PCS negotiators met with the Benefit Services Directorate senior management team on 16th November 2016.

Staffing – External recruitment continues

BSD have confirmed continuing recruitment of several hundred new staff each month up to the end of the financial year in February 2017.

These extra numbers are a mix of fixed term appointment and permanent staff.

PCS has continued to argue for all FTA staff to be made permanent and all future recruitment to be permanent.  This would contribute to reducing the current high turnover rate of 8% in BSD.

PCS also argued that BSD should make use of any waiting lists from recent recruitment exercises.

Senior managers have confirmed that they will do this, up to the maximum number possible under the current business case, and a new case for extra staff is currently being put together for March and beyond.

Challenging contact centre working conditions

The Benefit Services Director could not have been clearer about targets.

There are no numerical targets for Average Handling Time or After Call Work for telephony agents. Figures like AHT will naturally climb as First Call Resolution improves and members gain the skills and training to deal with customer queries without needing to hand off to processing.

There should not be instances of numerical figures being used as rigid targets to put pressure on our members.

We discussed several sites, which managers have promised to investigate. Members should send in any examples of numerical targets in BSD to the Branch Office.

Senior managers have recognised that the problem is a cultural one and have committed to working with PCS to move the culture of some sites away from one of “computer says no”.

Breaks

 

All members should have access to the improvements in the new breaks policy.  

PCS flagged up that the return to work hour to catch up after absence of a week or more should be taken immediately on the return to work and that a reminder needs to go to sites about this. As it is included in the collective agreement then all staff have access to this not just those covered by the contact centre agreement as well as weekly reading time.

Annual Leave

Management confirmed that they have begun collating the information about leave requests for summer 2017.

As soon as this is done there will be consultation with PCS about the leave levels and percentages.

No members should be approached to give up annual leave they have requested, as we have not yet had the consultation with BSD about the leave levels.

As there are geographical and cultural variations for leave, there is an opportunity to go above percentage figures on sites when the demand is looked at on a national basis.  

PCS was successful last year in getting all the leave requests agreed. A review to improve the short notice annual leave pilot has also been agreed.

Festive Leave

As already notified to union members through Members Bulletin, the percentages reported by management are an improvement upon last year and are to be used as a guide only – managers should work with local TU to maximise festive leave.

Local managers and Branches will have detailed knowledge of the areas of work which are less busy and the ways workflow can be managed so that even if more people are allowed off on key dates such as the 23rd, 29th and 30th of December, the key services to the public can continue to be provided.

BSD senior managers acknowledged our concerns that managers are a bit worried about doing this and stressed again that local managers have full authority to exceed the percentages set, and that where this happens, it is not “being validated” from higher up – the discretion is entirely a local one.

In addition, senior managers are looking again at their national figures to ensure as much leave is allowed over Christmas as possible – this is in addition to local flexibility.

Opening Times of BSD sites

 

Under the Employee Deal, members working at all sites in BSD will be able to accrue flexi from 7.30am, when they have fixed an 8am start, and from 8am otherwise.

Some parts of BSD had begun instructing our members that this was not going to happen in BSD, that the earliest flexi could be accrued from was 8am. This is not true. There is no part of BSD where there is no work to do at this time and any change in that situation will involve consultation with PCS. Senior managers have clearly and unambiguously agreed with PCS on this issue

Employee Deal issues

Branches across BSD have continued to identify poor practice in the implementation of the Employee Deal.

Senior managers in BSD have suggested that this is not their experience.

They have agreed, following the meeting, to provide the PCS with a list of sites they believe have welcomed the way the Employee Deal has been implemented.

Members should continue to provide examples to the Branch Office of where the process has not been followed or where undue pressure has been placed on teams and individual members to fit the tent poles.

Members may also want to put in a grievance if they feel they have been treated unfairly or have been pressurised to put down a working pattern that they cannot do.  

The independent panel is an additional stage that can be accessed only after the normal process of grievance and appeal have been done.

BSD management are clear that there will be some teams where it is impossible to hit all the tent poles because of the make-up of the team.  BSD senior managers are keen to iron out any issues collectively with PCS so it is important that members provide details of any issues to the Branch Office.