The Low Pay Commission (LPC) is conducting an evidence-gathering session 3-4pm Friday 9 September to hear about the experiences of current interns. The Trades Union Congress will be hosting the event at Congress House on Great Russell Street in Central London. Please note, the session may extend until about 4:30pm.

With the Government currently considering new guidance on unpaid work and the National Minimum Wage, and planning to instruct HMRC to target unpaid work in the autumn, now is a good time to remind the LPC of exactly why action is needed so that interns can get their minimum wage rights. We’d like interns working in Parliament to be well-represented and are looking for a maximum of ten interns to attend if possible.

If you are interesting in attending, please email Shelley.Phelps@unitepsbranch.org or Nick.Quin@unitepsbranch.org

Wednesday 27th July, 7pm-9pm
The Britons Protection, 50 Great Bridgewater Street, Manchester M1 5LE
See map

The Unite Parliamentary Staff Branch is organising a meeting for staff of MPs based in the North West to find out more about what more we can do for constituency staff, and to find out how the new IPSA regime has affected you.

Please come along, give us your views, meet other MPs’ staff in the North West, and enjoy a drink or two on us!

If you are able to come, please RSVP to kev.peel@gmail.com or kieron.merrett@unitepsbranch.org.

Further details: Unite PS Branch – North West meeting and drinks

Below is an article by Emma Griffiths Political reporter, BBC News, available here

MPs’ plea to restore staff bonuses

The MPs’ expenses watchdog has been asked to reconsider bonuses for MPs staff – which have stopped under the new system.

Tory MP Richard Bacon said MPs’ staff used to be able to get bonuses of between £1,000 and £3,500 a year. Many people had lost a “chunk of their income” as a result and there was “a lot of feeling” about the issue.The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority said it had not been ruled out. But Ipsa’s accounting officer Scott Woolveridge added: “Right now, the time is not quite right”.

The issue came up at a meeting of the public accounts committee – which was questioning Ipsa chairman Sir Ian Kennedy, Mr Woolveridge and finance director Bob Evans about how the organisation’s cost effectiveness.

‘Healthy buffer’

The previous MPs’ expenses system was discredited during the expenses scandal in 2009 – all parties agreed to move to a new independently run system and Ipsa took over payments after last year’s general election.Mr Bacon told them that under the old system, MPs staff could get up to a maximum of 15% of their salary as a bonus.”We are not talking about very highly paid people, you were talking usually about payments of between £1,000 and £3,500.”They’ve now gone – which for many members of staff is a very significant chunk of their income,” Mr Bacon said.He said MPs used to keep a “healthy buffer” in the staff budget to deal with unexpected costs and if it turned out those costs were not needed “then you decided on your bonuses”.He asked what Ipsa’s view was of the role of bonuses in managing staff “to achieve performance” and suggested he revisit the issue.

Not city bonuses

Mr Woolveridge said Ipsa’s board had looked at what was common across the public sector for staff on similar salaries.

“We didn’t generally find that bonuses were being paid so we adopted broadly that model.”But Mr Bacon challenged him and said he was not talking about “city bonuses” adding: “It’s quite common across the public sector for there to be bonuses”.

He said there were about 80 senior Commons staff on more than £50,000 a year for whom bonuses of between £4,500 and £8,000 were still being paid. Another Conservative MP, James Wharton, said being able to pay bonuses allowed MPs more “flexibility” to deal with unexpected costs throughout the year – and not having that flexibility could lead them to make more claims on a contingency fund.

Mr Woolveridge said the issue “may come back onto the agenda after the public sector pay freeze”. He added that Ipsa was planning a staffing review which would cover some of the issues raised.He said staff bonuses were considered “not appropriate” at the moment but “we may come back to this, it’s not something we have ruled out but we have to be mindful of what I think was in the public perception – that on occasions bonuses were paid to use up staffing allowances.”

Chairman Margaret Hodge said it was “potty” that 38% of all claims cost more to process than they actually paid out – Mr Woolveridge said they were comparable to other legislatures. Another MP, Lib Dem Ian Swales, complained MPs were “embarrassed” about making small claims – and said the cost of processing claims appeared to be “out of all proportion”.

Sir Ian Kennedy, chairman of Ipsa, suggested the routine publication of MPs’ expenses has led to a dip in public interest in the topic.He said while the first publication of all expenses online had attracted more than 10,000 hits – the fifth publication attracted only 83.”

The more we can make this …. a matter of routine and matter not of comment, the more confidence MPs can have they can go to the doorstep without this being the first item of conversation they have to deal with,” he said.

In a very timely fashion, the News International Wapping Dispute exhibition is moving to TUC Congress House from 25 July until 12 August. It’s open 10am-6pm Mon-Fri and marks the 25th anniversary of the dispute with dramatic images and accounts.

The exhibition has been organised by Unite the Union, the National Union of Journalists, the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom and the Marx Memorial Library. Click on the flyer below for full details.

Flyer for News International Wapping – 25 Years on

If we get enough interest we may do a branch outing. If you’re interested in attending sometime over Parliamentary Recess please email lauren.edwards@parliament.uk

We have now received updated advice from PCS regarding strike action tomorrow by Parliamentary security. Below is a copy of their statement to MPs:

As you will be aware PCS members in the civil service and working in public bodies will be taking strike action on 30 June.

We have continued to meet with ministers to reach an agreement that would protect our members pensions, jobs and pay, the government has refused to negotiate on any of the key issue of principle at the heart of the pension dispute: the change to pension up rating from CPI to RPI; that our members will be required to pay more for their pensions, work longer and the value of future pensions will be reduced.

The government’s own advisers the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) project that changes already made to pensions in 2006 will mean that public service pension expenditure will fall gradually from 1.9% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010-11, to 1.4% of GDP in 2059-60. 

By announcing in the 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review that it was seeking to raise £1.8 billion by increasing employee pension contributions, government has conflated changes to public sector pensions with its deficit reduction plan.

The changes in pensions are in addition to a two year pay freeze as inflation is high, and a cut of 1 in 5 jobs in the civil service, and our dispute also covers these key issues. We believe strongly that this is a dispute that is entirely of the government’s making, and we want the government to commit to real negotiations covering all of the key issues of principle in this dispute.

We will have two picket lines at Parliament including one at St. Stephen’s entrance and would therefore appreciate if members of the group would respect the picket lines and not cross them.

We will have various activities across the country that MPs can support, for more information see http://bit.ly/ipgmvC

There will also be a march assembling at 11am at Lincoln Inn Fields which will march to a rally at Westminster Central Hall for about 1.15pm, you would of course be welcome to attend.

We strongly encourage branch members to not come into work tomorrow and to make alternative arrangements. Some branch members will be joining the march at 11am and at the rally at Westminster Central Hall at about 1:15pm.

Branch members and friends are invited to a discussion on the decline in working class representation in politics 7pm Tuesday 28 June in the Boothroyd Room, Portcullis House, Westminster. This follows the recent publication of branch member Owen Jones’ book ‘Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class’.

Speakers include:

• Ian Lavery MP, for Wansbeck
• Owen Jones, branch member and author of ‘Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class’
• Jim Mowatt, Director of Education at Unite the Union

Copies of the book will be available on the night and I’m sure Owen will be happy to sign them for us. To RSVP please visit the Facebook event page.

Any questions please email gareth.myton@parliament.uk

This year will be the 75th anniversary of the International Brigades and some branch members will be attending the memorial to pay tribute to the trade unionists who fought fascism in the Spanish Civil War 1936-39.

We will be assembling at the memorial in Jubilee Gardens 12:30pm on Saturday 2 July. The programme runs 1-2pm and there will be music afterwards at the Camel & Artichoke pub on Lower Marsh St nearby. Below is the flyer from the International Brigades Memorial Trust with full information:

International Brigades Memorial Trust Flyer 2 July Event

To RSVP please visit the Facebook event page.

We are hoping to lay a wreath on behalf of the branch so if anyone knows a good florist please email lauren.edwards@unitepsbranch.org

Thursday 16^th June, Committee Room 11, 1 – 2pm

Since the establishment of IPSA, there have been a raft of changes affecting the way MPs’ staff are employed and their pay and terms and conditions administered. 

Staff representatives and associations have taken up a range of issues with IPSA officials, resulting in some improvements for staffing arrangements but confusion still remains about the relationship between IPSA, MPs and their staff.  This meeting will be hosted by the Unite the Union Parliamentary branch, MAPSA and party staff representation groups to establish further problems that haven’t yet been identified, to widen knowledge among staff members about IPSA’s rules and to feed back the points that have been raised with IPSA to date.

Please do come along with questions, points to raise and problems you have experienced with IPSA that you would like your staff representatives to be taking forward.

Unite members joined striking CWU members on their central London picket line this morning as Romec engineers began a weekend walkout.

The dispute – over the facilities maintenance company’s misuse of employee tracking devices – began last month, when repeated breaches of national agreements by management sparked a 92 per cent vote for action by hundreds of workers.

After a four-day callout ban and overtime boycott over the bank holiday weekend, union negotiators agreed to talks with the company, but CWU attempts to settle the matter were dashed when Romec bosses refused to meet workers’ minimum conditions.

And reports are coming in from around the country that, far from seeking to resolve the dispute, managers are accused of continuing to inappropriately use data from the devices to “bully and intimidate” CWU members.

Speaking at today’s picket outside Westminster’s Portcullis House, CWU national official Ray Ellis described the company’s methods as “Big Brother tactics” which were “making the working atmosphere intolerable for our members.”

Ray reported that today’s action had been “rock solid across the country.

“There have been lively pickets in Cardiff, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Bristol, Newcastle and Manchester,” Ray continued, adding: “And the action has been solidly supported everywhere.”

CWU general secretary Billy Hayes and senior deputy general secretary Tony Kearns  also attended today’s protest, where Billy praised members for “standing up for fairness and rights at work.

“Here, right beside the so-called ‘mother of Parliaments’, the CWU is standing united and demanding dignity and respect at work,” he added.

Among the pickets was Cyril Onyejekwe, the union’s London and south east regional rep for Romec workers, who insisted that the workforce was “absolutely determined” to win a fair resolution to the dispute, a sentiment endorsed by engineers Dave Godfrey, Jim Morrison and Bob Mulleady.

Their colleague Jeff James, who has to use one of the devices – known as a WPA – said that he had received a text from the company telling him to meet his manager to “discuss my work pattern.” Jeff explained that he expected this discussion – which has not yet taken place – to be based on data taken from the WPA.

“They’re using WPA against engineers and using it to get rid of people,” he pointed out, adding: “We don’t object to these devices themselves, but we do object to the way they’re being used.

“We didn’t start this dispute, but we want it sorted – my message to management is: ‘Be fair, listen to us and keep to agreements’.”

And CWU members were delighted when Portcullis House staff brought out their Unite branch banner and joined the protest.

Standing proudly beside her banner, secretary Louise Haigh said: “We need to show solidarity with our fellow workers in CWU and we wish them the very best in their efforts to win a fair settlement to this dispute.”

Branch Secretary Louise Haigh

The union branch has welcomed support for their proposal to introduce a catering discount/loyalty scheme for MPs’ staff from the House of Commons Administration Committee.

In its report on catering and retail services in the House of Commons, the Committee recommended the Catering and Retail Service introduce “a staff loyalty or discount scheme to benefit the lower paid staff of Members and the House, with the specific intention of encouraging back customers who appear to have been lost as a result of the price increases”.

The staff loyalty scheme was recommended by the union branch in both written and oral evidence submitted to the enquiry. The union branch argued that MPs’ staff had been disproportionately affected by the recent catering price increases, as average salaries are low and have been depressed further by IPSA’s cuts to staffing budgets.

The branch gave evidence that MPs’ staff were increasingly purchasing their lunch off the Estate and recommended the introduction of a staff loyalty or discount scheme to bring them back by making food on the Estate more affordable.

Branch Secretary Louise Haigh, who gave oral evidence to the Committee said:

We are very pleased the Administration Committee listened to the arguments we put forward on behalf of all MPs’ staff and have supported our recommendation to introduce a staff loyalty scheme.

MPs’ staff have been hit hard by the recent catering price increases as the majority of us are on low incomes. We showed the Committee evidence that many of our members were not using the House catering services anymore and suggested the only way to bring them back was to introduce a discount or loyalty scheme.

These schemes work well in the private sector and there is no reason MPs’ staff should not also have access to a loyalty scheme. We will be writing to both the Administration Committee and Catering and Retail Services to make sure MPs’ staff have a strong voice in the development of the scheme and our members are kept up to date on its progress.

Read more in this ePolitix article by Tony Grew.