate compensatory rest or payment.The union had supported the case on behalf of staffworking in a residential care home at William Street,Newtownards. The unit provides accommodation and care for vulnera-ble children and supervision is needed 24 hours a day. There is a rota system using shift patterns. Part of theshift system means that members of staff working lateshifts are then required to sleep on the premises. The shift system seems variable but a number of shiftswere outlined to the NIPSA legal team: 07.00-14.30;10.00-17.00; 14.00-23.00 (until settled) and 14.00-14.30(24.5hr shift).In practice, the full scheduled sleep is rarely afforded tomembers and staff described having at least two tothree hours on average of work during the scheduledrest period. The hours and shift patterns described were also out-side the limits of the working time regulations. A NIPSA source said: “It was clear from the consultationwith our legal representatives that the health of mem-bers was being affected severely by the demands of thework. Furthermore the information provided by mem-bers to the legal representatives clearly indicated thatmembers were being required to work excess hourswithout adequate compensatory rest.”In the subsequent legal proceedings issued by NIPSA, itwas argued that under WTR:1. An adult worker is entitled to a rest period of not lessthan 11 consecutive hours in each 24-hour period.There is no requirement that the rest period be particu-larly restful, so long as it is a period free from the obliga-tions of work. 2. An adult worker is entitled to an uninterrupted rest pe-riod of not less than 24 hours in each seven-day period.3. An adult worker is entitled to a rest break where his orher daily working time is more than six hours. The rest

break must be an uninterrupted period of not less than20 minutes.NIPSA took the case on behalf of three members at thecare home and it was agreed to settle the case (withoutproceeding to a formal tribunal) in the following terms:a. All time during which the claimants were required tobe present on the respondent’s premises during theovernight shifts was working time.b. The respondent is required to provide compensatoryrest for working time carried out by the claimants.c. The respondent has failed to provide adequate orequivalent compensatory rest for night-time workingunder the present rota system at William Street, New-townards.d. The failure to pay claimants the appropriate contrac-tual rate for working time was an unlawful deduction ofwages.e. The claimants are entitled to be paid at their appropri-ate contractual rate for all working time for six yearsprior to the date of lodgement of the ET1.f. The basis for calculation of the amounts to be paidand the date of payment have been agreed between theparties.Finally, the parties further agreed that the ‘appropriatecontractual rate’ would include the claimants’ normalholiday rates applicable at the relevant time plus the fol-lowing allowances (where applicable) under the termsand conditions of Agenda for Change: unsociable hours;weekend working; public or bank holidays; and over-time.However, it does not include disturbed time allowanceor night allowance (which has been paid) – thoseamounts being set off and deducted from any sums duefor the whole shift.As NIPSA News goes to press, the calculations for thisaward are currently being agreed between NIPSA andthe employer.A NIPSA source added: “Clearly a decision of this na-ture could have wider implications for the HSC Trustsand other organisations employing similar types ofarrangements. NIPSA will be liaising with branches andissuing advice accordingly to members with a view toconsidering if other similar proceedings need to belodged.”

FORTY nine minutes after re-turning to work after the 2013New Year break Britain’s high-est paid director, Simon Peck-ham, Chief Executive ofengineering company Melrose,earned as much as a worker onthe living wage earns in a year,according to new TUC researchlooking at directors’ pay inBritain’s top 350 companies.Simon Peckham – Britain’s

highest paid director in the finan-cial year ending in April 2013 – re-ceived more than £31m(£31,157,399) or £119,836 a day.This is 2,238 times more than aworker on the living wage of £7.65an hour who worked 35 hours aweek.The top pay research contained

in Executive Excess was providedby independent researchers In-comes Data Services. It coversthe year ending April 2013 andshows that across the FTSE 100the average (median) total earn-ings for the highest paid directorwas £3,195,353 – 230 times anannual full-time non-London livingwage.It would have taken just over a

day for the average director tohave earned a year’s worth of theliving wage (£7.65 an hour), ac-cording to the research.Companies with high inequality

between top pay and that of therest of their staff perform less well,according to research. But em-ployees and investors do not haveaccess to robust information thatwould allow them to assess thegap between top directors andstaff in the rest of their company.The TUC is calling on the govern-ment to compel firms to disclosefull information about employeepay.Only 39 out of 288 companies

(14 per cent) asked by the TUC toprovide sufficient data to make anaccurate calculation of the ratiobetween director and staff payeven replied to the request. A thirdof them provided no more infor-mation than was in their annualreport.At present companies are only

required to publish a figure for thetotal cost of staff remunerationand the number of staff they em-ploy. But while these totals allowcalculation of a figure for average(mean) pay, different companiescompile the data in different ways.For example, some include over-seas staff based in countrieswhere pay might be higher orlower than the UK. Some compa-nies include contractors and somedo not. And a crude mean of thistype only reveals what an averagestaff member earns a year withouttaking into account whether theywork full or part-time.The published figures show that

across the FTSE 100 the average(median) ratio between the totalearnings of the highest paid direc-tor and mean staff pay was 85.

Union in landmark WTD caseHealth board’s decision to settle workers’claim will have wide repurcussions

THE TRUEPAY SCANDAL

Page 7 NIPSA NEWSNewswww.nipsa.org.uk

FOLLOWING a number of resolutions atboth the main NIPSA conference and theHSC annual delegate conference, the unionhas written to NIC-ICTU emphasising theneed to call a public demonstration in sup-port of health and social care services inNorthern Ireland.NIPSA suggested Congress convene a public

event in Belfast and possibly a number of otherlocations in support of the Health Service. This request has been picked up by the NIC-

ICTU Health Committee through Congress. However, it is understood a special confer-

ence, titled ‘Health, Safety and the Wellbeingof our People – delivering a trade union re-sponse to the crisis in healthcare’, is sched-uled to be held in November. The full-day conference will be held at UNI-

SON headquarters in Belfast on November 12and unions are being asked to send delegatesto the event.It is anticipated that as well as raising aware-

ness of the issue, the conference will look at de-veloping a strategy, advocacy and platform for aNIC-ICTU-led, cross-trade union campaign indefence of a public health service.

Three sections to the conference are beingproposed:

Part 1:Information and analysis on the state and po-

tential future of the health service, three speak-ers have been identified to address the crisis inthe NHS in England, the NHS in Scotland andthe TYC initiative in Northern Ireland followed bya Q and A session.

Part 2:Information and analysis on the state and po-

tential future of the NI Health Service, threetrade union side speakers have been identifiedto address TYC privatising your health servicein Northern Ireland, governance in the NHS andfailure to tackle health inequalities in NorthernIreland and the crisis in our NHS, is there an al-ternative? Followed by a Q and A session.

Part 3:Developing the Trade Union strategy. It is

hoped that a NIC-ICTU-led, cross-trade unioncampaign will be developed in defence of a

public health service with the emphasis on high-lighting what are appropriate demands, howthose demands are raised and how can suchdemands can be delivered. The NIC-ICTUHealth Committee also wishes to see the prepa-ration in advance of a declaration in defence ofthe NHS based on its founding principles thatcould be adopted by the conference with a viewto getting politicians, including MLAs, MPs etc,to sign up to it.A NIPSA spokesperson said: “It is our inten-

tion to build on the conference in November toseek to organise a region-wide demonstration indefence of our NHS. “NIPSA has pointed out that we should be in-

novative and imaginative in order to encouragethe widest possible participation from work-places and local communities across NorthernIreland. If possible, a cavalcade and marchshould be organised to travel to each Trust areaover a week (in a ‘battle bus’) in defence of ourNHS. “It is NIPSA’s intention to bring forward such

initiatives as part of developing a [wider] tradeunion strategy.”

QUESTION: How many Education Bills doesit take for politicians to transform educa-tion?

ANSWER: None of the politicians currentlyemployed in Stormont actually know, exceptthat it is clearly more than three. As the thirdEducation Bill is rushed through Stormont’slegislative process by accelerated passage(given its urgency, you might think – butyou’d be wrong), it will be passed into law intime for April 1, 2015 or the collapse of theAssembly, whichever comes sooner.“One thing you can be sure of,” AssistantSecretary Paddy Mackel told NIPSA News,“is that this third Bill for ‘ESA light’ will nottransform education provision. “We will still in the main educate our chil-dren separately. We will now have two sec-toral support bodies to oversee thatseparation of education. “Of course, it is true that if it actually hap-pens next April, we will no longer have fiveChief Executives for the five Education andLibrary Boards. Rather we will have oneChief Executive for the new Education Au-thority, along with five Deputy Chief Execu-tives. “We will no longer have five Education andLibrary Board Headquarters. Rather we willhave one new HQ, probably based in Belfastand five regional offices, based preciselywhere the five Headquarters are currently lo-cated.

“We will continue to have 89 grammar andintegrated schools which will sit outside thecontrol of the new Education Authority –elitist in nature and oblivious to the educa-tional needs of the majority of young peo-ple.”You may be forgiven for thinking that therewas a crisis in Stormont in terms of politicaldisagreement and inadequate funding provi-sion. However, in the alternative World of Narnia

or Tír na nÓg, the real world seldom pene-trates. Unfortunately – unlike Tír na nÓg where no-one ever aged – children and young peoplewill indeed age as they continue to gothrough this segregated education system,which hasn’t changed in generations. Hopefully, however, unlike Narnia, changewill eventually come long before 2555.That’s a lot of Education Bills between nowand then. And in the meantime…

Developing a strategy tosave our Health Service

Some thoughts on the ‘new’ Education Authority

Life is not like Narnia where everything stays the same

VOICETrade unionist, MLAs express anger at wel

Page 8 NIPSA NEWS Welfare Cuts www.nipsa.org.uk

A SENIOR trade unionist has warned thatWelfare Reform – unless it is scrapped – will“devastate the working poor and margin-alised communities” in Northern Ireland.ICTU Assistant General Secretary Peter

Bunting made the comment as he joined nearly200 trade union and civic society activists, anMP and MLAs to debate the issue at a specialhalf-day seminar in the Wellington Park Hotel,Belfast, on October 1.Those who attended were told the Welfare

State was under unprecedented attack. Guestspeakers from England and Scotland reportedon how the implementation of cuts had impactedon the marginalised and working poor across theUK.In Northern Ireland, a coalition of trade unions

and civil society organisations are campaigningto have the Welfare Reform Bill either scrappedor heavily watered down.The Scrap Welfare Reform seminar heard

from a number of speakers – including an MP,MLAs and disabled rights campaigners – whooutlined the impact welfare reform was havingon their constituencies.Peter Bunting explained that the seminar’s

purpose was to warn of the impact the welfarecuts would have on civic society in Northern Ire-land. He said: “It is also about keeping up people’s

enthusiasm in opposing the welfare cuts whichare really contradictory in many terms. We aretrying to build an inclusive and equal societyhere in Northern Ireland and the results of theseparticular cuts will devastate the working poorand our marginalised communities.”He suggested that those willing to implement

the Welfare Reform Bill will launch an attack ontrade union opponents to the cuts with the threatof job losses in the public sector.Dave Anderson, Labour MP for Blaydon, told

the seminar of the devastation being wrought on

his community by the cuts programme.“We are seeing in Northern Ireland the chance

of saying no to something that is devastating tothe lives of ordinary people. It’s making the poor-est pay for the mistakes and failures of thebanks.”He added: “We are seeing the increase in food

banks. In my own village we have had to set oneup and are encouraging people take at least onehigh-end, quality item... amazingly it appearsthat toilet rolls are seen as high quality goods.What sort of life is this that we are forcing peopleto live?“Politicians are saying there is no choice but to

accept these cuts. There is another choice... it’sopposition to the dismantling of the WelfareState and I support the trade union campaign inNorthern Ireland in its bid to save this publicservice.”NIPSA and ICTU rep Maria Morgan said the

seminar was set up to reinforce the trade union’scampaign to build with civic organisations andpoliticians an effective opposition to the cuts inwelfare.“There has been a lot of effort by the media,

the Tory and other parties to create a divide be-tween those currently in work and those out of

THOUSANDS of disabled people across THEUK, with more than 600 in Northern Ireland,are in financial crisis and unable to pay foressential living costs due to “severe delays”in receiving a new disability benefit, re-search has shown.Disabled people have been waiting an aver-

age of six months between claiming for the Per-sonal Independence Payment (PIP) andreceiving the money, with some waiting morethan a year, according to debt charity Citizens

Advice. As part of its welfare reforms, the gov-ernment ditched the Disability Living Allowance(DLA), cutting the benefit altogether for disabledpeople until they prove they are eligible for itsreplacement PIP.DLA and PIP are specifically designed to help

disabled people in or out of work meet theirbasic living costs.But the Citizens Advice research showed that

delays are forcing most to do without any benefitwith some reporting waits of up to 15 months

putting thousands of disabled people in “severehardship.”PIP is also a passport to other benefits too,

such as for loved ones who want to claim thecarer’s allowance, therefore the delays meanthat some claimants are also missing out onother financial support, the research found.“The basic cost of living is generally higher for

sick and disabled people than for the averagecitizen,” said Citizens Advice head of policySusan McPhee.

Thousands in financial crisis

INFAMOUS pay-day lender Wonga hasbeen forced to write off the debts of330,000 customers after it admitted it hasmade loans to people who could not affordto repay them.The move follows an agreement with the

Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) that re-quires it to make significant changes to itsbusiness immediately.The review means that approximately

330,000 customers who are currently over30 days in arrears will have the balance oftheir loan written off.Around 45,000 customers who are up to

29 days in arrears will be asked to repaytheir debt without interest and chargesand have the option of paying off theirdebt over an extended period of fourmonths.FCA director of supervision Clive Adam-

son said: “We are determined to drive upstandards in the consumer credit marketand it is disappointing that some firms stillhave a way to go to meet our expectations.“This should put the rest of the industry

on notice — they need to lend affordablyand responsibly. It is absolutely right thatWonga’s new management team has actedquickly to put things right for their cus-tomers after these issues were raised bythe FCA.”But Labour MP Pat McFadden, a member

of the Treasury committee, said the re-sponse by Wonga was “not good enough”and said bosses should be face questionson their business model and lending prac-tices.“By not doing proper credit checks,

Wonga looks to have built a business onrolling over loans and building up debt formany people who could never afford torepay in the first place,” he said.“The effect on consumers has been to

build up debts at astronomical rates of in-terest.”

Wongaforced towrite off330,000loans

A TUC analysis of Tory tax and benefit plansrevealed that they would leave working fam-ilies hundreds of pounds worse off everyyear. Prime Minister David Cameron launched a

tax giveaway in his Tory conference speechto cheer-up beleaguered activists. “With us, if you work 30 hours a week on

minimum wage, you will pay no income taxat all. Nothing. Zero. Zilch,” he said.But TUC research shows that a couple-

family with two children and 30 hours’ work

Tory plans leave fami

Sagainstausterity

s and MP lfare cuts

Page 9 NIPSA NEWSWelfare cutswww.nipsa.org.uk

LOW-WAGED workers benefitted from theirfirst above-inflation pay rise since the To-ries took power.Adults aged 21 and above will benefit

from a 3 per cent boost to the national mini-mum wage in October, which will rise from£6.31 to £6.50. But the TUC pointed out low earners

would have 50p-an-hour more in theirpocket if wages had kept pace with inflation. General secretary Frances O’Grady said:

“It is good news to see the worst-paid adultworkers receiving a pay release above infla-tion for the first time for four years. “But it’s a muted celebration because the

minimum wage would be worth at least £7today had it kept up with rising prices.”Her message came as the TUC finalised

its preparations for its huge Britain Needs aPay Rise march and rally in London on Oc-tober 18. Apprentices and workers aged under 20

were robbed once again of an above-infla-tion top-up — receiving just 2 per cent. And the TUC believes around 60 per cent

of Britain’s minimum wage workers arewomen. The Resolution Foundation revealed that

the number of workers stuck on the rate hashit an all-time high. Its research found 1.2 million people are

stuck on poverty pay — twice as many com-pared with when the rate was introduced inApril 1999.Chief economist Matthew Whittaker said:

“The increased ‘stickiness’ of jobs on theminimum wage points to a wider problem oflow pay in the UK.”

AN INCREASE in the minimum wage ofjust £1.50 would boost the UK’s economyand create tens of thousands of new jobs,according to a new independent report.The increase would benefit 4.6 million of

Britain’s lowest-paid workers by an aver-age of £1,400 per year, add £2.1 billion topublic finances and potentially generateat least 30,000 new jobs, says the report.The current hourly minimum wage is

£6.31 for people over 21, £5.03 for thoseaged 18-21, £3.72 for under-18s and £2.68for apprentices.From October 1 there will be a paltry in-

crease lifting the minimum to £6.50, £5.13,£3.79 and £2.73 respectively.The report, commissioned by Unite and

prepared by economist Howard Reed, for-merly of the Institute for Fiscal Studies,will form the basis of the union’s submis-sion to the government’s low-pay com-mission.The report states that the increase

would help poorest families the most,with the biggest gainers in the bottom 60per cent of income distribution.The biggest group of beneficiaries

would be retail workers — more than900,000 would benefit — and workers inthe hospitality industry, in which 750,000would benefit. In addition, 190,000 clean-ers would see a boost to their incomes.

What a difference£1.50 would make

Minimum wageto rise by 3%

work by saying they are subsidising tax creditsand trying to demonise the unemployed and thelow paid. We are trying to dispel the myths.”John McInally, National Vice-President of the

PCS union, told the seminar: “Evidence fromEngland, Scotland and Wales, has shown thatthe welfare cuts programme has been shown tobe an unmitigated disaster for workers.“It’s not only an attack on people claiming ben-

efits and the unemployed but it’s an attack onthe disabled and those employed, especially thelow paid, as well.”He continued: “If you want to measure the im-

pact, then look at the rise in food banks, in-crease in inequality and marginalisation. Youcan also measure it in the terms of suicides ofpeople who have had benefits stopped. “It is a cruel regime that seeks to blame the

poor by saying they had made a lifestyle choice.This of course is nonsense. People want jobs,people want a decent life, but welfare cuts areabout driving them into the dust, it’s about pri-vatising public services, it’s about cutting staffand it’s about the disintegration and the destruc-tion of the Welfare State.”Ellen Clifford, of Inclusion London & Disabled

People Against Cuts, claimed the cuts pro-

gramme was a regressive step.“It’s taking disabled people’s rights back to 30

years ago. People are being left with literallynothing to live on. We are seeing huge levels ofdestitution. Suicides are increasing and onetelling statistic reports that there is now a suicideeach day on the UK railway system,” she added.Lynn Carvill, Empty Purse Campaign, also

shared her organisation’s opposition to the cuts.Three MLAs – Sinn Fein’s Alex Maskey, UUP’s

Michael Copeland and Simon Ross for theGreens – also spoke opposing the cuts pro-gramme.Alex Maskey congratulated the unions for or-

ganising the seminar and giving a platform to allgroups opposed to welfare cuts.He said: “It has proven that there is deep

anger in society against the cuts. The tradeunions have been highlighting the problems overa number of years on what will happen whenthese cuts are implemented.“The seminar gives a broader voice to all

those who are opposed to the cuts and that is tobe welcomed.”

lWhere does Working Tax Credit go? – seepage 12.

“This is because of the additional costs of spe-cial food, medicines or equipment they mightneed, extra heating and lighting costs for thosewho need to stay at home longer, or transportcosts for those who are less mobile.“These extra costs are not luxuries. They are

essential to leading a basic life of dignity.”She added that “too many disabled people are

not getting that support and many are falling intopoverty as a result.”Disabled People Against Cuts co-founder

Linda Burnip said that part of the reason for thesevere delays is that assessors Atos and Capitaare “such toxic brands” that nobody wants towork for them.“Appointments for PIP have been cancelled

time and time again. Disabled people are alsolosing as tens of thousands of pounds, althoughsuccessful claimants should receive back-tracked payments many are not or are receivingless than they should.”

over benefits delay

at the national minimum wage would suffera net loss of £320 a year.Most families on a single minimum wage

will still need to claim in-work benefits. Means-testing will therefore reduce the

net gain from the income tax cut to just £60a year instead of £400.“The Conservative plans will make the

lowest paid families foot the bill for tax cutsfor the rich,” said TUC leader Frances O’-Grady.

lies even worse off

Maria Morgan ‘dispelling myths’

Page 10 NIPSA NEWS News www.nipsa.org.uk

THE new £20 charge to use the govern-ment's child maintenance service couldleave separated parents without any sup-port arrangements in place for their chil-dren, MPs have warned.The Public Accounts Committee said there

was worrying uncertainty about the impact ofthe £20 fee hitting low-income families whouse the service to assess, collect and makepayments.Chairwoman Margaret Hodge said: "There

is a risk that some parents end up reaching noarrangement at all, to the detriment of the chil-dren involved.”

The average cost of raising a child tosecondary school age is almost £84,000,according to a survey for the Halifaxbank.The bulk of the total £83,627 bill comes

from childcare before children reachschool age, which stands at around£41,139.Parents were on average found to be

spending £633.54 a month on their chil-dren, adding up to £7,602.50 a year.

Childcare costs rising

Child maintenance£20 charge worring

AVERAGE wages have fallen by £50 aweek in real terms since 2008, accordingto new analysis.The analysis shows that even using the

government’s preferred inflation measure (theconsumer prices index), which excludeshousing costs, workers are on average£2,500 a year worse off in terms of theirspending power than they were before thecrash.Last month Bank of England Governor Mark

Carney said that average weekly earningshave fallen by around 10 per cent in realterms since the financial crisis.The TUC analysis shows the cost of this fall

for working people and how pay has failed topick up during the recent economic recovery.This is the seventh year that average

weekly earnings have been falling – thelongest period since records began in the1850s, says the TUC.TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady

said: “Workers would be over £2,500 a yearbetter off had wage growth kept pace witheven the most modest measure of inflation.“Instead, pay has fallen off a cliff and shows

little sign of recovering any time soon. Ordi-nary households are not sharing in the recov-ery and are facing their seventh consecutiveyear of real wage cuts.“People are increasingly being forced to use

their credit cards and dwindling savings tomake ends meet, and unless Britain gets apay rise soon the UK’s personal debt problemwill get even worse.

Wages havefallen £50 aweek since2008, says TUC

Page 11 NIPSA NEWSNewswww.nipsa.org.uk

Responding to the publication of the gov-ernment’s Taxation of Pensions Bill in mid-October, TUC General Secretary FrancesO’Grady said: “Re-announcing his plans toallow the over-55s to dip into their pensionpots does not make George Osborne'shastily cobbled-together policy any lessrash.“The suggestion that savers could treat

their pension savings as a bank account isirresponsible.“We need further pension reform to en-

sure that people have adequate incomes intheir old age. But this should be consid-ered and consensual, not rushed outthrough a bill published on the back of anenvelope with an eye on next year’s elec-tion.”

Pensions Bill puts security in old age at risk

CAMPAIGNERS said that Iain DuncanSmith’s new targets to reduce childpoverty lack ambition and will "let a lot ofchildren down".The Work and Pensions Secretary set a

target of less than 7 per cent of childrenliving in persistent poverty by 2020 for theCon-Dem government.He said the target showed the Govern-

ment recognised that "persistent povertycan be particularly harmful to children'slife chances.”But the Child Poverty Action Group chief

executive Alison Garnham said: "This is atarget that will let a lot of children down."We hope the 7 per cent will be a starting

point from which we can move to a moreambitious target as favoured by two-thirdsof respondents to the Government 's con-sultation."

Child poverty targets‘will let kids down’

CIVILIAN police staff in England andWales will be balloted for industrial actionin protest at a “miserly” 1 per cent payoffer.Unions said staff were angry at the real-

terms pay cuts imposed across the publicsector.They are demanding a 3% pay increase

in allowances.In an informal ballot earlier this year,

staff overwhelmingly rejected the sub-in-flationary offer.A yes vote in the upcoming ballot could

see industrial action before Christmas.Staff involved in the dispute include

community support officers, 999 opera-tors, fingerprint experts, criminal justiceunit clerks, custody and detention offi-cers, and a wide range of operational andorganisational support roles.

Police staff to beballoted for pay strikes

IF MEMBERS thought that things may getbetter next year and beyond, recent an-nouncements in the FE Sector will have cor-rected that view. The Department of Employment and Learning

have instructed colleges across the FE Sectorto prepare for cuts to their budget of 15% fromnext August. Assistant Secretary Paddy Mackel, reflecting

the outrage of members at the announcements,told NIPSA News: “No service can sustain cutsof this magnitude. This attack on young peopleand their education and training sends out aclear message that everyone is expendable. “A 15% cut in resources equates to more than

£40m in the budget. This will result in many,many hundreds of job cuts. It will result in thou-sands of young people – upwards of 50% com-ing from areas of multiple deprivation and socialexclusion – being left out in the cold, failed byan education system which would apparentlyrather that they were unemployed, with no job,no prospects, no training and no future.”Paddy Mackel pointed out that the blame lay

with the Westminster government but insistedthat a “light must be shone” on local parties in

the Assembly “who seem incapable of affectingchange or they are indifferent to the impactthese cuts will have on ordinary people”. He said: “The FE Sector provides a first-class

service to young people and it acts as an impor-tant bridge between the traditional schoolmethod of education and the options of HigherEducation or training, apprenticeships and paidemployment.”NIPSA has arranged meetings will all employ-

ers and has called an urgent meeting of theNIPSA FE Panel. Discussions are also continuing with other

support staff and lecturers’ unions to develop ajoint response to this crisis, which is likely to in-clude a joint meeting with the Minister and theAssembly Committee.Paddy Mackel added: “The response to these

cuts will involve meeting with employers, theDepartments, politicians and others. However,members must realise that they are now fightingfor their employment survival, for their right towork and for the right of young people to haveaccess to education and training. There is noalternative. It is time to stand up and becounted.”

Page 12 NIPSA NEWS News www.nipsa.org.uk

WHILE members may have followed someof the spats between politicians in recentweeks – a few almost comical in their joust-ing – the real impact of the cuts has startedto hit home. In Libraries NI, the Chief Executive noti-

fied staff that cuts of 4.4% were being im-posed on the organisation for the period upto March 2015. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Depart-

ment has also referred to potential furthercuts of up to 10% being contemplated fromApril 1, 2015.Assistant Secretary Paddy Mackel told

NIPSA News: “Members are devastated bythis announcement. They are facing the re-moval of cover for up to 10% of all poststhrough the release of Agency staff. “Members have also been told that sick

leave, annual leave or even planned mater-nity leave may no longer be covered. Whilethis clearly will impact directly on our mem-bers, it is also a serious blow to the servicebeing provided by small libraries in thosecommunities. “Having gone through a review of library

provision in Greater Belfast, followed by the

review of rural libraries followed by a re-view of opening hours, this is a kick in theteeth to staff who have provided a first-class service to customers throughout allthose changes.”He added: “Our members have had

enough.”NIPSA has arranged meetings with the

Chief Executive of Libraries NI and with theDCAL Minister to discuss the impact such adrastic cut will have on resources. Paddy Mackel also confirmed that the

NIPSA Libraries Committee will reconvenefollowing the meeting with the Minister todiscuss how members intend to react tothis further attack on the service they pro-vide. He added: “This is further evidence of the

anti-people, anti-worker, anti-public serviceagenda of the Westminster government.Members here need local Ministers to standup against these cuts, rather than meeklyroll over and accept them as somehow in-evitable. “These cuts affect real people, both those

in work and those who use the service. It’stime the Assembly Executive got real.”

MORE than 50,000 people packedDublin’s streets to oppose a govern-ment plan for a new water tax, onOctober 12.The anti-austerity protest came on

the same day as a shock by-electionvictory for an anti-water chargescampaigner, and was Ireland’slargest demo in years.Until now, the Republic’s citizens

paid for their water services throughgeneral taxation. However this year,the country’s centre-right coalitiondecided to charge households sev-eral hundred euro a year for theservice, from the start of 2015. Themove immediately became unpopu-lar among the country’s population,and has sparked a mass non-pay-ment movement.The Right2Water Campaign calling

for the water bills to be abolishedwas organized by trade unions, anti-austerity groups and opposition par-ties. The organisers of the eventestimated up to 100,000 of peopletook part in the anti-austerity marchon Saturday, while the Irish Timesput the figure at around 50,000.On the same day as the rally, the

results were announced in two par-liamentary by-elections. In one,Dublin South West, a leading cam-paigner against the water charges,Paul Murphy, of the Anti-AusterityAlliance, won a surprise victoryahead of the favourite, Sinn Feincandidate Cathal King.Both the Anti-Austerity Alliance,

led by the Socialist Party, and SinnFein oppose the water charges, andtogether they got more than 60 per-cent of the votes. Pro-governmentand pro-water charges candidatessaw their share of the vote slashed.

Library provisionunder attack again

FE Sector cuts –time to stand upand be counted!

Protesters oppose‘Ministry of Thirst’water charges

Page 13 NIPSA NEWSNewswww.nipsa.org.uk

Visit http://www.nipsa.org.uk AND give a like to our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter @nipsa

ASBESTOS campaigners won a landmarkHigh Court victory on Thursday, October 2,against the government’s decision forcingvictims to use their damages to pay for theirlegal costs.The judgement, which follows a two-day hear-

ing in July, is a “humiliating” defeat for JusticeSecretary Chris Grayling. On April 1 last year the government intro-

duced reforms under the Legal Aid Sentencingand Punishment of Offenders Act (LASPO),which included a requirement that members ofthe public bringing personal injury claims usepart of their damages to meet the costs of theirclaims.But due to concerns about the adverse effects

this could have on mesothelioma sufferers, suchcases were exempted by Parliament until a re-view had taken place. Mesothelioma is a cancer

of the pleural lining of the lungs caused by ex-posure to asbestos. It resulted in more than2,500 deaths in 2012. The review was carried out in 2013 but in a

damning report earlier this year the Commonsjustice committee described it as “maladroit andunsatisfactory” and called on the government tostart again.Mr Justice William Davis concluded that Mr

Grayling “did not conduct a proper review of thelikely effects of the LASPO reforms on mesothe-lioma claims.”He said legal charges could not be imposed

under LASPO “until a section 48 review hasbeen carried out.”Leigh Day solicitor Richard Stein who repre-

sented the asbestos sufferers said the judge-ment should send a clear message to thegovernment that “it has to conform with the laws

of the land and cannot ride roughshod over theinterests of mesothelioma sufferers and theirfamilies to benefit the insurance industry.”The committee also found that the govern-

ment had struck a secret deal with insurers andthat this was not “conducive to the creation oftrust among victims’ representatives, claimantlawyers and others that an opposing viewpointwill be heard.”Asbestos Victims Support Groups Forum UK

spokesman Doug Jewell said: “This truly is alandmark victory for mesothelioma sufferers. Fortoo long the government has been striking se-cret deals with the insurance industry to takeaway their rights. “For once the court has sided with the victims

and said that the government cannot just drawup deals in the dark with insurers.”

NIC-ICTU is to hold a special confer-ence on the healthcare crisis with aview to developing a cross-tradeunion campaign to defend the publichealth system in Northern Ireland.The conference, titled ‘Health,

Safety and the Well Being of our Peo-ple – Developing a Trade Union Re-sponse to the Crisis in Health Care’,takes place on Wednesday, November12 at UNISON headquarters in Belfastfrom 9.30am to 3.30pm. Speakers include Prof. Wendy Sav-

age (Keep Our NHS Public), DrPhilippa Whitford (Consultant sur-geon and NHS campaigner), UnaLynch (Health Education, Policy andResearch), Patricia McKeown (NIC-ICTU), John McVey (NIPSA), andJonathan Swallow (UNISON).Deputy General Secretary Alison

Millar told NIPSA News: “The crisis inour health care system is obvious.However, the myths and spin propa-gated in the media obscure the truepicture of reforms imposed withoutaccountability that will lead to furthercuts and privatisation. If we do notact now there will no longer be a uni-versal, comprehensive and free healthcare service.“As well as raising awareness of the

importance of this issue for all tradeunion members and their families, theconference will look at developing astrategy for a NIC-ICTU-led, cross-trade union campaign in defence of apublic health service.”She added: “It is important therefore

that NIPSA is well represented at thisconference.”Branches interested in representa-

tives should email Karen Barrett atkaren.barrett@nipsa.org.uk Delegates must be registered in ad-

vance of the conference.

Asbestos victims win legal costs battle

ON October 23, NIPSA, as part of aStaff Side delegation, met with newHealth Minister Jim Wells.The meeting concerned the Minis-

ter’s failure to implement the NHSPay Review Body (NHSPRB) recom-mendation of a 1% increase on allrates of pay plus incremental pay pro-gression, which of course is a con-tractual element of Agenda forChange pay. Since March, NIPSA has been

pressing for members to receive theNHSPRB pay recommendation in full.Deputy General Secretary Alison

Millar told NIPSA News: “Unfortu-nately I have to report Minister Wellssaid or did nothing to reassure us thathe was going to implement the 1% in-crease on all rates of pay. “What he did say was that he was

taking the matter to the Northern Ire-land Executive so that he and hisministerial colleagues could make ajoint decision over the pay of 200,000public sector workers.”She continued: “It is clear the

Health Minister is not doing what hecould do [which is] implement the PayReview Body recommendation in itstotality. “NIPSA pressed the Minister on

whether he would argue with his min-isterial colleagues for the recommen-

dation to be implemented and forstaff to receive the 1% increase. Herefused to confirm this and insteadcontinually stated a decision wouldbe taken by the Executive on publicsector pay as a whole. “Given there was no commitment

from the Minister on Agenda forChange pay, NIPSA believes, follow-ing engagement with members overthe last two months that we have noalternative but to put in placearrangements to move to a statutoryindustrial action ballot. “The details of this will be worked

out shortly and communicated tomembers.”It is understood NIPSA is also work-

ing with other health unions to co-or-dinate any industrial action to ensureits maximum impact.Ms Millar added: “Members are

being treated disgracefully over payand if this Minister and the NorthernIreland Assembly get away with re-fusing to implement the NHSPRBrecommendation, they will try tomake further in-roads into attackingmembers’ terms and conditions ofemployment. “NIPSA is therefore calling on all

members to defend their pay, termsand conditions and cuts to healthservice provision.”

No reassuranceover AfC pay following Wells meeting

LAWS to protectpostal and telecom-munication workersfrom dog attackscome into force onMonday, October 20.There are about

3,000 dog attacks onpostal and telecomworkers every yearin Britain, with 75per cent occurringon private property.The Department

for Environment,Food and Rural Af-fairs (Defra) has pro-duced a manualoffering practical ad-vice to the policeand local authoritiesabout what they arenow legally allowedto demand fromreckless dog own-ers.“The practitioner’s

manual is welcomeas it clearly sets outwhat powers thosein authority haveand what demandsthey can make of ir-responsible dogowners,” said CWUgeneral secretaryBilly Hayes.“We have fought

hard to get the lawtightened because ofthe disproportionatenumber of postalworkers who are at-tacked by dogs.Around 6,300 postalworkers have beenattacked by dogssince 2012 for sim-ply doing their jobs.”

New dogattack lawsprotectsposties

NIC-ICTU to holdhealthcare crisis conference

Page 14 NIPSA NEWS Organising www.nipsa.org.uk

OUR DEMAND ISFAIR PAY FOR ALLNIPSA members took to the streets ofBelfast to protest with other trade unionistsbacking the call for ‘A Pay Rise for All!’More than 1,500 heard speaker after

speaker make the demand that gettingmoney back into people's pockets is essen-tial to a strong recovery. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU)

organised the rally in Northern Ireland whilethe TUC backed demos in London and Glas-gow.Trade unions are campaigning for action

that will start to move the economy in theright direction.

The Belfast rally heard that Northern Ire-land has the highest number of low paidworkers of any UK region. Almost a quarter of NI workers in the pub-

lic and private sector earn below the LivingWage, and that number is increasing.

Why we marchedlWages have not kept pace with pricessince the 1970'sl Falling wages and growing inequality andpoverty hits businesses as well as house-holds

l The worst attack on the living standards ofworkers for nearly a centuryl The super-rich continue to see their in-comes soar

Our demandsl An enforced minimum wagel Commitment to the living wagel A crackdown on excessive executive payand bonusesl A crackdown on tax dodging, evasion andavoidance

PICTURES: KEVIN COOPER

Page 15 NIPSA NEWSOrganisingwww.nipsa.org.uk

Fighting fora pay rise

PROTESTS against Con-Dem pay cuts cli-maxed on Saturday, October 18, in a spirited100,000-strong show of force by peopleworking harder than ever under povertywages. Nurses, midwives, carers and civil servants

marched through central London with thou-sands more workers days after taking to thepicket lines to demand their first real-terms payrise since the Tories took power.While more than 7,000 trade unionists and

anti-poverty activists took to the streets of Glas-gow on Saturday under the banner “DecentWork, Dignified Lives.”Speaking at the vast Britain Needs a Pay

Rise rally in Hyde Park, TUC general secretaryFrances O’Grady praised their determinationand said: “This is what solidarity feels like.”“Our message is that, after the longest and

deepest pay squeeze in recorded history, it’stime to end the lockout that has kept the vastmajority from sharing in the economic recov-ery.” Union leaders warned millionnaire Tory Chan-

cellor George Osborne their members areready to break his pay freeze with sustainedaction right up until the general election. But they also told shadow chancellor Ed Balls

to brace himself for a rebellion from workingpeople if Labour wins in May unless the partyoffers an alternative to austerity. PCS Civil Service union leader Mark Ser-

wotka said: “We have to be clear that GeorgeOsborne’s pay freeze is unacceptable.“But if Ed Balls wants a pay freeze, that is ab-

solutely as unacceptable — and we should tellour Labour politicians that we will not accept it.”More than 100,000 people from across Eng-

land and Wales filled the streets as theymarched through London behind bright unionbanners to the sound of brass and sambabands. A sea of people stretched across Hyde Park

at the TUC rally, which included lively sets byMusicians Union members and Equity stand-upstar Andy Parsons.And they raised a huge cheer when Mr Ser-

wotka ended his rousing speech with a call forunions to “strike together.”“If we don’t do that, we’ll be back in this park

in a year’s time, still knowing we’re right, stillknowing that it’s unjust, but still on the receivingend of unacceptable cuts,” he told the crowds. Hyde Park also heard from 91-year-old Harry

Smith, who recalled how he visited the picketlines of the 1926 General Strike on the shoul-ders of his coalminer dad.And he said: “I stand before you as an old

man to say that we can return our country to itsrightful owners — the people.”

Page 16 NIPSA NEWS News www.nipsa.org.uk

THERE is a huge amount of law inrelation to clinical negligence andvast differences of issues from caseto case. This article will focus onsome of the main issues.

Who can bring a claim?

If you, your spouse or child havebeen injured as a result of medicaltreatment you may be able to bring aclaim, if the treatment was negligent.This also applies if you are the de-pendant or child of a patient who hasdied as a result of medical treatment. Treatment can be from a hospital,

General Practitioner, dentist or Con-sultant you have instructed on a pri-vate basis among others. Medical treatment can include sur-

gery, misdiagnosis, delayed diagno-sis, dentistry, childbirth and alsofailing to properly warn about risksassociated with the proposed treat-ment.

Bringing a claim for medical negli-gence and/or making a complaintto the hospital

If you have been injured as a result ofmedical treatment, you are entitled toan explanation and this can be doneby way of writing a letter of complaintto the relevant Hospital Trust. The Trust should formally respond

to your complaint, or in the case of aGP or dentist the General MedicalCouncil or General Dental Council re-spectively, or they may have internalcomplaints procedures. You may, of course, write a letter of

complaint and still take a case forclinical negligence.

If you wish to take a claim for clini-cal negligence then you should in-struct a solicitor to do this for you.McCartan Turkington Breen is a lead-ing firm in relation to clinical negli-gence and we have solicitors whospecialise in this field of law.The only outcome to a successful

claim for clinical negligence is anaward of damages. A Court does nothave the power to force a hospital tochange its working practices and itcannot discipline a health profes-sional or get them “struck off”.

Elements of clinical negligence

In order to be successful in a clinicalnegligence case there are certain el-ements that must be established:1. That a duty of care was owed tothe claimant by the hospital or healthcare provider; a legal duty existswhenever a hospital or healthcareprovider undertakes care or treat-ment of a patient.2. That there was a breach of theduty of care i.e. that the hospital orhealthcare provider failed to providea reasonable standard of care or theyacted in a manner contrary to a gen-erally accepted standard.3. That the breach of duty of carehas caused harm to the claimant andthat the breach of duty was a direct

cause of the injury.4. That damage or other losseshave resulted from the injury. With-out damage (losses which may bephysical, emotional or pecuniary),there is no basis for a claim, irrespec-tive of whether the medical providerwas negligent. Likewise, damagecan occur without the treatment beingprovided negligently.

Establishing negligence

It is essential to show that what themedical professional did, or did not,fall below the standard of a reason-ably competent doctor in the particu-lar field of medicine. This is called theBolam Test which arose from thecase of Bolam v Friern Hospital Man-agement Committee (1957) 1WLR582. The first step required in establish-

ing whether there is negligence is toobtain all the relevant medicalrecords and to instruct a medical ex-pert (usually outside Northern Irelandto ensure there is no conflict of inter-est) to prepare a report on liability. This will be a “like for like” expert

and they will determine whether thetreatment fell below an acceptablestandard and will provide reasoningand areas where the standard fellbelow that which would be expected.

They may refer to medical protocolsand guidelines. If you were a pri-vately paying patient, there may alsobe a breach of contract.

Establishing causation

The medical expert may also be ableto advise whether the negligencecaused the injuries or significantlycontributed to them, although some-times this requires the input of an-other medical expert.

Establishing damage

Once liability and causation havebeen established, we then turn towhat damage has been caused bythe negligent treatment. This can bephysical, emotional and financial andeach element will need to be investi-gated where appropriate and this willassist in quantifying the value of theclaim.

Conclusion:

If you believe the above circum-stances are applicable to you, thenyou should contact NIPSA to requesta LS2 Form to allow an assessmentof your case, which is free under theLegal Assistance Scheme for per-sonal injuries. Equally, this scheme covers all

types of personal injury cases and isalso open to family members of indi-viduals with NIPSA membership. The above article does not purport

to be a comprehensive statement ofthe law which would take consider-ably more space than this article al-lows but is my attempt to outlinesome of the main factors that areneeded in order to take a claim forclinical negligence.

Clinical negligence

By Tanya Waterworth Chancery House, 88 Victoria Street, Belfast BT1 3GN

Tel: 028 9032 9801 www.mtb-law.co.uk

Working tax credit (WTC) is a benefit paid toworkers with a low family income.The aim of this report is to calculate the amount

of WTC that can be attributed to different parts ofthe economy. For instance, how many workers in the retail

sector benefit from working tax credit? How muchmoney does this add up to?This research, based on official survey data for

2010/11 and 2011/12, is the first attempt to quan-tify these amounts. Results are broken down both by industrial sec-

tor and organisation type. We found that

l The two employment sectors with the largest at-tribution of WTC were retail (£1.3bn) and humanhealth and social work (£1.2bn). Together they represent 38% of the total attributedWTC spend (£6.5bn per year).l The three sectors with the next largest attribu-tion – each around half of that for the top two –were accommodation and food services (hospital-

ity), education and administrative and support ac-tivities.l Attributed amounts per recipient worker vary lit-tle by sector; high attributions therefore reflectlarge workforce sizes and/or a high proportion ofthe workforce benefitting.l High recipient numbers in retail and health andsocial work reflect both high employment in thosesectors and a high proportion benefitting. Thesector with the highest proportion benefitting isaccommodation and food services.l 80% of WTC is attributable to workers whowork in the private sector, 10% to those in thelocal government and 5% to those employed by aHealth Authority or NHS Trust. Only 1% is attribut-able to those workers employed in central govern-ment. The rest is attributed to charitableorganisations, universities, and other organisa-tions such as the armed forces.See more at: http://npi.org.uk/publications/so-cial-security-and-welfare-reform/where-does-working-tax-credit-go/#sthash.XsYoapt8.dpuf

FOOD banks have become an “in-evitable” feature of the coalition gov-ernment’s austerity Britain, expertshave warned.New research reveals the number of

people using them is soaring with“large numbers of people thought tobe at risk of malnutrition in the UK.”Dr Kingsley Purdam led the re-

search by Manchester University’sschool of social science.Dr Purdam said: “In political and

media debates food bank users havebeen variously described as being‘opportunists,’ ‘not able to cook orbudget’ and ‘living like animals.’“Yet evidence from the Citizens Ad-

vice Bureau suggests that the mainreported reason for referring a personto a food bank was a delay in benefitpayments.”His survey included investigating

the extent of the growth of foodbanks, and interviews with peopleabout what drove them there.”

Working Tax Credit...where does it go?

Food banks 'inevitable' inCameron's UK

Page 17 NIPSA NEWSBookswww.nipsa.org.uk

THE proposition that theworld's political and eco-nomic institutions are pre-venting us from meeting thelethal challenge of globalwarming is hardly novel. ButNaomi Klein in her newbook articulates the case asforcefully and comprehen-sively as anyone has yetmanaged.The Canadian journalist whomade her name with the anti-globalisation tract, No Logo,14 years ago, argues the glob-alised economy, underpinnedby free-market conventionalwisdom among politicians, hasbecome a doomsday machine,pumping out ever increasingquantities of carbon and set-ting our civilisation up for ahead-on collision with environ-mental disaster.She advances her thesisthrough reportage, factual ex-position and polemic. She cov-ers the human poles of thebattle, visiting a climatechange denial conference andcommunities in Greece andCanada that have mobilisedagainst fossil fuel extraction.There's a forensic chapteron billionaires such as WarrenBuffett, Michael Bloombergand Bill Gates, who pay lipservice to the need to reducecarbon emissions but when itcomes to their commercial af-fairs practice business asusual. Richard Branson is ex-posed as a veritable geyser ofthis kind of corporate "green-wash". Klein also has astuteinsights into the motivations ofthe influential gang of charla-tans and obsessives who re-ject the science of climatechange.Klein is a first-class slogan-iser. Our dependence on de-

posits of coal and oil madefrom prehistoric vegetationand animal matter make us "asociety of grave robbers".We're treating nature like "abottomless vending machine".Yet despite lobbing in theseoccasional firecrackers Klein'sa pretty pedestrian writer. Sheseems to fill pages with te-dious acronyms and thenames of obscure academics.The descriptive passages ofthe natural world are soporific.Nevertheless, Klein doesn'tpretend that she is producinga dainty work of literature. Thisis a piece of political advo-cacy. And that's the light inwhich it really ought to bejudged.Klein's central argument isthat if we are to prevent globalwarming laying waste to muchof the planet over this century,we need a revolution; a revo-lution in our politics, our econ-omy, our values. She says wemust drop the delusion thatthe private sector will decar-bonise itself. Yet it is also folly,she argues, to expect electedpoliticians to do what is neces-sary. That would require themto "unlearn" the "core tenets ofthe stifling free-market ideol-ogy that governed every stageof their rise to power".

One might quibble with thelanguage but the alacrity withwhich climate change has sliddown the agenda of Westernpoliticians over the pastdecade, even as the sciencehas grown more alarming,makes it difficult to push backagainst that basic conclusion.The evolution of DavidCameron from husky huggerto scourge of "green crap" leg-islation over the past eightyears is a snapshot of theproblem. Democracies seemincapable of dealing with atransnational, slowly unfolding,peril like global warming. Thepolitical impossibility of intro-ducing a simple measure suchas a carbon tax, somethingthat even many economists onthe right think would be sensi-ble, is a testament to that dys-function.For Klein the only hope liesin popular mobilisation. Invo-cations of the economic ne-cessity and even benefits ofdecarbonisation are a deadend, she tells us. Campaign-ers should, instead, be ap-pealing to the public's senseof right and wrong, highlightingthe horrendous cost that willinevitably be borne by theplanet's poorest communities.She characterises the fightas akin to other great moralstruggles, such as the aboli-tion of slavery, which requiredhitting very rich people in thepocket. But the intellect is pes-simistic. That has been thor-oughly tried by green groupsin recent decades with no dis-cernible success in shiftingpublic opinion. If moral ap-peals were capable of wakingus up over climate change,wouldn't they have done so bynow?

HENNING Mankell’s lugubri-ously lonely detective KurtWallander is back – briefly. Originally written for a Dutch

crime festival, the novella AnEvent in Autumn is set in 2002,just before Mankell’s final Wal-lander novel, The TroubledMan. Although the story wasadapted by the BBC in 2012,starring Kenneth Branagh asthe Swedish policeman, it hasnever been published in Eng-lish before.It sees Wallander living with

his daughter, Linda, in centralYstad, dreaming of the coun-tryside. As the book’s title tellsus, it’s autumn, which naturallysets off the great detective’sgloom: “I shall never find ahouse, he thought. No house,no dog, no new woman either.Everything will remain thesame as it always has been”,and other such deliciously de-jected Wallanderisms: “nothingcould make him as depressedas the sight of old spectaclesthat nobody wanted any more”.If it weren’t enough just to be

back in Wallander’s company,there’s also a crime to solve.Viewing a potential new house,he stumbles across human re-mains in the garden. It’s theclue to a decades-old mysterywhich Wallander is keen to gethis teeth into; and no, he does-n’t buy the house.This short tale is an absolute

pleasure to read and worth lux-uriating in. Mankell notes atthe end: “There are no morestories about Kurt Wallander”and “I’m not the one who willmiss him. It’s the reader.” In-deed.An Event in Autumn is pub-lished by Harvill Secker(£9.99).

Mass mobilisationis our only hope if we are to win fight against lethal global warming

Wallander returns...briefly

CorrectionIn the previous edition of NIPSANews we incorrectly reportedthat Mark Lunch’s book was ti-tled “The Year of Zero-Sum” itshould have read “The War ofZero-Sum”.

Page 18 NIPSA NEWS World News www.nipsa.org.uk

Quiz question: who said that the west must“strengthen the Kurdish fighters, who aredoing a good job of fighting Isil”? Was it: a)US senator John McCain, b) former primeminister Tony Blair, or c) Respect MP,George Galloway? Yep, you guessed right. Itwasn’t the neocon McCain or the “liberal in-terventionist” Blair. It was the anti-war Gal-loway, in a House of Commons debate onIraq in late September.It isn’t a contradiction to be anti-war and left-

wing at the same time as being pro-Kurd and infavour of arming the Kurds. I have been a long-standing opponent of western military interven-tions in the Muslim-majority world, almost all ofwhich – from Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in2003 to Libya in 2011 – have resulted in civilianbloodshed and terrorist blowback. But I’m not apacifist. And to pretend that the response to thebeheaders, rapists and slave traders of the self-styled “Islamic State” (or IS) need not involvean element of brute military force is either ludi-crously naive or disgracefully disingenuous.So, too, is the lazy obsession with air strikes.

“Wars, historically, have never been won by airpower alone,” General David Richards, the for-mer chief of the defence staff, told me in a re-cent interview, as he called for “boots on theground”.Another foreign military occupation of Iraq –

or, for that matter, Syria – would be a disaster.More bloodshed, more blowback. There are,however, secular and Sunni boots already onthe ground that we should all be backingagainst the jihadists of IS – those of Kurdishfighters not just in northern Iraq, where thepeshmerga (literally, “those who confrontdeath”) have fended off IS attempts to bringErbil and Kirkuk under its terror-inspired“caliphate”, but also in northern Syria, wherethe People’s Protection Units (YPG) of theKurds’ Democratic Union Party (PYD) havebeen heroically holding off IS in the town ofKobane for more than a month now.These Kurdish units, which include all-women

militias, have to all intents and purposes be-come the last line of defence against the geno-cidal fanatics of IS. They are, as even Gallowayobserved, doing a “good job”. But they can’t doit alone, especially against IS militantsequipped with US-made tanks seized in Iraq.Progressives in the west, especially of the anti-war variety, need to get behind the Kurds,loudly and publicly. First, we owe them. Kurdsconstitute the biggest stateless minority in theworld, with a population of roughly 30 million,divided mainly between Turkey, Iran, Iraq andSyria. They have been bombed in Turkey, exe-cuted in Iran, gassed in Iraq and besieged inSyria. Oh, and betrayed by the west. Repeat-edly.Second, they are worth fighting for. Take

northern Syria, where the three autonomousand Kurdish-majority provinces of Rojava haveavoided the worst excesses of the civil war andengaged in what David Graeber, an anthropolo-gist at the London School of Economics, hasdescribed as a “remarkable democratic experi-ment”, ceding power to “popular assemblies”and “women’s and youth councils”. Why wouldany progressive want to allow the revolutionaryKurds of Kobane to fall to the theocratic mani-acs of IS?Third, the Turks next door have sat on their

hands. The crisis could have been an opportu-nity for Turkey, under President Recep TayyipErdogan, to build a new long-term alliance withhis country’s embittered Kurdish minorityagainst extremism and sectarianism. TheKurds’ PYD in Syria, however, is an offshoot ofTurkey’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), whichhas been locked in a violent conflict withAnkara over Kurdish autonomy since 1984. Er-dogan thus decided to seal Turkey’s border withSyria, in effect giving the green light to IS mili-tants to seize Kobane and massacre its PKK-affiliated populace – and then to bomb PKKpositions in southern Turkey for the first timesince the group agreed to participate in a peaceprocess in March 2013.

Shamelessly echoing the mantra of the Israeliprime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, that“Hamas is Isis, Isis is Hamas”, Erdogan told re-porters on 4 October: “For us, the PKK is thesame as [IS].” The irony is that if it were thesame as IS, Turkey would have done a lot moreto help. The Turkish-Syrian border hasn’t beenclosed to IS fighters, only to PKK fighters. On20 October, Turkey finally agreed to allow Kur-dish fighters to cross the border into Syria, butonly Kurds from Iraq and not from Turkey – andnot with heavy weaponry, which is the main re-quest of the YPG fighters in Kobane.I asked a senior Turkish diplomat whether his

country was prepared to take responsibility forthe fall of the town to the jihadists. “We don’tcare,” he replied defiantly. “We don’t care whatthe world thinks. We won’t be bullied by any-one.” He needn’t be worried. Western govern-ments have never lifted a finger to helpTurkey’s Kurds – or, by extension, Syria’s.

They’re the wrong sort of Kurds, victims of aNato ally, rather than a gang of jihadists.(“Kurds in Turkey are ‘terrorists’, but Kurds inIraq are ‘freedom fighters’ and we’re not quitesure about the present status of the IranianKurds,” Tariq Ali once joked.)So progressives need to get behind the

Kurds, especially the brave Kurds of Kobane. Isthere a danger that their struggle will be co-opted by western governments, which oftenshape outcomes in the Middle East to suit theirown interests? Yes. Is there an alternativestance open to progressives, given howsqueezed the Kurds are between Bashar al-Assad, Erdogan and IS? No. “Freedom,” in thewords of an old Kurdish proverb, “is nevergiven but taken.”

Mehdi Hasan is an New Statesman con-tributing writer. He works for Al JazeeraEnglish and the Huffington Post

PAELSTINIAN President Mahmoud Abbaswill ask donor countries for $4 billion(£2.5bn) for Gaza reconstruction at a pledg-ing conference in Cairo in mid October.Israel’s ruthless assault on the territory this

summer killed over 2,100 people, damaged ordestroyed tens of thousands of homes andwrecked more than 5,000 businesses.During the 50-day war, Israel launched sev-

eral thousand air strikes and unleashed artillerybarrages at what it claimed were Hamas-linkedtargets in Gaza, flattening entire neighbour-hoods.Israeli army chief Lt Gen Benny Gantz said

that it would serve security interests to allowconstruction materials to enter blockaded Gaza.He said that Israel can only secure long-term

quiet on its border with Gaza if “an economicanchor backs up what was achieved in the fight-ing.”Palestinian government officials said that se-

curity forces loyal to Mr Abbas would be de-ployed on the Gaza side of crossings with Israelafter Eid al-Adha, which starts today.

Gaza rebuildingto cost £2.5bn

THE European Commission published a let-ter to the Irish government today, suggest-ing that tax rebates granted by Dublin toiPhone-maker Apple appeared to be illegal.It said that Apple’s tax treatment raised

“doubts about the compatibility” with EUlaw, which forbids government aid on freemarket grounds.Apple funnels the bulk of its international

sales through subsidiaries in Ireland, whereit benefits from low, negotiated tax deals.The commission complained that tax deals

struck with Apple in 1991 and then 2007showed “several inconsistencies” and maynot have complied with international taxa-tion standards.The EU first announced the probe in June

and it is requesting further documents fromIreland now before making a decision, whichis likely to take several months.

FOREIGN Minister Ioanis Kasoulides warnedthat Turkey’s stated intention to search foroil and gas in waters already leased byNicosia to an Italian-South Korean consor-tium could upset Cypriot reunification talks.Mr Kasoulides said that productive negotia-

tions could not continue “under such conditionsof provocation.”Government spokesman Nicos

Christodoulides called Turkey’s move a “seriousbreach” of Cypriot sovereign rights as well asthose of the Eni and Kogas corporations.

WOMEN’S rights groups celebrated afterCalifornian Governor Jerry Brown signed aBill making the state the first in the US toadopt a “Yes means Yes” policy on sexualconsent.The Bill, presented by Los Angeles Democrat

Senator Kevin de Leon, adopts new require-ments for universities to follow when investigat-ing sexual assault.Mr de Leon said the new rules will mean a

sea change in preventing and investigatingrape allegations — replacing a previous em-phasis on “No means No” with a need for “affir-mative, conscious and voluntary agreement toengage in sexual activity.”Under the law nobody who is drunk, drugged,

unconscious or asleep can grant consent tosexual activity.Critics say it could cause problems for univer-

sities over grey areas such as when two peopleunder the influence of alcohol agree to sexualintercourse.But advocates note consent does not have to

be verbal and is an important challenge to theidea that victims should have actively resistedassault to have a valid complaint.“The affirmative consent standard will help

change the revictimising, insensitive reportingprocedures, instead allowing students to seekhelp and hold perpetrators to account,” saidUniversity of California Associated StudentsSexual Assault Commission chairwomanMeghan Warner.It also mandates additional training for inves-

tigators to stop victims being asked inappropri-ate questions and insists that they are givenaccess to counselling and appropriate health-care.

EU: Republic's Appletax rebate is illegal

Cyprus warning overoil exploration

Women's rights groups celebrate as rape trial emphasis shifts to explicit consent

Arming the Kurds

Page 19 NIPSA NEWSWorld Newswww.nipsa.org.uk

Quiz question: who said that the west must“strengthen the Kurdish fighters, who aredoing a good job of fighting Isil”? Was it: a)US senator John McCain, b) former primeminister Tony Blair, or c) Respect MP,George Galloway? Yep, you guessed right. Itwasn’t the neocon McCain or the “liberal in-terventionist” Blair. It was the anti-war Gal-loway, in a House of Commons debate onIraq in late September.It isn’t a contradiction to be anti-war and left-

wing at the same time as being pro-Kurd and infavour of arming the Kurds. I have been a long-standing opponent of western military interven-tions in the Muslim-majority world, almost all ofwhich – from Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in2003 to Libya in 2011 – have resulted in civilianbloodshed and terrorist blowback. But I’m not apacifist. And to pretend that the response to thebeheaders, rapists and slave traders of the self-styled “Islamic State” (or IS) need not involvean element of brute military force is either ludi-crously naive or disgracefully disingenuous.So, too, is the lazy obsession with air strikes.

“Wars, historically, have never been won by airpower alone,” General David Richards, the for-mer chief of the defence staff, told me in a re-cent interview, as he called for “boots on theground”.Another foreign military occupation of Iraq –

or, for that matter, Syria – would be a disaster.More bloodshed, more blowback. There are,however, secular and Sunni boots already onthe ground that we should all be backingagainst the jihadists of IS – those of Kurdishfighters not just in northern Iraq, where thepeshmerga (literally, “those who confrontdeath”) have fended off IS attempts to bringErbil and Kirkuk under its terror-inspired“caliphate”, but also in northern Syria, wherethe People’s Protection Units (YPG) of theKurds’ Democratic Union Party (PYD) havebeen heroically holding off IS in the town ofKobane for more than a month now.These Kurdish units, which include all-women

militias, have to all intents and purposes be-come the last line of defence against the geno-cidal fanatics of IS. They are, as even Gallowayobserved, doing a “good job”. But they can’t doit alone, especially against IS militantsequipped with US-made tanks seized in Iraq.Progressives in the west, especially of the anti-war variety, need to get behind the Kurds,loudly and publicly. First, we owe them. Kurdsconstitute the biggest stateless minority in theworld, with a population of roughly 30 million,divided mainly between Turkey, Iran, Iraq andSyria. They have been bombed in Turkey, exe-cuted in Iran, gassed in Iraq and besieged inSyria. Oh, and betrayed by the west. Repeat-edly.Second, they are worth fighting for. Take

northern Syria, where the three autonomousand Kurdish-majority provinces of Rojava haveavoided the worst excesses of the civil war andengaged in what David Graeber, an anthropolo-gist at the London School of Economics, hasdescribed as a “remarkable democratic experi-ment”, ceding power to “popular assemblies”and “women’s and youth councils”. Why wouldany progressive want to allow the revolutionaryKurds of Kobane to fall to the theocratic mani-acs of IS?Third, the Turks next door have sat on their

hands. The crisis could have been an opportu-nity for Turkey, under President Recep TayyipErdogan, to build a new long-term alliance withhis country’s embittered Kurdish minorityagainst extremism and sectarianism. TheKurds’ PYD in Syria, however, is an offshoot ofTurkey’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), whichhas been locked in a violent conflict withAnkara over Kurdish autonomy since 1984. Er-dogan thus decided to seal Turkey’s border withSyria, in effect giving the green light to IS mili-tants to seize Kobane and massacre its PKK-affiliated populace – and then to bomb PKKpositions in southern Turkey for the first timesince the group agreed to participate in a peaceprocess in March 2013.

Shamelessly echoing the mantra of the Israeliprime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, that“Hamas is Isis, Isis is Hamas”, Erdogan told re-porters on 4 October: “For us, the PKK is thesame as [IS].” The irony is that if it were thesame as IS, Turkey would have done a lot moreto help. The Turkish-Syrian border hasn’t beenclosed to IS fighters, only to PKK fighters. On20 October, Turkey finally agreed to allow Kur-dish fighters to cross the border into Syria, butonly Kurds from Iraq and not from Turkey – andnot with heavy weaponry, which is the main re-quest of the YPG fighters in Kobane.I asked a senior Turkish diplomat whether his

country was prepared to take responsibility forthe fall of the town to the jihadists. “We don’tcare,” he replied defiantly. “We don’t care whatthe world thinks. We won’t be bullied by any-one.” He needn’t be worried. Western govern-ments have never lifted a finger to helpTurkey’s Kurds – or, by extension, Syria’s.

They’re the wrong sort of Kurds, victims of aNato ally, rather than a gang of jihadists.(“Kurds in Turkey are ‘terrorists’, but Kurds inIraq are ‘freedom fighters’ and we’re not quitesure about the present status of the IranianKurds,” Tariq Ali once joked.)So progressives need to get behind the

Kurds, especially the brave Kurds of Kobane. Isthere a danger that their struggle will be co-opted by western governments, which oftenshape outcomes in the Middle East to suit theirown interests? Yes. Is there an alternativestance open to progressives, given howsqueezed the Kurds are between Bashar al-Assad, Erdogan and IS? No. “Freedom,” in thewords of an old Kurdish proverb, “is nevergiven but taken.”

Mehdi Hasan is an New Statesman con-tributing writer. He works for Al JazeeraEnglish and the Huffington Post

AID cuts for two of the world’s poorest coun-tries could have contributed to the spread ofthe deadly Ebola virus, MPs have warned.They told a London summit on the out-

break that Con-Dem ministers had “compro-mised the fight” to save lives. The critical report came as experts warned

that the outbreak in West Africa has devel-oped at an unprecedented scale.Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, Devel-

opment Secretary Justine Greening andErnest Bai Koroma, the president of SierraLeone, were among those taking part in theglobal event that took place at LancasterHouse in central London.Britain has pledged a further £20 million in

aid to pay for vital medical supplies includ-ing chlorine, personal protection equipmentand essential water and sanitation facilities.The money will also be used to deploy cli-

nicians, global health experts, epidemiolo-gists and infectioncontrol advisers.But the Com-

mons internationaldevelopment com-mittee said thatwhile the movewas welcome, sig-nificantly greateraction was re-quired to reverse afailure to prioritiseSierra Leone andLiberia.In a damning re-

port, the commit-tee said that thecrisis “demonstrates the dangers of ignor-ing the least developed countries in theworld,” accusing ministers and aid agenciesof switching focus to “higher-profile” places.The report accused the Department for In-

ternational Development (DfID) and the Euro-pean Union of doing nothing to deal with thefact that tens of billions of pounds of EU-ledhealth aid was not being passed on byLiberia’s finance ministry.“Neither the EU nor DfID seemed to be

doing anything to resolve the situation,” itsaid. “DfID has been working for the last fiveyears on building up the Liberian health sys-tem and have spent £20 million doing so.

CUBA is sending more than 160 health work-ers to British facilities in Africa to help in thebattle against Ebola.World Health Organization chief Dr Mar-

garet Chan said the agency was extremelygrateful for the help which is due to arrive inSierra Leone.Cuba Solidarity Campaign said the idea of

Cuban medics using British facilities to pro-vide first-class treatment for sufferers is areal sign of progress in delivering emer-gency treatments, with the experience of theformer collaborating with the financial re-sources of the latter.

Two female Kuridish fighters in northern Syria

CATALONIA has called off a planned refer-endum for November and will instead holdan unofficial poll on secession on the sameday, Catalan leader Artur Mas said.“On November 9 there will be a consultation,there will be ballots and ballot boxes,” saidMas. The poll, he said, would give Catalans alegal way to express their opinion, after thecountry’s constitutional court suspended allcampaigning and preparations for the plannedNovember referendum two weeks ago.The suspension was automatic after the court

decided unanimously to hear the central gov-ernment’s challenge to the referendum. Caughtbetween defying a court order and pro-indepen-dence parties pushing for the vote to go ahead,Mas initially vowed to push forward. On Tues-day, he insisted that his position was not a stepbackwards. “Just the opposite. This govern-ment is committed to celebrating the referen-dum on November 9.”

A recent poll showed just 23% of Catalanssurveyed thought the region should pressahead with an illegal referendum. The poll,done for Metroscopia and published in El País,showed 25% believed Catalonia should look forother ways to redefine its relationship withSpain.Mas acknowledged that the non-binding poll

would not be able to offer a definitive answer asto whether Catalans are seeking independenceand hinted that early elections could later fol-low. “November 9 is a lead-up to the definitiveanswer,” he said. “It’s clear that the most logi-cal, final response is elections. That is whatthey fear in Madrid.”Spain’s prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, has

repeatedly argued that the referendum wouldbe illegal, as the country’s 1978 constitutionprevents any region from unilaterally makingdecisions that affect all Spaniards.

Catalonia to hold unofficial poll

Cuba sends morehealth workers

Aid cuts 'mayhave helpedEbola spread'Arming the Kurds

Page 20 NIPSA NEWS News www.nipsa.org.uk

Union to consult overrevised NJC payFOLLOWING thesuspension of theplanned strike onOctober 14, NIPSA’sPublic Officers’Group Executivemet to consider aset of revised pro-posals from the Em-ployers’ Side.The Employer’sSide offer is out-lined below:l From January 1,2015 for spinal col-umn 5-10 as fol-lows:-

l A 2.2% increaseon spinal columnpoint 11 and abovefrom January 1,2015.l Removal of SCP5with effect from Oc-tober 1, 2014.l £325 non-consoli-dated payment onscps 5, 6 and 7(*).l £150 non-consoli-dated payment onscps 8, 9 and 10(*).l £100 non-consoli-dated payment onscps 11 – 49(*).

l 0.45% of pro-posed new salarieson scps 26-49 incl,of which £100 to bepaid in December2014 and the re-maining balance tobe paid in April2015.(*)pro-rata for part-time workers.NIPSA Deputy

General SecretaryAlison Millar toldNIPSA News:“These proposalsdo nothing to make

up the pay whichmembers have lostsince 2010. Theunion will put theseproposals througha consultationprocess with mem-bers. “However, NIPSA

cannot ask mem-bers to acceptsomething thatleaves them 15% to20% behind in realpay terms. “NIPSA’s Public

Officers’ Group Ex-ecutive Committeeare therefore askingmembers to rejectthese proposalsthrough our branchconsultation exer-cise.”It is understood

the consultation ex-ercise opened onMonday October 20and will run untilNovember 12.

SCP5678910 £325

£350£550£800£1,000£1,065 8.56%

7.93%6.19%4.13%2.55%2.32%

From 01/01/15 % increase

ONE million lost jobs.Key public servicesunder threat. Labourrights and food stan-dards in danger. TheTransatlantic Trade andInvestment Partnership(TTIP) now being negoti-ated in secret betweenthe European Union andthe USA is set to be adisaster for workingpeople, writes John Hi-lary.TTIP is not a traditional

trade agreement dealingwith border tariffs, asthese are already at theirlowest levels in the EUand USA. Instead, thestated aim of this new setof negotiations is to re-move regulatory ‘barriers’which restrict the profits tobe made by transnationalcorporations.Yet these ‘barriers’ are

in reality some of our mostprecious rights. Corelabour standards, environ-mental regulations, foodsafety rules and digital pri-vacy laws – all these andmore are up for grabs inthe TTIP negotiations.Worse still, the official

impact assessment com-missioned at the start ofthe negotiations calcu-lates that at least one mil-

lion people will lose their jobs in the EU and USAas a direct result of TTIP. And it could well bemore.And it has now been confirmed that health, ed-

ucation and other public services are on the tableto be traded away.TTIP would also grant US companies a new

power to bypass domestic courts and sue Euro-pean countries in secret tribunals over any publicpolicy decisions that could harm their bottom line.Tobacco giant Philip Morris is already suing theAustralian government under similar rules for re-quiring all cigarettes be sold in plain packaging.Veolia is suing the Egyptian government as a re-sult of the country’s decision to raise the mini-mum wage.War on Want has joined forces with trade

unions and campaigns groups across Europeand the USA to fight back against TTIP. Themovement is growing fast, and the politicians arerunning scared that they will not be able to con-clude the negotiations in 2015, as they hadhoped.TTIP would be the greatest transfer of power to

transnational capital that we have seen in a gen-eration. We cannot allow it to happen. We willfight and we will win!l John Hilary is Executive Director of War onWant. You can sign the pan-European campaignto stop TTIP here: http://waronwant.org/campaigns/trade-jus-tice/more/action/18180-sign-up-to-say-no-to-ttip

Join the tradeunion campaignagainst TTIP

PCS members in pay strikeCIVIL servants in the PCS union were outon strike in force on October 15, taking ac-tion as part of the rolling programme of paystrikes planned for that week that beganwith NHS workers on Monday, October 13. Staff in courts, museums, driving test cen-

tres, jobcentres, ports and airports acrossthe UK walked out for 24 hours in a long-running dispute over job losses, pay cutsand pension increases.Then, on Friday, October 17, the depart-

ment that collects the taxes that fund all ourother public services has announced it willclose another 14 offices in the UK and cutmore than 1,000 jobs, the Public and Com-mercial Services union says.The HMRC office in Newry has been tar-

geted for closure with the possible loss of90 jobs.The confirmation from HM Revenue and

Customs, which comes on the same day itsays £34 billion in tax was uncollected lastyear, follows a consultation in the summerin which the union raised the department’sinability to properly tackle tax avoidanceand evasion.The PCS, which last month published a

new report on the extent of tax evasion,says £34 billion is a serious underestima-tion, but collecting even this would changethe debate about the funding of public serv-ices overnight.The closure of the 14 offices puts 450 jobs

at risk and other announcements todaythreaten a further 690 low-paid administra-tive assistant jobs in the personal taxes di-

vision. Continuing with its plan to cut thou-sands more jobs by 2016, HMRC is cur-rently spending £4 million a month onovertime. It is closing scores of offices – in-cluding all 281 walk-in tax advice centres –as it moves towards a proposal to operatefrom just 14 large sites in the UK by 2025.PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka

said: “It makes absolutely no economicsense to continue cutting in the departmentthat collects the taxes that fund the publicservices we all rely on.“This political and economic vandalism is

even more stark and outrageous when,even by the department’s own modest esti-mate, tens of billions of pounds is lost toour public finances every year, largelythrough tax evasion and avoidance.”

PCS strikers in Belfast