NIPSA News November/December

NIPSA NEWS Bleak figures suggest 15% plus cuts in NICS staffing levels

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

WE MUST FIGHT BACK AGAINST AUSTERITY

See stories pages 4/5

ON Tuesday, November 25, the trade unions affiliated to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions following discussions on the crisis in public spending vowed to step up the campaign to resist the Westminster Government’s unnecessary austerity policies and their implementation by the Northern Ireland Executive.

The trade unions’ decision complements a series of anti-austerity campaigns taking place across Europe which have seen more than 120,000 people march recently in Belgium.

Similar numbers took to the streets in recent weeks in the Republic in a protest against the introduction of water charges.

Public sector unions are committed to build for a public sectorwide strike here in March 2015 as Northern Ireland faces four addi-

tional years of attacks on public services and the welfare state as well as on public sector workers’ wages, jobs and terms and conditions of employment.

Speaking after the meeting, NIPSA General Secretary Brian Campfield said: “It is important that the trade unions send a clear message to workers and to the public generally that these cuts can be reversed if people mobilise in every country in Europe to call a halt to austerity.

“Standing up for public services and workers’ rights is standing up for democracy against the vested interests.

“We have a responsibility as trade unions to actively campaign for a fundamental change in economic and social policy. In doing so we will be making a contribution to strengthening democracy because democracy is about

much more than casting a ballot once every four or five years and then leaving politicians to shape our society to the disadvantage of its citizens.”

Mr Campfield continued: “It is our civic duty to protest, to challenge decisions and to do this on the streets and by co-ordinated strike action by trade unions. It is also essential that the community mobilises to challenge the attack on the welfare state.

“The policies being pursued by government are designed to fundamentally reshape, on a permanent basis, the type of society we live to one which is characterised by minimum public service provision, poorer social security for those who find themselves made redundant or permanently sick and greater power in the hands of private profit and shareholder interests at the expense of the

workers and local communities.”

He added: “Our politicians expect to be challenged on their austerity policies. We are doing the democratic process no favours if we do not take a stand alongside the millions of workers and their communities across Europe who are declaring ‘enough is enough’.”

NIPSA members oppose threat to Community Safety Wardens COMMUNITY Safety Wardens have expressed their thanks for the support shown to them by the trade union movement and the people of L/Derry following a number of death threats issued by dissident republican terrorists.

On Tuesday, November 11, NIPSA was advised by Derry City Council that a dissident republican terrorist group had issued a generalised death threat against the Council’s Community Safety Wardens. The Council immediately suspended the scheme after receiving the threat.

NIPSA members reacted quickly and joined colleagues in the Derry Trades Council in organ-

ising a demonstration to show solidarity with and support for wardens on Thursday, November 13.

All political parties on Derry City Council supported the event and the demo was addressed

by Derry Mayor Brenda Stevenson.

A source told NIPSA News: “Regrettably, following this, a second more serious threat was issued to a local newspaper which escalated the matter targeting a wide section of the community and placed anyone ‘actively or passively’ assisting ‘Crown Forces’ under threat claiming that they could ‘expect the same fate as a British police officer or soldier’.”

This led to widespread condemnation of the threat and plans were made to stage a second rally on Monday, November 17.

Talks took place over the weekend through ICTU and it was confirmed on Sunday, November 16 that the threat had been lifted.

The Monday rally was subsequently cancelled.

The wardens are extremely thankful for the support from the trade union movement and the citizens of Derry and it is anticipated that the scheme will be phased back over the next few weeks.

A happy festive season to all our members and a

Page 2 NIPSA NEWS

www.nipsa.org.uk

News

Editorial

NI Executive’s upside down economics will cost our people dear BACK in 2010 after the first fouryear spending plans were announced by the new Coalition Government at Westminster, NIPSA predicted that the impact of this austerity programme would result in the loss of thousands of public sector jobs in Northern Ireland as well as severe cuts to public services.

We also predicted that because the cuts in Northern Ireland were back-loaded, the full effect would be felt most severely in 2014/2015 and beyond.

That is exactly what is happening and the 2015/16 Northern Ireland Budget exposes as utterly false the statements made by local politicians that we were scaremongering.

Not content, however, with implementing vicious and unprecedented public service cuts arising from the 2015/16 Northern Ireland Block Grant allocation, some political parties want to move even further and assume the power to set the rate of Corporation Tax, which is effec-

2 0 1 5

tively a tax on companies’ profits.

Such a move would see public spending in Northern Ireland reduced by between a further £400m and £700 every year – in order to remove the burden on business and create a tax environment which would allegedly lead to an influx of foreign direct investment and tens of thousands of private sector jobs.

The case for a reduction in Corporation Tax doesn’t stack up. The main argument is that aligning the Northern Ireland rate with that of the Republic of Ireland will result in a level playing field and so investment which would otherwise have gone south of the border will come here instead.

The problem is that, due to complex but business-friendly tax rules, the effective rate of Corporation Tax in the Republic is around 2% not the headline 12.5%.

UK tax rules mean that Northern Ireland will not be able to

N I P S A c a l e n d a r

w i t h t h i s e d i t i o n

NIPSA NEWS

NIPSA Harkin House, 54 Wellington Park, Belfast BT9 6DP, Tel: 028 90661831 Fax 028 90665847 or email: alison.millar@nipsa.org.uk Editorial contact details: Bob Miller email: bob.miller@nipsa.org.uk Correspondence should be sent to the above address.

Unless otherwise stated, the views contained in NIPSA NEWS do not necessarily reflect the policy of trade union NIPSA.

compete with the Republic in this. As such, the main argument for devolving power over Corporation Tax dissolves.

The second counter-argument is that there is absolutely no guarantee of any additional jobs being created. Claims about the thousands of jobs which would be created is pure speculation with no real basis in fact. Even if jobs are created they will have come at the expense of quality jobs in the public sector which actually deliver important services to the community as opposed to a service to transnational corporations and – ultimately – their bottom line.

Pandering to the business lobby and the interests they represent renders the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly the servants of these wealthy global and local forces and this is runs contrary to fulfilling their democratic mandate to serve the people and citizens of Northern Ireland.

Prostrating themselves in front

of the private sector is hardly the way to advance the interests of Northern Ireland and its people.

The crocodile tears shed over the threatened reductions in the Block Grant if the Northern Ireland Executive doesn’t follow the lead of the UK Coalition Government in attacking the social security safety net sits in stark contrast to their enthusiasm for surrendering a substantial portion of the Northern Ireland Block Grant with the resulting loss of thousands more public sector jobs and services.

Northern Ireland is an upside down world in which those who hold the political reins are more than content with lining the pockets of large private shareholder interests with public money while aghast that public money is redistributed to those who are out of work, disabled, ill or, as is the case with thousands of NIPSA members, in receipt of low wages.

Brian Campfield, General Secretary

Members accept NJC pay deal with a narrow vote

NIPSA has claimed the vote in favour of accepting the two-year pay deal on NJC Pay will not address the real decrease in pay borne by local government and other NJC workers since 2010.

It follows a narrow vote in favour of the agreement which affects workers in NIHE, local government, Libraries NI, Education and Library Boards, Further Education, some staff in the Youth Justice Agency, traffic attendants, housing associations and some other smaller bodies.

For staff earning below £14,013 a year, the increase varies between 2.32% and 8.56%. However, this increase was to address the fact that staff at these levels were on poverty pay including some earning less than the National Minimum Wage.

For most NIPSA members on NJC pay rates, this two-year pay deal is a very small pay rise with effectively no increase in rates of pay between April and December 2014.

The 2.2% will only come into effect from January 1, 2015 and will be for a 15-month period (i.e. no further increase in rates of pay in April 2015).

Deputy General Secretary Alison Millar told NIPSA News: “While NIPSA members narrowly accepted these proposals, it is clear that these members are still the poor relations in relation to public sector pay.

“The NJC pay claim was for £1 per hour on all pay points and this falls far short of the NJC Trade Union Side claim. This pay deal is also below the current rate of inflation and does not address the real pay decrease that local government and other NJC workers such as library assistants, school support staff, refuse collectors, leisure centre staff and many others have experienced since 2010.

“This paltry increase follows three years of no increase and 1% in 2013. Therefore these workers’ pay – in real terms – is still 20% below what it was in 2010 with many members having to rely on in-work benefits to supplement their income.

“So it is clear work does NOT always pay which is the mantra we hear day and daily from Westminster and some MLAs.” Check out details of the pay agreement on the NIPSA website at http://bit.ly/1zkxVmU

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

‘Watered down’ pensions at NIW gets the thumbs down www.nipsa.org.uk

News

WORKERS at NI Water are gearing up for a major dispute in defence of their pensions.

It is understood a consultation exercise on a new pensions scheme involving all NIW staff concluded with the Chief Executive’s in-tray being jammed with hundreds of letters from workers outlining their opposition to changes.

All three unions have unanimously rejected the proposals.

NIW is a ‘government-owned company’ and is officially classed as an NDPB. Staff are no longer considered civil servants, having been forced out of the NICS in 2007.

A new pension scheme and new pay system were introduced within the last five years and now staff are facing further detrimental changes to their terms and conditions.

Assistant Secretary Ryan McKinney told NIPSA News: “Staff have not accepted the argument, made by NIW management, that there is a need for change.

“They were forced out of the civil service, forced out of the civil service pensions scheme, accepted a new pay and grading system and a

new pension scheme all while seeing the workforce cut and performance targets increased.”

He added: “They’ve done their bit for the public purse and, rightly, are not prepared to give any more. They are saying to all three unions that enough is enough.”

A consultation ballot involving NIPSA, GMB and Unite members received an overwhelming response with 99% voting in favour of some form of industrial action.

NIPSA News understands that the unions at NIW have agreed to work towards a co-ordinated campaign of industrial action to defend the interests of water workers.

Mr McKinney warned: “This is a serious dispute now. We have asked to meet with the Minister so that he is aware that we could be looking at industrial action over the most critical part of the winter.

“NIW need to sit up and listen or they will face an unprecedented crisis should members vote for action.”

It is understood a ballot could commence before the end of November.

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MOST people think that tax avoidance is morally wrong even if it is legal, a poll for two leading charities revealed at the beginning of December.

Four in five of those questioned said it is too easy for large companies to avoid paying tax in Britain while almost threequarters said the next government should legislate to discourage big companies here from avoiding paying tax in developing countries.

Eighty-five per cent of the 2,052 adults asked in the ComRes poll for Christian Aid and ActionAid said they believe tax avoidance is morally wrong.

Just a fifth of people asked said they felt political parties had gone far enough in their promises to address tax avoidance by large companies.

ActionAid tax policy adviser Diarmid O’Sullivan said: “It is not just the UK that is affected by tax avoidance. The world’s poorest countries lose billions of dollars a year to tax dodging.”

New code targets union facility time

Page 3 NIPSA NEWS

COUNCILS in England and Wales will have to publish detailed figures on union reps and trade union facility time under a new town hall transparency code.

The Local Government Transparency Code 2014 extends the range of areas where data must be published to enable the public to hold local councils to account. Publishing the data also now becomes a legal requirement.

The trade union data comes within the batch of information that must be published annually.

It includes: • the number of staff who are union reps (including general reps and learning and health and safety reps); • the number who devote at least 50% of their time to union duties; • the names of all trade unions represented in the authority; • a basic estimate of spending on unions (the number of days spent on union duties multiplied by the average salary); and • a basic estimate of spending on unions as a percentage of the total pay bill.

Meanwhile, minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude announced that the government has “slashed the number of full-time taxpayer-funded union officials by over 90%” since coming to office.

The government cut the amount of facility time available to trade union reps in government departments in October 2012 and instituted a ban on reps being promoted while working full-time on union work.

Maude’s figures show that, in the second quarter of this year, there were only 13 reps on full facility time in government departments, compared with 200 in November 2011. He added that the number today is in single figures. The number of general reps has also declined dramatically.

• It has emerged that treasury secretary Danny Alexander wrote to the government in July to say there was no fiscal or policy case for removing check-off. It is being ended in the Home Office (see LRD’s Workplace Report, October 2014, page 7).

90,000 plus children ‘homeless at Xmas’

MORE than 90,000 children will wake up homeless in Britain this Christmas, equating to three children for every school in the country, housing charity Shelter has warned.

Launching its Christmas appeal, the charity said some children were forced to eat their meals off the floor because living space was so tight and said many suffer “severe emotional distress” as a result of staying in temporary accommodation.

TAX RELIEF ABUSE NOT BEING TRACKED

Page 4 NIPSA NEWS

BILLIONS of pounds in tax could have been dodged because the government is failing to track abuse of reliefs, Britain's spending watchdog has claimed.

The National Audit Office said HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) had done little to investigate why Entrepreneurs' Relief was costing £2 billion a year more than expected.

Public Accounts Committee chairwoman Margaret Hodge said it was "beyond belief" that HMRC was not monitoring reliefs more closely.

Heating fear rises for 3.5m elderly

AROUND 3.5 million older people are worried they will not be able to stay warm this winter, charity Age UK has warned.

An older person dies every seven minutes from cold weather each winter, according to Age UK's new research.

A third of over-65s are concerned about how they will heat their homes this winter and 70 per cent have fears over the high cost of energy, the research showed.

Funding gap will raise costs

FAMILIES could face higher childcare bills if a major gap in funding for free places continues, campaigners warned yesterday.

The government’s scheme to offer free care for young children is in “crisis,” it is suggested, as the money available does not cover the cost of providing good quality places.

As a result, nurseries and pre-schools are being forced to make up the difference out of their own pockets, the Pre-School Learning Alliance is warning.

FLOODING RISK GROWING IN UK

HUGE areas are at risk of flooding due to underspending on flood protection, the National Audit Office has said.

Half the flood defences in the country are only maintained at "minimal level," meaning they will deteriorate more rapidly.

And the Environment Agency has not informed communities of the heightened risk, it said.

Feedback on bud job losses ‘soarin www.nipsa.org.uk

News

EARLY ESTIMATE SUGGESTS 15% PLUS OF STAFF TO BE CUT

HARD information about the impact of the budget cuts has been slowly filtering through to Trade Union Side.

And a very bleak picture is being painted, based on the estimates being quoted to Departmental Trade Union Sides.

Even with the absence of figures for all Departments and the absence of any estimated job cuts involving Arms-length/Non-Departmental Public Bodies, the figure is soaring beyond 2,600.

This represents a cut of more than 15% in the non-industrial staffing levels

across the NICS. Assistant General Secretary Kieran Bannon told NIPSA News: “It has been very difficult to obtain hard information from Departments despite the fact that their senior managements have been taking part in ‘scenario planning’ for several weeks.

“Indeed, prior to the draft 2015/16 budget announcement, Departments were already working on estimated cuts based on a 4%-10% reduction over the 2014/15 and 2015/16 financial years.

“NIPSA is keeping the pressure on Departments to

provide more accurate information on the impact of the cuts – not only in relation to how many jobs are to go but at what grade levels and by business area.”

As the year ends and as we enter 2015, Departments are expected to publish further details that will allow NIPSA members to appreciate in full the actual impact of the budget announcements.

This is happening at a time when local politicians are pressing for Corporation Tax powers that could see an additional annual cut of around £400m in the Northern Ire-

NICS cuts signall sit back and take

THE Civil Service Group Executive Committee has called for a robust response to NICS management plans to cut jobs and the putting in place of a recruitment embargo with immediate effect.

It also follows the imposition of pay arrangements by Finance Minister Simon Hamilton, despite the fact that NIPSA officials were still involved in pay negotiations with NICS management.

Following this move, Civil Service Group Executive Committee launched a Branch consultation exercise in November.

This came after the publication of the Northern Ireland Executive’s draft budget.

As part of the consultation exercise, the Civil Service Group Executive was recommending a course of action in response to the imposed pay arrangements and pending job cuts.

According to the union, the current attack on civil service jobs and pay must be viewed in the context of the UK government’s austerity measures and, in particular, the relentless attack on public services and public servants.

Unfortunately the predictions NIPSA made over the last years during its Public Service Defence Campaign are now coming to fruition.

In Northern Ireland, jobs, pay and pensions are matters for the local administration. However, little has been done to protect the interests of citizens or civil and public servants.

This is hardly surprising as Finance Minister Simon Hamilton and his Northern Ireland Executive colleagues have chosen to endorse the UK government’s austerity measures by accepting and advancing the Whitehall pay policy and Treasury public sector pay remit ceiling of 1%.

They have done this by introducing Whitehall-led pension reforms and are now pushing through budget cuts that will see a significant number of job losses across the public sector in Northern Ire-

land and in particular civil service departments as well as the arms-length/Non Department Public Bodies they sponsor.

Despite the fact that NIPSA was still in pay negotiations with NICS management, the Minister chose to impose the pay arrangements.

Indeed Trade Union Side was exploring the basis on which consolidated increases, in addition to the application of increments, could be achieved to ensure those on pay scale maxima would attract a consolidated pay increase when the Minister made his announcement.

While NIPSA has had its difficulties with pay negotiations in the past, some of which have developed into pay disputes, this is an unprecedented move.

On this occasion the pay arrangements are being imposed WITHOUT negotiations being completed – WITHOUT any formal offer being made by NICS management on which members could be consulted and WITHOUT the opportunity for NIPSA to make recommendations at Ministerial level, all of which would be the normal convention and established procedure for NICS pay negotiations.

Similar difficulties have been experienced by NIPSA members in the Health Service.

Despite the independent NHS pay review body recommendation of a 1% across-the-board pay rise, in addition to increments, the UK government’s Health Minister Jeremy Hunt imposed a 1% non-consolidated increase for those on their pay band maxima.

He argued there was no cost-of-living increase because NHS staff still receive their incremental progression (sounds familiar?)

It appears the Northern Ireland Health Minister Jim Wells is happy to take his UK Government counterpart’s lead and that his party colleague, Simon Hamilton, is happy to follow suit.

get cuts suggests g beyond 3,000’ www.nipsa.org.uk

FROM WORKFORCE

News

Where the proposed axe is set to fall

DARD

300 land Block Grant.

DCAL 52 Kieran Bannon warned: “A further cut of that level DE 65 would have a devastating efDEL 300 fect on the Northern Ireland DETI 50 economy. The disposable income of civil and public serDFP 50 vants in Northern Ireland 25 makes a significant contribu- DHSSPS DOE 500 tion to the economy here.

“All our local politicians DOJ 450 (to be ratified) have guaranteed is increasDRD 300 ing the unemployment register through these cuts but DSD 825** with no guarantee whatsoOFMDFM 35 ever of even one job being PPS 130 created through the introduction of new rates of Cor- ** DSD figure may be adjused based on bids for new poration Tax.” work and the introduction of Welfare Reform

ed – we either it or fight back Obviously they paid no heed to another of their colleagues, Gregory Campbell, who at the time the independent panel reviewing the pay of MLAs recommended a £5,000 (11%) increase (which was subsequently implemented), said: “If you have an independent body, let them get on with it, let them make their recommendation and then you have to live with it.”

Little wonder that NIPSA members and other health unions are voting to take industrial action over pay.

NIPSA has been pressing Corporate HR for information about the impact the budget cuts will have in the NICS. This is against the background of the Head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service having issued a number of circulars to staff.

His statements signalled substantial staffing reductions and the launch of a Voluntary Early Exit Scheme anticipated around March 2015 with the first tranche leaving service around September 2015.

This means more to come – which mirrors the projections given by the Office for Budget Responsibility for 2016/17-2018/19 of a further reduction in public spending of around 13%.

Commenting on these developments, Assistant General Secretary Kieran Bannon told NIPSA News: “We have faced cuts in pay and jobs in the past but not on this scale. Clearly this places a heavy burden on members who have already suffered real-term pay reductions over the past number of years with the increases in pension contributions and more planned for April 2015.”

He added: “There are plenty of signals being given but little in terms of detail. Despite our continued efforts to extract information from Management Side on the numbers and grades of staff they intend to cut, that information has not been provided.

“It is difficult to understand how the Minister for

Agriculture, Michelle O’Neill, was able to announce, within days of NIPSA being told there was no information available in terms of detail, that her Department was to make effective a £30m cut – equating to a cut of 300 jobs.”

On November 21, NIPSA was advised at a Central Whitley meeting that the staff cuts would be considerable and that a NICS-wide recruitment and promotion embargo was to be implemented (there may be some scope in exceptional circumstances for temporary promotions).

NIPSA was also told that the embargo was to take immediate effect with no end date but would be regularly reviewed.

The Civil Service Group Executive, having given careful consideration to the cuts, determined that NIPSA’s response should be robust and needed a collective and industrial response to defend members’ jobs, pay and pensions as all are intrinsically linked.

The Civil Service Group Executive Committee proposed a campaign of action capable of building momentum, over the short to medium term, in order to be sustained over the longer term.

The intention is to co-ordinate this action with other NIPSA members in dispute – primarily in health – and with action across the broader public sector where possible.

Kieran Bannon said: “We have two choices – either sit back and simply take everything that is dished out, or take a stand and fight the cuts.

“The only result from a passive membership will be further cuts in jobs and pay. Northern Ireland civil servants are not in this alone – that is why our campaign seeks to co-ordinate with other NIPSA members and other trade unions in the public sector and community organisations.”

He warned: “If WE do not organise a campaign of resistance, then there won’t be one.”

Lobbying Act consultaton has ended

Page 5 NIPSA NEWS

THE government is consulting over measures to implement Part 3 of the lobbying Act, which puts new administrative burdens on unions in relation to their membership records.

The Act introduces a statutory obligation on unions to have their membership records verified via an annual Membership Audit Certificate (MAC). The requirement is on top of the duty unions already have to keep a reasonably up-to-date register of their members’ names and addresses.

For unions with more than 10,000 members, the MAC will have to be completed by a qualified independent assurer, appointed by the union, whereas smaller unions will be able to self-certify their MAC. The Certification Officer will be responsible for ensuring that the new measures are complied with. If they think the union may have failed to comply with any of the requirements, they will be able to conduct an investigation.

They will be able to demand to see any relevant union documents, including the names and addresses of members, and to call individuals to attend meetings and cooperate with enquiries.

Unions and others are concerned that the requirements would allow people outside the union to access members’ names, addresses and other information and that it could fall into the wrong hands.

The TUC said it would make “what should be sensitive personal data about union membership open to far too many people — think blacklisting if you wonder why people are concerned”.

The consultation document claims “there are clear safeguards … that ensure that member data is treated as confidential”. But former TUC general secretary Lord Monks, who tried to remove some of these powers as the lobbying Bill went through the House of Lords, noted that “every other country keeps the state and employers out of union membership records”.

The consultation ended on December 4.

Sharing parental leave

REGULATIONS allowing parents to share the care of their child in its first year come into force in the spring, and requests for leave can be submitted from December 1.

The government said as many as 285,000 working couples in England and Wales will be eligible to share parental leave from April.

Ministers said the changes in how maternity leave can be used will kick-start a “culture change” in workplaces, with the hope that fathers feel more confident in taking time off for childcare.

Under the rules, mothers will still take at least two weeks of maternity leave immediately after birth, but after that working couples can share up to 50 weeks of leave and up to 37 weeks of pay.

Acas chairman Brendan Barber said: “Shared parental leave will enable working parents to share maternity or adoption leave to allow both parents greater involvement with their child’s first year while employers have the potential to remain productive by agreeing new arrangements that works for their organisations.”

NHS Act: were votes for sale?

Page 6 NIPSA NEWS

A shocking "dossier of disgrace" revealed that around one in five Con-Dem MPs who voted for NHS reforms have links to private healthcare companies.

Among the 71 coalition members, 64 Tories and 7 Lib Dems, who voted in favour of the hated Health and Social Care Act 2012 were Prime Minister David Cameron, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg and current Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

And the legislation's mastermind, former health secretary Andrew Lansley, was among them.

They were among 330 people who voted in favour of the Bill, which has made it easier for private companies to run NHS contracts since its passage in 2012.

Mr Lansley was handed £21,000 by former Care UK chairman John Nash to fund his personal office in November 2009, while he was preparing the white paper, Unite says.

Over 70 per cent of tendered contracts have since gone to the private sector since the Act came into force with a combined value of £13 billion according to the Unite research.

And a recent investigation by the union found that £1.5bn-worth of contracts have been sold off to just 15 private companies.

A whopping 96 per cent of Care UK's business, which amounted to £400 million last year, came from the public service.

David Cameron meanwhile made nursing and care home tycoon Dolar Popat, founder of TLC Group, a peer shortly after May 2010.

Aside from donating more than £200,000 to the Conservatives, the union's research shows Mr Popat's company has gained over £4m to provide care services since 2012.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is said to have received donations amounting to almost £33,000 from US-based hedge fund chief executive Andrew Law, whose fund owns a multi-million dollar market value in healthcare.

Mr Law has donated in excess of £1.2m to the Conservatives.

Deputy PM Mr Clegg received a donation to his constituency office for £5,000 from Alpha Medical Consultancy, which has nationwide affiliations with premium providers of diagnostic and rehabilitation services.

And Business Secretary Vince Cable was also named for accepting £2,000 from Chartwell Care Services, which owns private hospitals providing day care surgery to NHS patients.

Libraries avoid closure in cuts ‘onslaught’

www.nipsa.org.uk

News

IN THE run up to the recent draft budget announcements, the situation for members in Libraries NI (just as in every other area across the civil and public services) looked extremely bleak.

At that time DCAL had sought proposals from the organisation over plans to slash budgets by between 10% and 14%.

Assistant Secretary Paddy Mackel told NIPSA News: “Given the level of cuts which were envisaged at that time, NIPSA sought urgent meetings with both the Chief Executive of Libraries NI and DCAL Minister Carál Ní Chuilín.

“At these meetings Trade Union Side voiced concern over the consequences of these cuts being imposed.

We outlined the inevitable damage to both the service to the local community as well as threats to members’ jobs and the very real prospect of a significant number of library closures.”

According to Paddy Mackel, Carál Ní Chuilín listened to the representations made and reiterated her commitment to libraries, recognising the invaluable work carried out by staff in contributing to early years education provision as well as the important role they played in areas of multiple deprivation.

Libraries NI have now been advised that, although cuts to the budget will still be required, this has been reduced to 7.5%, with 4.4% already implemented following the June monitoring round. In effect, this change in approach will mean that all libraries will now remain open.

Paddy Mackel said: “While it is indeed welcome that

NIPSA calling for greater protection for libraries

no library will close, it must be remembered that the budget has still been cut, that many agency staff were paid off, that other staff are likely to leave on voluntary severance, that opening hours will reduce in a significant number of libraries and finally that by receiving a degree of protection for libraries, other areas will face greater levels of budget cuts as a result.

“The only way to stop this ideological onslaught against public services and public servants is to secure increased finances for the block grant. In the meantime, a piecemeal approach will continue to have limited successes in some areas and negative outcomes in other areas.”

He added: “There is no good news story here.”

Assembly regards FE Sector as poor relation

HOW do you know that the Assembly is dysfunctional?

There are many ways, of course, but one obvious example is how although education is apparently a priority for the Executive, this isn’t the case when it comes to providing for those 16 to 19 year olds who have fallen through the conventional schools system or who have been failed by that system Assistant Secretary Paddy Mackel explained: “For years we have been told that education is a key priority of government, both by the UK administration and by the local Assembly. Unfortunately, however, if DEL are responsible for your education – as is the case for the FE Sector – that same commitment does not apply.

“When the six local FE colleges provide essential skills training, vocational or specific training or a way back into more conventional education though AS and A Levels, they do so for young people who need an alternative because there is no

other option available to them.

“Up to 50% of young people in FE colleges come from areas of social disadvantage and deprivation. FE colleges offer those young people hope as well as excellent education and skills training.”

Paddy Mackel warned that the cuts announced in the draft budget would “decimate” the sector.

He said: “It is likely that somewhere between 12,000 to 15,000 places will be lost if the cuts outlined in the draft budget are forced through. Those 15,000 young people will be condemned by a failed Conservative ideology, implemented by the Assembly, which clearly couldn’t care less about them.

“They will, as a result have little prospect of obtaining employment in the labour market. If there is ever an economic recovery in this place, it will pass those young people by.”

Paddy Mackel went on to outline the potential impact on staffing lev-

els in the FE Sector.

He said: “While the position isn’t entirely clear at this moment, it is fair to say that cuts of approximately 11% will result in job losses running into many hundreds, probably well in excess of 500, possibly as much as 800.

“Meetings with employers will continue and a joint strategy is being worked upon in partnership with our colleagues in other support staff and lecturing unions. Meetings with the Assembly parties and the DEL Minister will also occur.

“At a time when there are calls to skill up young people to prepare them for the labour market, the unions will continue to fight for a rethink. At the same time we will continue to build, across our memberships, for a strong challenge against these cuts, including protests and industrial action.

Members are sick of attacks on their jobs and against the excellent service they provide. They have had enough.”

www.nipsa.org.uk

Legal expert backs cap on bankers’ bonuses

CHANCELLOR George Osborne’s project to boost his banker pals’ bonuses headed for failure after a key EU legal expert backed plans to cap payouts.

Findings by European Court of Justice official Niilo Jaaskinen left the Tory facing fierce criticism for squandering taxpayers’ cash fighting the popular proposals.

Mr Osborne has set up a Treasury team to argue against the socalled “bonus cap” which would see limits of 200 per cent of salary imposed across the European Union.

But his Labour shadow Cathy Jamieson ridiculed the Chancellor for spending crucial resources opposing the City clampdown.

“While working people face a cost-of-living crisis and lending to business is falling it’s astonishing that George Osborne’s priority has been to spend taxpayers’ money fighting a cap on bankers’ bonuses,” she said.

“It shouldn’t have taken the EU to act to rein in excessive bonuses, but there has simply been no action from the Chancellor here in Britain.”

A final European Court of Justice decision is due in the spring — but Advocate General Mr Jaaskinen’s advice is widely expected to be adopted.

The Chancellor had claimed that the plans, which would see City fat cats limited to bonuses of 100 per cent of salary or 200 per cent with the agreement of shareholders, would leave London at a disadvantage compared to other global finance hubs.

Treasury officials complained that wages would have to rise instead and it would be harder to slash back later.

But Mr Jaaskinen rubbished complaints that the “bonus cap” would be a problem.

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Page 7 NIPSA NEWS

Wells announces ‘fundamental review” of health admin structures

AT THE end of November, Stormont Health Minister Jim Wells announced a review of administrative structures within the Northern Ireland Health and Social Care system.

According to NIPSA, it is understood DHSSPS Permanent Secretary Richard Pengelly has been tasked with carrying out a fundamental review of administrative structures with a focus on the avoidance of duplication between the Department, the Health and Social Care Board, the Public Health Agency and Trusts.

It is expected that the role of and

relationship with other Arm’s Length Bodies is also to be considered.

Deputy General Secretary Alison Millar told NIPSA News: “Staff Side were not briefed in advance of this announcement by the Minister and we are currently seeking more detail and the terms of reference for this review.”

She added: “This is a worrying time for members working with the HSCB, PHA and other bodies. NIPSA will be engaging directly with those members over the next few weeks whenever the detail is made available.”

Health Minister Jim Wells

More confusion on the road to Local Govt RPA

THE Northern Ireland Executive continues to demonstrate lack of cohesion over Local Government RPA. On November 11, DSD Minister Mervyn Storey announced that he was going to delay the transfer of functions from his Department to Local Government to at least April 2016.

The functions of regeneration and community development powers will not now transfer to April 2016 and there is a further question mark over whether Houses of Multiple Occupation and Housing Unfitness will transfer at all.

According to NIPSA, this adds to the dysfunctional approach not only of DSD but the entire Northern Ireland Executive to the transfer of functions for Local Government RPA. Meanwhile, the Local Government Reform Joint Forum (LGRJF) is currently collating information from councils about:

l Posts filled under the vacancy control procedure, l Details of posts considered to be in the ‘at risk’ category, l Advice to ‘at risk’ staff, and l Progress on organisational design/structures It is understood a full report is to be considered by the Joint Forum at its December meeting.

In another development, to help councils effectively implement the vacancy control procedure, the Joint Forum Employers’ Side Lead has written to the Head of the NI Civil Service, copying in the Public Service Commission, seeking clarification over those organisations and groups of staff within the wider public sector who currently should be considered as falling within the definition of the RPA Affected Group.

This group is included in the process for filling vacancies.

A SERIES of amendments to the RPA staff severance scheme for Local Government have been approved by the Joint Forum at a meeting on August 27.

These are: n The scheme will be revised to take into account the Local Government Pension Scheme Regulations (NI) 2014 which will take effect from April 2015, n The deletion of the tapering provision as well as a related reference to a ‘Default Retirement Age’, n The deletion of a reference to ‘Transition Committees/Statutory Transition Committees, and n The deletion of the requirement to use a standard approval form.

The Department issued its consultation document and draft regulations on November 10 setting out the draft regulations. A circular was issued to branches on November 12 seeking comments.

Meanwhile, the LGRJF has also adopted the final draft of

a code of conduct for Local Government employees and agreed to forward it to the Local Government Staff Commission to consider at its November meeting before it is issued to councils.

In a separate development, the Joint Forum also looked at a progress report on a new Industrial Relations Framework. It was agreed that work should start on the development of a draft Constitution, covering both regional and local Industrial Relations machinery as well as the interface between the two.

The LGRJF also agreed a timeline for developing HR policies for the new council structures, covering disciplinary policy, grievance procedure and capability policy in Tranche 1, followed by social media policy, dignity at work and attendance at work in Tranche 2.

Other potential policies include equality of opportunity, flexible working, annual leave, maternity leave, paternity leave, car user/allowance and severe weather.

Amendments to RPA staff severance scheme

H&Safety reps are told of challenging times ahead

Page 8 NIPSA NEWS

MORE than 120 Health & Safety reps attended NIPSA’s Health and Safety Conference – the fifth of its kind – at the Wellington Park Hotel in Belfast on October 20.

One of the keynote speakers, Public Health Authority Assistant Director Mary Black, outlined for the conference how the workplace was an important setting for promoting mental health and wellbeing.

This was particularly important as one in six workers has been identified as dealing with anxiety, depression or stress. An added factor was the high level of alcohol consumed in the general population both as a means of coping with stress and as a stressor in itself.

Ms Black detailed for the conference the key sources of stress at work and what could be done to address the problem through support programmes in the workplace. In particular, she underlined the importance of managing change and the effective role played by clear and open communication.

It is estimated that the issue costs the UK economy a staggering £51.6 billion each year.

She also drew reps’ attention to the PHA’s workplace health model, highlighting in particular the resource guide as well as online assessment and stress management competency tools.

Concluding, Ms Black highlighted the importance of “looking after each other” as Northern Ireland entered a period of unprecedented change across all sectors.

STUC Health & Safety Officer Ian Tasker also spoke to the conference.

His presentation exploded a number of myths peddled by the UK coalition Government to support their unsubstantiated ideological attacks on health and safety legislation and enforcement.

He pointed out that only half of the health and safety regulations are still in place in Great Britain when com-

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Health issues

Mary Black addressing the NIPSA H&S conference

pared with those in place after the introduction of the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) 40 years ago.

Flagging up the devolved power of HSE enforcement in Northern Ireland, Mr Tasker cautioned against the local administration routinely following the Westminster lead.

He said: “Those who are suffering most from the attacks on health and safety are those at the lowest end of the socio-economic scale, [those] in insecure and unsafe employment, living and working in communities where existing health inequalities can only flourish due to the Government's actions.”

Mr Tasker also accused the business lobby of “cooking the books” on the burdens of health and safety regulation and pointed out that the average spend was £325 pointing out that this was “hardly overly burdensome in today’s financial climate”.

He continued: “As workers suffer as a result of this politically-motivated deregulation, the accusatory fingers of employers point to the sick and injured, shouting workers have to become more resilient.”

Mr Tasker said the STUC position was that “resilience” could not be developed in the workforce by employing consultants but had to “develop organically”.

“This can only be done by employers addressing the workplace issues

causing the injury and ill-health and in working with unions to build safer, healthier and successful workplaces – and resilience will follow.”

Ian Draper, who is Network Co-ordinator with the UK National WorkStress Network, was another contributor to the conference.

His presentation covered a range of issues related to the causes, symptoms, effects, costs and impact of work-related stress and associated illnesses.

He told the conference: “At the end of a working day, nobody should be feeling that they have been damaged or traumatised by their work.”

All workplaces should ensure fair and appropriate treatment for all – no matter what the status of the individual worker was.

He noted that stressors arose from a variety of sources – caring duties at home, personal relationships, financial worries, and concerns about job security, bereavement and more.

Mr Draper said: “These are effects that we all take with us in our daily routines. On arrival at work there is a further set of stress factors, including work demand, lack of control over work-rate, relationship issues in the workplace including a prevalence in many sectors for poor management resulting in bullying.

“It is often the mix of those personal issues with the work issues

that create unrelenting pressure in both environments and [which are] having a serious effect on relationships both at home and in the workplace, as well as the ability to carry out work effectively and efficiently.”

He pointed out that “continued excessive downward pressures” led to hormonal imbalances which could impact on health, wellbeing and auto-immune systems.

Mr Draper warned: “Such problems lead to frequent ailments some of a lower order and others of a serious nature often culminating in chronic illness, cardiovascular problems, cancers, premature death and, sadly, suicides.”

He also noted that women are often more prone to stress-related problems because of the nature of their work, low-pay status in many cases and the many other roles they have to fulfil.

Mr Draper said it was essential that detailed records of incidents be kept and that those suffering from stress-related illness associated with work, should lodge complaints, inform their employer of the problem and take grievances.

Concluding, he listed a number of problems that faced Health & Safety Reps and Trade Union Stewards alike. These were: n Continuing public sector cuts; n Drastic axing of health and safety regulations; n EU-wide deregulation and the possibility of the UK leaving the EU; n Employers’ failure to recognise stress-related illness as a serious problem and ignoring the need for effective policies, risk assessments and constant awareness of duty of care, backed up by effective agreed and meaningful policies on mental health in the workplace; and n The apparent absence of appropriate training of managers in personnel management skills and risk assessments.

New e-Health and Care Strategy to be rolled out

NIPSA recently met with representatives from the Health and Social Care Board to discuss their new e-Health and Care Strategy for Northern Ireland.

According to the Board, the e-Health strategy hopes to empower people to be more proactive in their own care and to support Health and Social Care staff achieve real change so that the best possible health and wellbeing for all citizens is achieved.

There are five guiding principles underpinning the strategy: Citizen-centred, Connections, Consistency, Creativity and Cost-effectiveness.

Citizen-centred: This means citizens supporting their own health and wellbeing.

Connections: Making information available in the right place, at the right time to support the best care, and with the right safeguards in place.

Consistency: Technologies and the way they are used should be designed and rolled out in

one way for Northern Ireland; any variation from this approach will need to be justified.

Creativity: Driving innovation and promoting best practice.

Cost-Effectiveness: Investment must add value and support efficiency. e-Health and Social Care was described to NIPSA representatives as the use of information as it is needed by people and care professionals so that better decisions about prevention, treatment and care can be made.

This includes: n Information provided by patients and their care-givers; n Information held within HSC systems; n Information generated by self-monitoring devices and sensors; and n Information needed for management and administration.

The HSC claims it has invested in and improved on e-Health over the last 10 years, leading to a dramatic improvement in e-Health

support. This includes: n A health and care number for everyone in Northern Ireland and ensuring that the HSC uses this to maintain data quality across the province. n A world-class electronic care record, providing care staff with an up-to-date medical record covering a range of clinical information for 99.9% of the people in Northern Ireland. n The regional X-ray system, NIPACS allowing all X-rays across Northern Ireland to be taken, reviewed and reported electronically. n Computerisation, networking and the introduction of two-way electronic communication for all GP practices in Northern Ireland. n Major improvements to network status centres and other major e-Health infrastructure.

It is understood the HSCB is seeking views on the proposals set out in the strategy. The questionnaire is available online and any responses can be submitted to the board through email at eHealthStrategy@hscni.net

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NIPSA's NIHE TUS Secretary John McCaffrey, NIHE Central Panel Chair John Morrison, Senior Lecturer Stewart Smyth, NIHE Central Panel Vice-Chair Sam Morton and NIPSA Deputy General Secretary Alison Millar.

NIPSA NIHE reps (above and below) discuss the issues that they wil face in the future.

Firms failing disabled jobseekers: claim

COMPANIES responsible for the government's controversial employment scheme have neglected disabled jobseekers to focus on easier-to-help claimants, a report revealed.

The Public Accounts Committee analysed the performance of work programme providers and established that a whopping 90 per cent of employment and support allowance claimants across the country were yet to find work.

Committee chair Margaret Hodge said: "Evidence shows that differential payments have not stopped contractors from focusing on easier-to-help individuals and parking harder-to-help claimants, often those with a range of disabilities including mental health challenges.

"Data from work programme providers shows that they are, on

Seminar focuses NIHE reps’ minds on what the future holds

Page 9 NIPSA NEWS

News

average, spending less than half what they originally promised on these harder-to-help groups."

Companies such as Reed, Serco, G4S and A4E came under public scrutiny earlier in the year for placing people in precarious work or on zero-hours contracts.

Ms Hodge also shared the committee's concerns that the sanctions applied to benefit claimants has also been "unfair" and caused "significant financial hardship."

A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said: "The work programme has contributed to the largest drop in long-term unemployment in a generation and providers are paid by results, with more money for the hardest to reach - but only if they get those people back into lasting work."

THE first-ever NIHE seminar, open to all House Executive reps, has taken place at a time of major change within the organisation.

In his introductory remarks, Vice Chairperson Sam Morton reminded those present of the “significant tasks and challenges” that lay ahead but hoped the seminar would help reps refocus and redouble the union’s efforts to meet those challenges.

NIHE Trade Union Side Secretary John McCaffrey gave seminar participants an overview of the year’s work.

Details of the NIHE Central Panel Annual Report can be viewed on the nipsa.org.uk/NIPSA/media/NIPSA/pd f/WIW/NIHE-Central-Panel-AnnualReport-2014-pdf Referring to the Social Housing Reform Programme (SHRP) launched by former Housing Minister Nelson McCausland on January 9, 2013, he outlined NIPSA’s response since that time.

Noting that while SHRP appeared to have slowed, Mr McCaffrey reminded delegates that the threat of Voluntary Stock Transfer had become more significant.

NIPSA had recently been informed that Minister Storey (the new Housing Minister) has approved this new model. The union is seeking a meeting with the minister to discuss the issue.

Mr McCaffrey also spoke about a range of other issues, these included: Welfare Reform and the impact on Housing Benefit staff who felt trapped in that section, the ‘Journey to Excellence’ model being promoted

by Acting Chief Executive, Mags Lightbody, as well as the threat to jobs posed by the proposal to remodel the working of the Housing Executive through a voluntary redundancy scheme over the next three years with the loss of at least 300 posts.

Delegates to the seminar were also advised that NIPSA had negotiated and signed a new consultation framework.

This agreement is the first of its kind within the NIHE and subjects

both parties to a clear objective with terms of reference and timescales for consultation on any substantive issue that management wish to initiate.

For its part, NIPSA will ensure that management are held to account on the consultation framework. The union will also be required to abide by the same rules and regulations.

Reps also heard about the new draft Absence Management Toolkit.

There was some discussion surrounding claims that management intend to target those on sick leave.

NIPSA is putting in place specific training for all NIHE reps to ensure they are equipped with skills needed to represent members throughout this process. Training will be rolled out early in the New Year.

The overview of the year was followed by a detailed presentation by academic Stewart Smyth, the author of the NIPSA-commissioned report, ‘Keep Our Housing Public’.

Mr Smyth detailed the background of Large Scale Voluntary Stock Transfers before setting out alternatives which he recommended NIPSA should heavily promote with political representatives and others.

He also highlighted and updated the examples within his own research where there had been successful campaigns against stock transfer – but pointed out these successes had only been secured by sheer hard work and vibrant, active campaigns lead by local representatives.

Mr Smyth’s presentation was followed by a lively question and answer session.

In the afternoon the delegates focussed on NIPSA’s campaign and examined how best this could be taken forward, using new tools such as social media, engagement with tenants, community leaders and political representatives.

There was also a presentation and interactive session on recruitment and organisation as well as the importance of building strong, vibrant and active branches.

Building strong vibrant and active branches is key to organisational success

EA – new ‘vision’ for education looks myopic

Page 10 NIPSA NEWS

POLITICIANS in the Assembly have finalised their ‘accelerated passage’ deliberations of the Education Authority draft Bill to ensure its establishment by April 2015.

This is not, however, what was intended when RPA announced its vision for the future of education provision almost a decade ago.

Assistant Secretary Paddy Mackel told NIPSA News: “This clearly isn’t ESA. It hasn’t put manners on the Voluntary Grammar Sector, the Integrated Sector also remains outside the new Authority, as does CCMS. “So rather than bringing together all the various interests under one authority, it has only managed to bring the five Education and Library Boards into one organisation, having devastated their individual structures and staffing levels for the last few years. It’s more myopic than visionary really.

“NIPSA members in the Education Sector have suffered significantly over many years while politicians have continued to squabble and as the various sectors have adopted increasingly macho positions.

“Quite rightly there was no fanfare when this Bill was passed, no cheering, no great announcement about delivering a new model for education of children and young people for the future.”

Paddy Mackel added: “In reality this is a damp squib which just about stumbled over the line. No-one will be surprised when it meanders almost aimlessly through the spring into autumn with just a shiny new plaque over the entrance (wherever that may be), but no doubt also with an expensive new corporate logo on show.

“Our members, of course, just as they always do, will have to get on with things and ensure that the next generation are educated professionally, albeit in a segregated educational system which will continue to reflect our segregated community and partisan political structures.”

Meanwhile, one aspect of the Bill the politicians were actually able to agree on (by a majority) was a change to the make-up of the management Board for the new Education Authority.

Their amendments ensured that the original proposal to have four places on the Board for community representatives – which could have enabled trade union participation on the new Board – was stymied at the last minutePaddy Mackel concluded: “NIPSA will continue to ensure that its members’ interests are fully protected in this new organisation, which will be introduced against a backdrop of an almost 5% cut in the Education budget. This equates to £95 million worth of cuts.

“If cuts of this magnitude are forced through in Education, this could mean more than 4,000 fewer staff across schools and Headquarters.”

He warned: “If this happens, the entire fabric of the education system is likely to collapse. The Education Authority is certainly not looking at a bright future. Our members, however, will fight to protect the education service and protect their jobs. Nobody else will do it for us.”

POSITIVE FEEDBACK News

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Branch 734 stages successful info and recruitment events

WHSCT Branch 734 has followed up a highly successful event promoting the union held at the Tyrone & Fermanagh Hospital in Omagh during the summer – and subsequently reported in NIPSA News – with two further events at the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) in Enniskillen and Altnagelvin Area Hospital.

These were organised by Union Learning Representative Janice Walsh with the backing and help of the Branch Committee and were staged to raise the profile of the role of the ULR in the workplace, as well as to inform and educate staff on issues as varied as personal safety to what online and local courses were available.

The SWAH event on September 5 was very well supported by the Western Health & Social Services Trust (WHSCT) senior management and staff.

Exhibitors at the event, among others, included: the Aisling Centre (a professional counselling, psychotherapy and holistic service), the Open University, PSNI (Crime Prevention), Enniskillen District Council (Policing & Community Safety Partnership and Recycling), Enniskillen Library Service, South West College, Care Call and Platinum Financial Services.

Information was disseminated through a wide range of materials – e.g. booklets, leaflets, contact

cards and application forms as well as a number of free giveaways, including shopping bags, yellow vests, personal alarms, tyre pressure/tread depth gauges and the usual pens, pencils, highlighters etc – all of which was very much appreciated by staff.

“We were delighted with the overall responses to the three events.”

The Altnagelvin event, held on October 3, featured a similar list of exhibitors including local community, voluntary and statutory providers of information and support.

Feedback from all three events was positive and encouraging.

Some of the typical responses from staff included comments such as: “Excellent day that was very helpful; I learned quite a lot; All the stalls/displays were great especially the Healthy Eating; Leaflets/freebies and good advice/info.”

The exhibitors too, responded with positive feedback, including the following comments: “Just a note of thanks to you and the team

on the day for the hospitality and general warmth of welcome. It was an enjoyable day for me and also very fruitful day for the OU”, and, “Thanks – Feedback was positive – don’t hesitate to contact me in relation to individual or group enquiries”.

A Branch 734 spokesperson told NIPSA News: “We were delighted with the overall responses to the three events. The main benefit for the Branch was that both local NIPSA representatives and fulltime officials were able to speak face to face to members on a number of issues.

“The Branch found this exercise really worthwhile for informing, promoting and recruiting members to NIPSA. This was made much easier with the help and support of NIPSA’s Recruitment & Organising Unit, which attended and provided materials for the NIPSA stall.

“The Branch would like to extend many thanks to all who attended and contributed in any way to each of the events.

As a follow-up, Branch 734 has organised in conjunction with Road Safety Branch to return to the local areas to promote road safety in the run up to Christmas in partnership with NIPSA and the WHSCT. Dates, times and venues will be published on Branch 734 Facebook page as well as through the usual lines of communication.

Developing World Fund Making a real difference to the lives of the world’s poorest countries For over 20 years the NIPSA Developing World Fund has been supporting projects throughout the world helping many severely poor and vulnerable people have a better life. Since the Fund was established we have donated over £550,000 to self-help projects. Here is what some of the beneficiaries have said: “With the help of the NIPSA Developing World Fund I have been able to set up a local disability advocacy group to lobby local government and employers to provide accessible transport and adequate employment disability adjustments”.

Letica Paul

“With the support of NIPSA’s Developing World Fund for the Songani Community Care Group, Malawi I received vocational skills training in tailoring and graduated in November 2006.

With the skills I have learnt and the equipment and materials I have received I can start up my own business manufacturing and selling my products”.

Gomanri

“My life has changed dramatically as a result of the support, training and knowledge I have gained from being part of the NIPSA supported Orango Youth Integrated Development Organisation project in Uganda. I can now support my family, providing regular meals and health care and helping them to escape the causes of poverty”.

Joseph Opire

These are only some of the many projects we have been able to support through the regular contributions we receive from donors on a monthly basis through Give As You Earn.

There is a lot more we could do if we had more funds to rely on. Please help us change the lives of people in the world’s poorest communities with a regular gift today. 100% of the money you donate will go directly towards the specific self-help projects.

If you visit our website at http://www.nipsa.org.uk/NIPSA-in-Action/ Global-Solidarity you will see more of the many ways we have helped the world’s poorest communities.

No money goes towards administration costs.

Payroll Donation Form

Developing World Fund

I wish to contribute to the NIPSA Developing World Fund, direct from my salary the following amounts per month

£5

cost in take home pay £1.30

£10

cost in take home pay £7.80

or alternatively you may indicate your own amount

£15

cost in take home pay £11.70

£20

per week per month

£

Minimum donation £1.30. Cost in take home pay £1.00 Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms

Name:

cost in take home pay £15.60 Figures are based on standard tax rates

(tick appropriate)

(circle as applicable)

Please tick if you already use GAYE

Address: Postcode: Staff/Employer No:

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Signature: Please return completed form to: Developing World Fund, NIPSA, 54 Wellington Park, Belfast. BT9 6DP

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News

Credit unions – the local alternative

Page 11 NIPSA NEWS

EVER since the credit crunch, ordinary people and small businesses – rather than big businesses and institutional finance houses – have been badly let down by the banks.

Those who aided and abetted the banks in creating the economic crisis continue to be looked upon very favourably by the banks, yet it is ordinary people who can’t get mortgages or small businesses that cannot secure loans to either expand or maintain their companies.

The alternative to banks is your local credit union. In Northern Ireland there are more than 200 credit unions to be found across all six counties, ranging from small rural credit unions to local area ones in urban areas such as Belfast and Derry. Such credit unions are the real and sensible alternative to the current day loan sharks, the payday loan companies.

Credit unions are financial co-operatives set up, owned and controlled by members within their own community. They offer savings and great value loans plus they are local, ethical and know what their members want.

Credit union members are shareholders and not customers and share any surplus made annually in dividends. Membership is based around what is defined as the “Common Bond” – this determines the geographical area for which membership of the credit union is available.

Credit unions are usually based around the following objectives: l The promotion of thrift among members by the accumulation of their savings; l The creation of sources of credit for the benefit of members at a fair and reasonable rate of interest; l The control and use of members’ savings for their mutual benefit; and l The training and education of members in the wise use of money and in the management of their financial affairs.

Credit unions are run by a voluntary Board of Directors, elected by the members at a General Meeting. Directors are elected for fixed terms.

Individual directors are appointed as key officers and others undertake responsibility for specific functions: Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Insurance, Membership, Marketing and Training.

The Board usually appoints a Credit Committee which has the responsibility of granting loans to members. Most credit unions employ staff for office management, account maintenance and to facilitate all aspects of membership.

The General Council in looking at the terms of Resolution 22 from the 2014 NIPSA Conference considered that, given that the landscape for the setting up of credit unions had changed considerably with the stringent requirements put in place by the new Financial Conduct Authority, and with all the other demands placed on NIPSA, it was not appropriate for the union to set up its own credit union.

Another factor in the decision was the fact that there more than 200 local credit unions based on the local “common band” of the geographical membership.

Details of the local credit unions can be found on the DETI website or through one of the two local umbrella bodies – the League of Irish Credit Unions or the Ulster Federation of Credit Unions.

TTIP: an attack on people, society and environment www.nipsa.org.uk

News

John Hilary is Executive Director of War on Want. He has published on a wide range of trade and investment issues over the past 20 years, and in 2013 was appointed Honorary Professor in the School of Politics and International Relations at Nottingham University. His new book, The Poverty of Capitalism: Economic Meltdown and the Struggle for What Comes Next, was published by Pluto Press in October 2013.

He recently gave an address to Northern Ireland trade unionists at the Betty Sinclair Winter School in Lusty Beg, Enniskillen.

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is a comprehensive free trade and investment treaty currently being negotiated – in secret – between the European Union and the USA. The intention to launch TTIP negotiations was first announced by President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address in February 2013, and the first round of negotiations took place between European Commission and US officials in July of the same year.

The aim is to rush through the talks as swiftly as possible with no details entering the public domain, in the hope that they can be concluded before the peoples of Europe and the USA find out the true scale of the TTIP threat.

As officials from both sides acknowledge, the primary aim of TTIP is not to stimulate trade through removing tariffs between the EU and USA, as these are already at minimal levels.

The main goal of TTIP is, by their own admission, to remove regulatory ‘barriers’ which restrict the potential profits to be made by transnational corporations on both sides of the Atlantic.

Yet these ‘barriers’ are in reality some of our most prized social standards and environmental regulations, such as labour rights, food safety rules (including restrictions on GMOs), regulations on the use of toxic chemicals, digital privacy laws and even new banking safeguards introduced to prevent a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis.

The stakes, in other words, could not be higher.

In addition to this deregulation agenda, TTIP also seeks to create new markets by opening up public services and government procurement contracts to competition from transnational corporations, threatening to introduce a further wave of privatizations in key sectors, such as health and education. Most worrying of all, TTIP seeks to grant foreign investors a new right to sue sovereign governments in front of ad hoc arbitration tribunals for loss of profits resulting from public policy decisions.

This ‘investor-State dispute settlement’ mechanism effectively elevates transnational capital to a status equivalent to the

USE YOUR VOTE X

Page 13 NIPSA NEWS

NIPSA General Council Election 2015/16

AS A trade union, everything the union does is for the benefit of its members.

The work of the union is governed by the General Council and the elections for the General Council are once more upon us.

Procedures for making nominations for election to the General Council have been issued and branches have been asked to submit their nominations by the deadline of 2.00pm on Tuesday, January 13, 2015.

These elections take place every year by an individual ballot of all members in compliance with our union rule book.

What is the General Council?

nation-state itself, and threatens to undermine the most basic principles of democracy in the EU and USA alike.

TTIP is therefore correctly understood not as a negotiation between two competing trading partners, but as an attempt by transnational corporations to prise open and deregulate markets on both sides of the Atlantic.

There is a growing body of concern among EU and US citizens at the threats posed by TTIP, and civil society groups are now joining forces with academics, parliamentarians and others to prevent pro-business government officials from signing away the key social and environmental standards listed above.

All people are encouraged to join this resistance by getting in touch with their local campaigns – or starting their own.

The General Council is the governing body of the union and is comprised of the President, the Vice-President and Honorary Treasurer (who will be elected at NIPSA’s 2015 Annual Conference from among those elected to the General Council following the individual ballot) plus 22 other members.

The General Council is made up entirely of lay members; no one employed by the union is allowed to stand for election to the General Council.

Those elected to the General Council act to ensure the union is governed effectively. General Council members’ role is to promote the interests of the union and its members on many issues.

Between meetings of the Delegate Conference, the general management and control of the union and the handling of the whole affairs is vested in the General Council. The strength of our General Council therefore lies in its mandate from you.

This is Your Union – Use Your Vote

The ballot process will commence on 27 January 2015 and end on 17 February 2015. Please look out for your ballot paper and ensure you cast your vote and make your choice in this important election.

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

Membership Plus

Page 14 NIPSA NEWS

Advertisement

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– Your Member Benefit Programme Membership Plus is the benefit programme available to NIPSA members where you can enjoy up to 50% discount at over 1,000 restaurants, shops, gyms, golf clubs, days out venues and much more.

Offers are available across all areas of the country and include names such as Pizza Express, Stena Line, Domino’s Pizza, McDonald’s, Odeon Cinema, ASDA, Sainsbury’s, Argos and many more.

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FEELING THE POWER OF THE UNION

www.nipsa.org.uk

News

By Padraig McIlkenny, Branch 10 Invest NI Secretary

I HAVE always been a great admirer of people banding together to protect the underdogs having had a grandfather involved in one of the most well-known miscarriages of justice in history.

I watched from a young age huge numbers of people from all over the world who took to the streets to campaign on behalf of my Grandfather and the others involved.

Therefore I know from first-hand experience how important and successful campaigning in groups can be.

That is part of the reason why I became involved in the trade union movement, the other being because I am employed by Serco, which is a private sector company.

Serco employees at Invest NI are employed on five-year contracts and work alongside Invest NI employees in the same building who are employed by the Civil Service.

When the time for re-bidding of our contract comes around, there is always a sense of uncertainty and unease that is felt by me and my fellow employees which understandably leaves us with a feeling of helplessness.

This has always been the case until I learned recently that NIPSA held union recognition with Serco. I had been employed by Serco and working at Invest NI for almost nine years before I found this out.

I was aware that my Invest NI Civil Service colleagues were members of a trade union and, to be honest, I was – along with most of my work colleagues – quite envious that Invest NI employees had this huge organisation looking after their interests.

Then recently the catering team from Invest NI TUPE’d over to Serco alongside other employees from Civil Service departments as Serco had bought the contract for cleaning and catering throughout the NICS. The majority of those transferred had carried their NIPSA membership with them, those who had not been NIPSA members were visited by NIPSA organisers to encourage them to join the union.

It was at that point that we as employees realised we might be able to get NIPSA membership for ourselves. I approached our line manager who informed me that NIPSA did have recognition with Serco so I immediately contacted the Invest NI rep who provided us with membership forms.

I then contacted NIPSA’s Organisation and Recruitment Unit and one of the organisers

From left: Health & Safety Rep Claire Jordan; Sharon Renwick, Equality Officer; Padraig McIlkenny, Branch Secretary; and Branch Chair and Organiser, Padraig McMullan (Union Learning Rep Nicholas O’Neill is missing from picture)

came down to our workplace to advise us how to join the union, what the union had to offer us as members, and – most importantly – to advise that we would actually be members of the Serco Branch, Branch 10. We never knew the Serco Branch existed or that it was so large!

We were also informed that although a Committee did exist for Serco Branch 10, we would need our own committee as the working disciplines of the two areas differed.

The day of the AGM came around on September 9 this year and I was elected Secretary.

Other colleagues were also elected at the AGM and we managed to fill all of the roles on our committee – thus the Serco Branch at Invest NI was born.

Out of 42 employees, we have now recruited 28 members and hope to grow even more in the coming months.

Next up for us is training which is daunting for us all as we are so new to the world of trade unions and the processes that come with them.

We are reassured by our NIPSA organiser that the training can only benefit our Branch and will be very worthwhile and interesting.

We are also hoping to hold a NIPSA recruitment event in our Branch assisted by our organiser for NIPSA’s ‘Recruitment Fortnight’ and we also have it in our sights to have some delegates from our Branch attend the NIPSA Conferences in May 2015.

We are all looking forward to our first year as a full NIPSA Branch Committee and with the continued support of our NIPSA organiser and NIPSA HQ official, we are ready to face any challenges that may lie ahead.

Page 15 NIPSA NEWS

Public service pensions update – talks continue

BI-LATERAL talks are continuing over regulations required for each new public sector pension scheme set for introduction from April 1, 2015. It follows the Hutton reforms and the NI Public Service Pension Act 2014.

According to NIPSA, talks are at various stages depending on which scheme: the LGPS (NI)/NILGOSC regulations were published in early July and the NICS negotiations are at an advanced stage. It is understood HSC is some way behind the other schemes, with intensive discussions starting recently.

Negotiations are also taking place on the implications for the X Border bodies pension scheme.

Meanwhile, work is also continuing in the DFP/Sponsoring Departments and NIC-ICTU Public Service Pensions Joint Working Group on a range of cross-cutting issues.

Revised Terms of Reference for the group were agreed at a meeting in early September.

Other matters dealt with included: n Cost control mechanisms for the new schemes; n Governance arrangements on the setting up of Pensions Boards and a Scheme Advisory Board; n Fair Deal guidance for Northern Ireland; n Employer Contribution Rates; and n Impact of latest Westminster Pensions Bill and Inland Revenue Pension rule changes.

Four separate Bills on pension changes are currently progressing through Westminster. In the main these relate to private sector defined contribution pension schemes.

One of the aspect of these Bills is to close down the loophole for individuals taking their pension out of unfunded public sector Defined Benefit (DB) schemes into a private Defined Contribution scheme and then taking the value of their pension as a cash payment rather than a monthly pension payment.

The NIC-ICTU Public Sector Pensions Group has agreed that the NI Assembly should agree to apply the legislative consent process to close off this loophole.

It is understood this is to protect members against what is in essence is a replica of the pensions liberation scams.

However, NIC-ICTU has sought to extend the proposed legislation to funded public service pension schemes, in particular the NILGOSC scheme.

Government’s aim in bringing forward the legislation is to stop transfer costs arising as in the unfunded schemes ¬– this would come out of current public expenditure allocations.

The argument for not covering funded schemes, such as NILGOSC/Local Government Pension Schemes, is that as these schemes have their own funds and the money would be released from the scheme and, as such, there is no adverse impact on the public purse.

NIC-ICTU’s position is that there would still be a detrimental impact on the scheme but the more important issue is to protect individual scheme members from blowing their pensions on one-off cash releasing purchases.

Over the next number of months the most critical issue in all schemes will be dealing with the Cost Directions from DFP that sets the cost control mechanisms for each scheme.

This has the potential going forward to either add yet more to the employee contribution rates or to see a reduction in the value of scheme benefits. It is also possible that a hybrid of the two options could apply, should any individual scheme costs exceed the limit of costs as determined for the scheme as at the opening date of April 1, 2015.

Holiday pay and overtime: where are we now?

Page 16 NIPSA NEWS

www.nipsa.org.uk

News

THIS article cannot go into a detailed analysis of the law in relation to holiday pay but will focus on some of the main issues.

What will I be paid when I take my annual leave?

It is a simple question. Up until approximately ten years ago the answer would have been relatively straightforward: an amount equal to what you are paid for your normal working hours (if you are full time) and pro rata if you are part time.

Today the answer is not so clear – you could be entitled to more.

There are three sources of entitlement to annual leave: (1) the European Working Time Directive, (2) the Working Time Regulations which implement the Directive, and (3) the Contract of Employment.

Since contracts of employment can vary, and an employee can rely on the Regulations, I will limit this article to the Directive and the Regulations.

Before going further there are three matters which are important to understand: l The Working Time Directive requires workers to be given four weeks annual leave, l The Working Time Regulations implement the Directive in requiring four weeks annual leave but also give workers an additional 1.6 weeks. l The Regulations state that pay for annual leave should be calculated in accordance with the rules establishing normal working hours and a week’s pay found in the Employment Rights (NI) Order 1996.

Over the last ten years there have been a number of challenges made as to how the 4 weeks annual leave under the Directive should be paid.

In 2004, a challenge was made to the status quo – Bamsey and others-v- Albion Engineering Ltd. Mr Bamsey worked an average of 60 hours a week but was only paid his 39 basic contractual hours when he took annual leave. So when he went on holiday he was paid just over half of what he

Chancery House, 88 Victoria Street, Belfast BT1 3GN Tel: 028 9032 9801 www.mtb-law.co.uk

earned while working.

He argued that his overtime should have been included in the calculation. This argument was based on the main purpose of the Directive, to improve the safety and health of workers and Article 7, which encouraged them to take their full holiday entitlement, by paying them when on leave, at a comparable rate to that which they normally received when at work.

The argument was that annual leave under the Directive should be comparable to normal take home pay inclusive of overtime. If the Regulations required an interpretation that pay had to be calculated in accordance with the Employment Rights (NI) 1996 Order, then the Regulations were wrong and failed to implement the Directive.

The Court of Appeal in England and Wales rejected this argument.

It found nothing in the directive to support Mr Bamsey’s argument.

Battle lines drawn…

In 2011, Williams an airline pilot argued that his annual leave should include elements which were linked to the performance of his contract but were not part of his basic pay.

The matter was referred by the UK Supreme Court to the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The ECJ was clear that pay for annual leave should be comparable to the normal pay earned by the worker under his contract but it should not include allowances. Now Williams as an airline pilot had not taken his case under the Working Time Regulations or Working Time Directive but very similar legislation applying

By John McShane

to pilots.

The second wave of cases involved overtime. Three cases in the tribunals raised the issue of overtime head on. Mr Neal was employed by Freightliner Ltd on a 35 hours a week contract and was required to work overtime if requested. He regularly worked eight hours overtime a week. He was paid annual leave on the basis of 35 hours. This case was similar to Bamsey, but since that decision the ECJ, in Williams, had clearly shown that the Directive should be interpreted to require comparable pay during annual leave.

A third blow followed Williams. Mr Lock an energy salesman for British Gas made around 60% of his income from commission on sales. These commissions were paid in arrears. While he was on annual leave he was being paid for commissions he had earned previously but he was unable to earn new commissions during his holidays. The tribunal applied Williams and ruled that the overtime payments should have been taken into account.

Again the matter was referred to the ECJ for clarification – this time by the tribunal. In July 2014, the ECJ repeated its reasoning in Williams and stated that annual leave should reflect a worker’s normal remuneration and needed to take into account the commission – quite how it did so in practice was a matter for the national court to determine.

Are we reaching the end?

The decisions in Fulton and

Neale were appealed to the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) Neale was settled, but Fulton was heard on July 30-31, 2014 and the decision was given on November 4, 2014.

The EAT concluded that the Directive does require compulsory overtime to be taken into account in calculating the four weeks annual leave required by the Directive. The EAT also found that the Working Time Regulations did not adequately implement the Directive and proposed an amendment which would make them compliant: effectively removing the requirement to follow the definition in the employment rights legislation.

The EAT did not specifically consider voluntary overtime, so this point remains unanswered definitively at this stage.

Does this herald a flood of claims for underpaid holiday pay? Perhaps not.

Claims for unlawful deductions of wages must be made within three months of the deduction, or the last of a series of deductions.

The EAT also held that they did not form a series of deductions if there was a gap of more than three months between any period of annual leave, this conclusion would severely limit the ambit of claims for back pay. Many workers do not take annual leave between the New Year and Easter, or between the late August and Christmas i.e. gaps of more than three months.

However, it is not clear from the decision if the authorities on this point were fully considered by the EAT and it seems to run contrary to them. Leave to appeal has been granted and it would seem that this is not the end of the saga.

Another route for workers seeking back pay may be recovery through the civil courts in a manner similar to the equal pay plaintiffs in Abdulla v Birmingham City Council.

If one thing is clear, it is that this rapidly developing field will continue as the remaining questions are tackled by the higher courts.

If this doesn’t frighten you, what does?

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Books

Martin Wolf of the Financial Times predicts an inevitable crash, but fails to draw the necessary conclusions from his analysis, says Stephen Hallmark

IT’S not often I find myself chuntering in agreement with economists at the Financial Times, but Martin Wolf’s analysis offers further proof that we are living through the most turbulent of times.

The paper’s chief economics editor has just penned a tome documenting the 2008 crash. Given that Wolf is based at a paper which is hardly sheepish about its support for the economic system which plunged the world into financial meltdown, what prompted his critique is almost as striking as is his failure to address what needs to be done to address it.

Martin’s argument is that the chain of events triggered by Lehman Brothers declaring bankruptcy, in September 2008, was the product of two things which happened simultaneously and then reinforced each other.

He writes:?“The first is a set of huge economic shifts: globalisation; the entry of emerging economies; most importantly China, onto the world scene; changes in income distribution; all reinforced by liberal economic ideology. The second element is the quite extraordinary development within the financial system: liberalisation and the technological developments driving what was effectively the creation of a new sort of financial system.”

Wolf explains how the bubbles which the economy had witnessed — and which he readily admits he failed to foresee — were far from mad aberrations, but rather were essential because the?liberalised “world economy needed the bubbles to absorb all the supply that was being created.”

Or more bluntly, the precariousness of the financial system was the price of continued economic growth.

Wolf’s book — The Shifts and the Shocks — has much to commend it.

Quite rightly, he stresses the good things which economic developments during the last 25 years have created, such as the “biggest decrease in mass poverty in history.”

But he says this doesn’t do away with the threat posed by economic mismanagement and he fears for the future.

“Once you realise the scale of the disaster and of the forces driving through the system, we’ve even greater imbalances now than before 2008...?There’s an unbelievably small amount of equity that banks

are required to have. The Bank of England recommends a rate of 4 per cent.

“That means if banks lose 4 per cent from their balance sheets then they are bankrupt. If that doesn’t frighten you, what does?”

So the FT’s top economist has no faith in Britain’s banking sector, believes economic bubbles and crises are inevitable and that another collapse is around the corner. But what Wolf shies away from are the political implications of the criticisms he is so ably levelling against the economic structure.

Interestingly, Wolf dismisses the term neoliberalism in favour of current economics being an “attempt to go back to the 19th century.”

There was another noteworthy economist who wrote a few books criticising classical economic liberalism during the 19th century. Karl Marx showed that the free market views espoused by contemporaries, far from creating growth for all, would create a class-riven society, rampant inequality and periodic crises.

Marx wrote a great deal about the uneasy relationship between production and credit — “the purest and most colossal system of swindling and gambling.”

He viewed those who specialised in credit as “simple adventurers,” and in words which ring very true today, noted that financial crises were a “powerful means of centralising money wealth.”

He also believed that the “ultimate reason for all real crises always re-

mains the poverty and restricted consumption of the masses.”

During a recent Radio 4 interview Wolf dismissed Marx for the German’s penchant for surplus value, and left it at that. But Marx, like Wolf, thought that one of capitalism’s fundamental contradictions is that if growth continues, how is the surplus value to be absorbed?

What Marx also brings to the table is a much broader appreciation of what capitalism is and how it behaves — good and bad — and how political struggle is central to the issue of creating a fairer system.

For feted financial commentators such as Wolf to so closely echo Marx is now commonplace. Thomas Piketty’s aptly named Capital, which attacks the yawning Victorian inequality separating us from the 0.1 per cent, is another case in point.

But crucially what Piketty, Wolf and their pack lack are coherent answers as to what do about it. Piketty’s plan focuses on implementing a global wealth tax to correct the inequality. A brilliant idea, but the current world order will no sooner deliver it than Cameron will introduce a policy supporting poverty-stricken single mums.

Political change is required, but who is going to deliver this? Piketty has no answer.

And this is why Piketty’s pronouncements about not having read Marx are so sad. This shouldn’t be something to brag about but a cause of regret, because what both Wolf and Piketty would benefit from would be a more profound understanding as to why inequality is something which capitalism will always throw up. It will be ever thus in the absence of political change.

Wolf adds: “It’s extremely likely that there will be another crisis and I want my book to be seen as an analysis of what we should do if what we are doing now fails.”

It is a shame his book fails to deliver on this promise, and that during this ripest moment of potential for struggle, all that’s seemingly on offer is Nigel Farage. And it is a crying shame that the left has so far failed to benefit from what should be the most fruitful of periods for attracting the disenchanted to a viable alternative.

It is in our power to change this, but not if we fail to learn from the past.

Page 17 NIPSA NEWS

How we, as taxpayers, are being robbed by corporations

REVELATIONS last week that Luxembourg is a hub for tax avoidance on an unprecedented scale will come as no surprise to anyone who has read the investigative journalist Richard Brooks’s excellent study of the subject, The Great Tax Robbery.

Brooks devotes a whole chapter of this book to exposing how Luxembourg’s government allows multinational companies, such as Vodafone, to turn a nominal corporation tax rate of 29 per cent into a mere 1 per cent rate using an array of arcane methods. The UK is one of those countries to lose out on its rightful share of these businesses’ profits.

The shabby situation in the Grand Duchy is just one example of how the global “tax avoidance industry” enables companies to find legal loopholes in order to shield billions from the British tax system, which too often does nothing but whistle and look the other way.

The typical method is to break up a company into small parts, to ensure that the bulk of its profits arise in a country with more favourable tax laws.

If that sounds boring and complicated, well, that’s the point.

Such firms rely on the fact that those in power will be put off by the complexity of the arrangements, and give up trying to follow the money. We must be grateful to Brooks, then, for his patient work here in parsing these schemes and his eloquent arguments in favour of greater transparency.

Brooks is particularly good at showing why we should be angered by all of this: he demonstrates how one hedge fund’s tax avoidance over four years in the 2000s cost the government £574m – enough to pay for four major hospitals. It’s mystifying that such tax avoiders are given an easy ride at a time when legitimate benefits-claimants are being demonised as scroungers.

Let’s hope that this fine book helps redress the balance.

Italy in bid to change labour laws

Page 18 NIPSA NEWS

The Italian centre-left government, now led

by Matteo Renzi, seems determined to press ahead with major changes in labour law, despite the opposition of Italy’s largest union confederation, CGIL. Renzi, who became Italian prime minister in February this year, has committed his government to major reforms which he hopes will boost the country’s lagging economy. Output in Italy dropped by 0.2% in the last quarter and has been falling more or less steadily since 2011.

Changes in employment law are a key part of Renzi’s plans and have been brought together in a “Jobs Act”. This includes plans to reduce the number of short-term contracts as well as extending unemployment benefit.

However, CGIL’s main concern is that it will also remove the so-called Article 18 right of employees to be reinstated if a court rules they have been unfairly dismissed. Defence of Article 18 was at the heart of CGIL’s major national demonstration in Rome on October 25. CGIL general secretary Susanna Camusso hopes that continued pressure, including a general strike, will turn the tide.

The Jobs Act was approved as a framework measure in the Italian senate last month when Renzi made its approval a vote of confidence in the government.

However, many details are still to be worked out, so the final form of the changes remains to be decided.

Recession worry

JAPAN’S economy officially slid into recession as business investment declined following a VAT rise.

The world’s third-largest economy contracted at a 1.6 per cent pace in the July-September quarter, the government admitted, confounding predictions that it would grow after a big drop in the previous quarter.

An economy is generally considered to be in recession when it fails to grow for two consecutive quarters.

And weakness could drag down growth elsewhere if its companies buy fewer imports such as machinery and electronics.

But Japan’s gross domestic product figures showed across-the-board weakness in demand among consumers and manufacturers.

VAT was raised in April to 8 per cent from 5 per cent and spending has languished since.

The impact of the tax was much more severe than expected and housing investment has plunged 24 per cent from a year ago.

Household incomes peaked more than a decade ago and a growing section of workers is having difficulty making ends meet with parttime work.

Wage increases — mostly limited to workers in big-name companies — have lagged behind inflation.

CAMERON S UNIONS AT G20 SUMMI World News

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“You can't build an economy on sand. If you're only listening to hedge-fund managers and big business chiefs, then you're only going to get one side of the story.”

UK PRIME Minister David Cameron snubbed international trade unions at the G20 summit in Brisbane – even though jobs topped the agenda and other centre-right leaders had met them.

Unions from across the G20 were trying to get a commitment to improving working conditions and increasing wages included in the summit communiqué.

The 20 member countries, which account for nearly 86 per cent of the world's economy, are supposed to be considering targets set in the

communiqué as part of their policy plans over the next year.

Mr Cameron, however, joined King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto and President Joko Widodo of Indonesia in not talking to the unions either before, or during, the summit.

By contrast, Chancellor Angela Merkel offered union leaders breakfast, to discuss their ideas, and President Vladimir Putin met the leaders later in the afternoon.

France, China, Brazil, and Argentina have also

JUST when you thought FIFA had reached the height of delusion, the farcical nature of this organisation came to the fore once again.

In November, FIFA gave the go-ahead to the head of its ethics committee, Hans-Joachim Eckert, to publish a 42-page summary of investigator Michael Garcia's report into corruption inside the organisation. The report concluded that Russia and Qatar had done nothing wrong while pursuing their successful bids to host the World Cup. And that was that: or so it seemed. In an astonishing development, Mr Garcia just hours later released a statement complaining that the summary of his 430-page dossier contained “numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations of the facts”. In as many words, it would seem that FIFA had attempted to corrupt their own report by concealing potentially damning evidence - a calamitous own goal, if you like.

The report criticised England's bid for “inappropriate” behaviour, because of a $35,000 sponsorship of a Caribbean Football Union gala dinner. Qatar were cleared of any wrongdoing despite a $1.8m sponsorship of the CAF Congress in Angola shortly before the 2010 vote.

And Russia? Well, they too were cleared.

They even claimed all evidence of their bidding process was on computers they had rented.

When FIFA's investigators came-a-knocking, they claimed the computers had been “destroyed”. How convenient. Nothing to see here though, apparently.

So we should be able to see this report, right? A report which allows us to see into who was corrupt, where and when? Nope. FIFA said it would “breach its constitution” and the laws of Switzerland to publish Garcia's full report, suggesting that we should otherwise trust its summary as the full truth. You just wonder how much damage this report could do to the organisation which would make it so determined not to publish it.

Another twist in the tale arose on Tuesday. In an apparent attempt to relieve FIFA of any suggested wrongdoing, Eckert on Tuesday gave permission to the Attorney General of Switzerland to launch a criminal investigation into the unnamed figures guilty of corruption in the report. A seemingly clever plan, given that these people could well be former ExCo executives who FIFA would now like to see criminally pursued.

It's actions like these which convince us that FIFA is hiding something, and we need a democratic governing body which has football as it's

FIFA deserves to

NUB FOR www.nipsa.org.uk

IT

World News

TUC’s Frances O’Grady called PM’s action ‘a shame’

found time for the union representatives.

Frances O'Grady, the General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress, who was in Australia, said: "It's simple: unless wages rise, then you're not going to get the growth you need.

“It's a shame that David Cameron, among the G20 leaders, seems reluctant to acknowledge that.

“You can't build an economy on sand. If you're only listening to hedge-fund managers and big business chiefs, then you're only going to get one side of the story."

Despite political differences, Ms O'Grady said that Ms Merkel was "a breath of fresh air", for introducing the minimum wage in Germany this year.

Ms O'Grady added: "Our key concern at the G20 is quality jobs.

“We keep getting told that any job is better than no job – we're only creating jobs where you can't predict the hours, where there are no promotion prospects, no security, and the taxpayer subsidises them – that's not sustainable."

be overthrown We don't rely on FIFA, they rely on us.

So let's take advantage of this and put an end to their insanity

central interest - not one which appears willing to sacrifice the credibility of football in exchange for a few extra million in the bank.

Nations have realised they can manage without FIFA, but FIFA cannot manage without the nations. Without nations, there are no sponsors. And without sponsors, there is no revenue. Knowing this, the various football bodies must unite together and rise against the way Blatter and co are tarnishing the reputation of the so-called “beautiful game”.

But how?

There's two options. Firstly, with the backing of the 54 member associations of UEFA, England pledge to boycott the World Cups in Russia and Qatar. This was proposed by former FA chairman David Bernstein, a long-time critic of Blatter's leadership.

If there was enough backing from the bigger countries - Spain, Germany, France and Holland - the smaller ones would soon follow. Sure,

it might leave the associations out of pocket, but the threat of a boycott is too great for FIFA to risk happening; losing billions in advertising revenue would ultimately limit its influence. They would eventually back down.

And then the audacious second option. A breakaway organisation, with a name like the World Football Alliance Association, is formed. There are enough central figures who are opposed to FIFA who could get this off the ground, so why not? The obvious answer is money. The amount of funding the FA and its allies would lose through loss of sponsorship would be crippling.

For now, the first option remains our only hope of real change. But the likeliness of this happening? Extremely unlikely.

And sadly, this is the situation football finds itself in. Until a group of organisations, not just one, is brave enough to take the decision to boycott FIFA and its competitions, it will continue to see off its opponents as football's overriding dictator.

Page 19 NIPSA NEWS

Poverty, housing crisis and violence blamed for all-time high US child homelessness

THE US National Centre on Family Homelessness warned yesterday that the number of homeless children has surged in recent years to an all-time high — one child in 30.

A comprehensive state-by-state report blamed a high poverty rate, the lack of affordable housing and the impact of pervasive domestic violence.

Entitled America’s Youngest Outcasts, the centre’s report calculated that nearly 2.5 million US children were homeless at some point in 2013.

The number is based on the Department of Education’s latest count of 1.3 million homeless children in state schools, supplemented by estimates of homeless pre-school children not counted by the department.

Problems are particularly severe in California, which holds an eighth of the US population, but accounts for more than a fifth of the nation’s homeless children, with a tally of nearly 527,000.

National Centre director and report co-author Carmela DeCandia noted that the federal government had made progress in reducing homelessness among veterans and chronically homeless adults.

But she warned that “the same level of attention and resources has not been targeted to help families and children.

“As a society, we’re going to pay a high price, in human and economic terms.”

Child homelessness increased by 8 per cent across the US from 2012 to 2013, signalling potentially devastating effects on children’s educational, emotional and social development, as well as on their parents’ health, employment prospects and parenting abilities.

The centre’s analysis included a composite index ranking the states on the extent of child homelessness, efforts to combat it and the overall level of child well-being.

States with the best scores were Minnesota, Nebraska and Massachusetts. At the bottom were Alabama, Mississippi and California.

The researchers said that remedies for child homelessness should include an expansion of affordable housing, education and employment opportunities for homeless parents.

It also recommended the provision of specialised services for the many mothers who had been rendered homeless due to domestic violence.

Corruption claims

PORTUGAL’S most senior domestic security official has resigned amid a corruption scandal.

Minister for internal administration Miguel Macedo announced he was quitting following the arrests of several senior officials.

Police said 11 people were suspected of corruption, money laundering, influence peddling and embezzlement involving residence permits for wealthy non-EU investors.

Advisors and lobbyists entrenched at Westminster

Page 20 NIPSA NEWS

News

THE grip of the tax avoider’s favourite accountancy firm, PwC, supplying free advisors across Westminster with has been further highlighted by investigative magazine Private Eye. The magazine reported that Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary Rachel Reeves agreed to PwC providing a free advisor.

It was also revealed that Tory employment Minister Mark Hoban hired PriceWaterhhouseCoopers in 2013 to help Atos with its fitness-toworks test for unemployed disabled people.

Despite the consultants’ help, however, Atos had to abandon the government contract under a cloud. Hoban’s choice of PwC might have been influence by the fact that from 1985 to 2001 he was a manager at the firm.

PwC’s grip on Tories reaches far beyond Hoban. When they were in opposition, PwC ran the “implementation team” of Francis Maude, the so-called brains behind the Cameron throne.

The PwC team was meant to train the party’s

Tax busters getting preferential treatment

frontbenchers for ministerial office – but with PwC now running so many Labour opposition offices too, the moral is clear: whatever way you vote, PwC will still be tweaking the levers of power next May. Meanwhile, rather than accept help from PwC like her boss Rachel Reeves and many of her fellow frontbenchers, Kate Green, a junior in Labour’s Work and Pensions tam, is taking a research assistant from rival accountancy firm Deloitte.

Green’s latest entry in the register of MPs’ interests notes the secondment of an analyst from Deloitte who will work for her until February, a stint estimated at £90,000.

Deloitte has a strong interest in her area, hav-

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ing been part-owner of Ingeus, a welfare-towork firm which is one of the biggest providers on the coalition’s Work Programme. While Labour has rightly criticised the programme, Deloitte’s arrival in Green’s office suggest it will pursue similar policies if it returns to power in May. Deloitte cashed in it Work Programme interests in April when Ingeus was sold to a US corporation from around £100m. Like PwC, it also helps big corporates to pay less tax. Last year the Action Aid charity obtained a Deloitte document advising companies how they could channel African investments through Mauritius to avoid paying the taxes African nations need so desperately. It explained how a firm could reduce tax on profits in Mozambique from 20% to 8% by taking the Mauritius route. Mozambique is so poor its average life expectancy is 49 – so who better to advise the Labour frontbench?

Private Eye…well worth the £1.80 purchase price…