PCS met with Operations management to discuss Festive leave levels week commencing 24^th October 2016.

Management have looked at the levels of staffing that they believe are required to meet urgent demand from the public over the Christmas and New Year period. The levels of leave that can be accommodated are minimum levels that the directorates should not fall below. PCS believes this falls short of what can be allowed whilst still being able to deal with urgent services for the public. Directorates will be providing PCS with the leave demand figures so that we can continue the consultation with directorates on what can be done to maximise leave in each directorate above the minimum starting levels.

The employer has agreed to take away some of our specific concerns that we have raised about minimum leave levels in certain areas which do not match up with their demand figures. We are hopeful that this will result in revised figures in CMG for the 1^st week of the festive period and in NINOs.

Management this year are looking at total number of staff who can be allowed off which means the minimum figures include staff numbers of those not available to work. PCS has highlighted that this will cause issues on sites with higher proportions of staff who are not in work during the two week festive leave period. PCS will be raising with management that planning needs to be done to avoid an adverse impact on members to take leave where this is the case.

There is a need to apply common sense, local knowledge and expertise about the work demands in the different areas to increase the leave levels from the minimum starting point. The staffing levels that are needed in each work area should only be to do the work that is absolutely necessary over the festive period, to allow our members the maximum opportunity to have leave. This is even more important for our members’ health and well-being given the current pressure of work and the usual high increase in volumes of work in January.

PCS will be pressing management to plan for how the areas with the most demand are covered. For example the Bereavement line is busier than other areas in the Pensions Directorate over the festive period so members on other teams can be trained in this area of work to help provide cover and allow everyone access to a reasonable amount of leave over the festive. There will also be areas will be very quiet over the festive period where it is not practicable for these members to help cover the more busy areas, so PCS will be pushing for festive leave levels for these members to reflect the low demand.