PCS Branch Secretary Sam Buckley has just become the fifth union officer to be sacked from the Child Support Agency (CSA) in Hastings since November 2007. The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) is calling for reinstatement and a full inquiry by the House of Commons DWP Select Committee into the constant bullying, harassment and dismissal of reps and members at CSA Hastings.
For an article on this issue from the PCS website, see here.
A march and rally have been called for 18th September, assembling at Hastings Pier at 1pm for a 1.30pm start before marching to the town centre. This march is backed by PCS nationally, locally and regionally. Other sponsors so far include Hastings and District Trades Council and South Tyneside Trades Council. For any queries, messages of solidarity, donations or to sponsor the march please email Sam Buckley.
A tribunal found that Branch Chair Eddie Fleming had been unfairly dismissed but management still refused to give him his job back.
Branch Treasurer Winston Resalsingh was sacked for asking a manager if he was being discriminated against, after he had repeatedly been refused time to attend PCS Group Black Members Committee meetings. On one occasion the then Head of ER wrote to Winston's manager to say that Winston's presence could not be necessary as he was not the Chair. The case was heard outside Hastings and the dismissal was overturned on the grounds that managers had failed to show impartiality, demonstrate natural justice and follow or understand procedures.
Undeterred, Hastings managers decided to demote him instead. This too was overturned on appeal. Winston was reinstated and paid an out of court settlement. To date he has not had an apology.
The manager who took the initial decision to sack Winston has an interesting past. Barry Porter used to be a Detective Constable with the Metropolitan Police until he was brought up on disciplinary charges of corruption. None of them were ever heard because he immediately became too ill to plead, as did his co-defendants. Invalided out of the Met with an ill health pension he made a rapid recovery and became Head of Fraud at Hastings CSA. The Metropolitan Police were concerned enough about this recovery that they insisted on details of it being included as an appendix to a Parliamentary Select Committee report which can be found here.
However, it should not be thought this is a case of one or two rogue managers - managers up to an including the then Area Manager Karl Khan upheld this decision. Without pressure from the national union to get the case heard by a manager outside Hastings it would have been let stand.
An attempt was made to discipline Chris Brambleby, Branch Chair, on the grounds that by representing Winston in his grievance and refusing to disassociate himself from Winston's question he was insulting the managers whose impartiality had been questioned. This was dropped after it was proved that someone had altered the minutes of a meeting in an apparent attempt to strengthen the case against Chris. An "enquiry" by the HR dept found that the alteration of the minutes was an accident that couldn't be traced to any individual. Chris wrote to the Area Manager pointing out the spectacular implausibility that an accident should just happen to produce minutes making him look worse at the exact same time he was facing disciplinary action and received a reply that he, the Area Manager, was "disappointed" by Chris's "attitude".
Management's attitude to union officers contrasts with their attitude to the British National Party. Local neo-Nazi Frank Swain works for the CSA and, like all civil servants of his grade has to get written permission from managers before he can stand for election. This was given, in 2008 when he stood for the BNP in local elections in Hastings. The union objected strongly on the grounds that Civil Service Standards of Behaviour oblige us to "promote diversity in the communities in which we live and work" Armed with a list of the BNP's more objectionable statements and policies the union held a meeting with Area Management at which we asked that Frank be asked to disassociate himself from the BNP's "whites only" membership policy and BNP organiser Nick Erikson's statement that "Rape is simply sex. Women enjoy sex so rape cannot be such a terrible physical ordeal." as a condition of being allowed to stand. Area Manager Robin Lulham and Head of HR in the South East Alice Farley refused, on the grounds that Frank was entitled to his political views. A couple of days later reps were handing out anti BNP leaflets outside the door when Robin Lulham ordered us to stop, on the grounds that as civil servants we were obliged to be politically neutral.
Now Branch Secretary Sam Buckley is being dismissed on grounds of alleged “capability”. The union has, in writing, documents informing him he must be 95 -100 per cent accurate – and others proving the level of accuracy in his command is 50 per cent. Management, as usual, deny discrimination. Their first action, after sacking Sam, was to issue an email forbidding reps to give out any leaflets on the topic - including outside the building and in their own time. The national union got in touch to point out that this was both unreasonable and unlawful but Area Management simply repeated their position. Consequently the office was leafletted using reps from other sites, full time union officers and reps who have already been dismissed. Area Manager Robin Lulham threatyened to call the police - an idle threat since no laws were being broken, but it begs the question : if they are sure their actions were correct why are they so scared of their staff knowing about them? It was symptomatic of the climate of fear at CSA that many members of staff wanted to sign the petition but on condition that managers will never see it because they expected to be victimised if they were seen to have signed - in fact they are quite safe - the petition is for the local MP not CSA managers.
PCS national conference unanimously passed a motion offering full political and organisational support to Hastings branch and its reps and describing CSA Hastings as “the Bermuda triangle of the civil service” – because of the way anyone who stands up to management bullying disappears. We appeal for the support of all trades unionists and anyone who believes in basic workers’ rights.For more information or to send a message of solidarity please email Sam Buckley or ring 07807 289253
