NIPSA NEWSFear for jobs atRobinson Centre

The newspaper of the leading public sector trade union April/May 2015

THE Review of Public Administration inLocal Government took effect on April 12015 and while this is a significant changefor staff in the sector and those transfer-ring from the Civil Service, no-one couldhave foreseen the real impact on staff em-ployed in the Robinson Centre in EastBelfast.

These staff had been due to transfer toGreenwich Leisure Trust (GLL) as a result ofan earlier decision by Belfast City Council totransfer their Leisure Service to GLL.

However, in the lead-up to the transfer,Castlereagh Council had closed part of theRobinson Centre complex due to an asbestosissue. While the centre was at least partiallyre-opened in advance of the transfer date,Belfast City Council challenged the Minister’sdecision to transfer the Centre and the staffdue to a number of issues regarding the as-bestos issue and other health and safety con-cerns.

On the eve of the transfer, the DOE Ministerruled against Belfast City Council and, there-fore, the staff transferred to Belfast City Coun-cil (rather than GLL).

However, as Belfast City Council took thedecision not to open the centre and insteadseek a Judicial Review of the Minister’s deci-sion, staff at the centre have been left in theinvidious position of being paid but having nowork.

Since April 1, Robinson Centre staff havebeen on gardening leave. Throughout this pe-riod NIPSA have been actively involved withthe Council in seeking to secure temporaryposts for all of the staff concerned. This hasinvolved meetings with members and one-to-one meetings between staff, Council repre-sentatives and NIPSA to seek out alternativework.

NIPSA Deputy General Secretary Alison Mil-lar told NIPSA News: “While the staff are natu-rally anxious, annoyed and upset at this

difficult time, NIPSA has put in additional re-sources to deal with the volume of work asso-ciated with the difficulties our members findthemselves in through no fault of their own.

“NIPSA will work tirelessly with the Councilto ensure that in the short term staff are notdisadvantaged financially or otherwise. How-ever, this issue is not without its problems andthere are bound to be problems arising overthe coming days and weeks. Members can beassured that NIPSA will work to resolve theseissues.”

Kim Graham, NIPSA Official, Local Govern-ment said: “Moving to a new employer can bea stressful time for any member. The naturalangst of our members who worked at theRobinson Centre until the end of March hasunhelpfully been greatly exacerbated both withthe lack of certainty over the future of theRobinson Centre and the unacceptable num-ber of pay inaccuracies which appear to havebeen made.

“Members are clearly fearful for the future oftheir jobs and upset at how they perceive tohave been abandoned by their previous em-ployer Castlereagh Borough Council.”

She added: “The situation has been evenfurther complicated by the late completion ofsingle status. The failure by the Employer toprovide breakdowns of payments and in somecases even pay slips themselves makes thetask of ensuring proper remuneration ofsalary, buyouts for shift allowance and backpay for upgrades an extremely difficult one.

“NIPSA will continue to work daily with andon behalf of members to ensure that their bestinterests are protected both on a temporaryand longer term basis.

“We await with interest the outcome of thelegal challenge and will campaign vigorouslyto ensure that the much loved facilities theRobinson Centre provided will once again beavailable to the public as soon as possible.”

Tel: 02890661831 www.nipsa.org.uk

Download your membership application here: http://www.nipsa.org.uk/About-NIPSA/Join-US/Application-Form

Why should I vote for you?Questions to ask General Election candidates - See Pages 6-7

OPPOSITION is building against the proposalby the NI Court Service to close five court-houses which NIPSA has claimed will “seri-ously impede” access to justice acrossNorthern Ireland.

A consultation process, which has includedpublic meetings, is set to end on April 30 andNIPSA reps within the Courts Service have beengathering information on the impact such a dras-tic cut will have on the Department of Justice’spromise to ensure access to “faster, fairer jus-tice” to the public.

NI Court Service management claim that aus-terity measures agreed by the Northern IrelandExecutive – which will see a 10% cut to NI CourtService’s budget – have led to proposals to closecourthouses in Armagh, Ballymena, Enniskillen,Lisburn and Newtownards and transfer workelsewhere.

In a depressingly backward step, there will bea centralisation of work in Belfast with plans tohold more hearings in Laganside and to re-openthe Old Townhall.

Activists in Branch 70 have been briefingmembers across all five locations on the impactthe proposals will have if implemented. Staff ineach area have made a huge contribution toNIPSA’s consultation response by outlining howcourt users will be forced to travel longer dis-tances – a fact that is further compounded by theclosure of several other centres since 2009.

One example highlighted by staff in Ballymenais the closure of the Larne Courthouse meaningthe public and other court users such as solici-tors will now have to travel to Coleraine or Antrimfor hearings.

Public transport links from Larne and else-where in the Moyle area are patchy and cuts torural services proposed by the Department forRegional Development and Translink will makean often tiresome journey even more problem-atic.

In Armagh, NIPSA members pointed out thatthe historic building owned by the NI Court Serv-ice has undergone extensive renovation – invest-

ment which would be wasted if court business istransferred to Newry and Craigavon.

The local council has engaged a consultant tochallenge the suggestion that the building ismothballed.

Lisburn Court is one of the busiest outside ofBelfast and local solicitors have started a petitionto keep the courthouse open. Staff were particu-larly critical of the claim in the consultation docu-ment that the journey to Belfast took only 13minutes and therefore the impact on the publicand users was minimal.

Trying to get through rush hour traffic for acourt appearance in 13 minutes is likely to leadto further court appearances!

Newtownards Courthouse serves a large geo-graphical area with the journey from Portaferryalready taking up to an hour. Public transport toBelfast from the likes of Ballywalter is restrictedto one outward bus and a return bus in theevening.

Bangor Courthouse closed only three yearsago and NIPSA members have highlighted theregular use of Newtownards Court for hearingsconnected to young people in the Juvenile Jus-tice Centre in Rathgael.

These hearings will now move to Belfast in-creasing the stress on vulnerable youths and thepressure on staff from the Youth Justice Agency.

There is also significant opposition to the po-tential closure of Enniskillen Courthouse. Staffare particularly worried that, with the recent clo-sure of the DVA Licensing Office and transfer ofPlanning Service staff to local government, thereare very limited opportunities for relocation withinthe Civil Service.

Economic arguments in favour of retaining thecourt in Enniskillen are also strong, with the loss

of income from court-connected business tocafes and shops a real worry. With the loss ofpublic sector jobs comes the loss of private sec-tor jobs and this point has been well made in allareas under threat of closure.

Throughout the consultation process, NIPSArepresentatives have heard a range of other ex-amples of unintended consequences cuts suchas these will have.

Some demonstrate the potentially-dangerouscircumstances moving court hearings can haveparticularly when people have to use publictransport. There will be occasions even nowwhere witnesses and victims of crime will have totravel on the same bus as alleged perpetratorsand this will only increase as the number ofcourts is reduced and bus routes or frequenciesare cut back.

Even the Lord Chief Justice has highlighted inoral evidence to the Justice Committee the seri-ous overcrowding in courts such as Lagansideas legal counsel consult with their clients cheekby jowl with family courts, traffic offences and se-rious criminal cases all running simultaneously.

Should the Courts and Tribunals Service de-cide to close these courthouses, this will amountto a 56% reduction of Court Service since 2010.The number of courts will be cut at a faster rateand to a greater extent than England, Scotland,Wales and the Republic of Ireland highlightingjust how severe the austerity measures underconsideration by the Northern Ireland Executiveare in comparison even with those of the ToryGovernment.

Ryan McKinney, the HQ Official responsible forco-ordinating the response to the proposals, toldNIPSA News: “These proposals will mean thataccess to justice, particularly for working classpeople outside of Belfast will be seriously im-peded.

“There is at the minute an infrastructure of sup-port and assistance in towns like Ballymena so,for instance, Women’s Aid is located within easyreach of the court.

“These vital support structures will be brokendown and weakened and people forced to travelfurther, at greater cost and inconvenience toovercrowded and under-resourced courthouses.

“Combined with cuts to legal aid, the reality willbe greater suffering and more strain on everyoneinvolved in the process.”

He added: “We must oppose the proposalsand work with everyone with a stake in a decentjustice system to stop them. Access to justice isa fundamental human right and in the fifth richestcountry on the planet, it should not be allowed tobecome the preserve of those with the time and

Page 2 NEWS

WITH the General Election on May 7 comesa crossroads in UK politics. It is highlylikely that there will be a hung parliamentwith no one party left in absolute control.

For that reason NIPSA is advocating thatany Northern Ireland party that is possiblyinvolved in a coalition government shouldhave, as one of its key objectives, theseeking of additional resources for North-ern Ireland to ensure that public servicesare not further eroded nor the Block grantfurther attacked.

As you will see on pages 6 and 7 of thisedition of NIPSA News, a series of ques-tions have been posed for you to put toany prospective MPs or their party workerswho may knock on your door in the daysleading up to the General Election. Putthese questions to them to protect not justyour job but all the public services NIPSAmembers so ably deliver.

I would also wish to personally thank allthose members who took part in the March

13 strike and are now involved in variousforms of action short of strike actionacross the various areas in which NIPSArepresent.

It is important members realise that weare in this for the long haul. This is aboutbuilding a strategy of resistance to thecuts that hurt those who inflict the cuts onus.

While some fought for a second strikeday in advance of the General Election, thebroad view across all sections in which theunion organises is that it needed to be abroad-based campaign. While we mayhave wished to have a second day of strikeaction in early May, we recognised that itwas not possible to have all unions in-volved at that time. Therefore, NIPSA willcontinue to work with our sister unions todeliver a campaign that will be sustainablein the long term.

Across the NICS, NIHE, Community andVoluntary Sector, Health and Education

Sectors, we are on the cusp of seeing alarge number of our members and mem-bers of other trade unions walking out thedoor on voluntary severance.

In fact in the Voluntary and CommunitySector a significant number of redundan-cies are compulsory and as NIPSA andNIC-ICTU, we are seeking to consider howbest we can build a united campaign to de-fend members working in this vulnerablesector.

It is, therefore, vitally important thatmembers become involved in the variousactions short of strike action in each sec-tor. Make sure you do not cover work car-ried out by colleagues who will be leavingin the coming weeks – so that the publicand our political representatives start tosee that getting rid of 20,000 public sectorworkers is not the answer.

Alison MillarDeputy General Secretary

Time to turn up the heat on the politiciansEDITORIAL

NIPSA NEWSNIPSA Harkin House, 54 Wellington Park,

Belfast BT9 6DP, Tel: 028 90661831 Fax 028 90665847or email: alison.millar@nipsa.org.uk Editorial contact details: Bob Miller

email: bob.miller@nipsa.org.ukCorrespondence should be sent to the above address.

Unless otherwise stated, the views contained inNIPSA Reports do not necessarily reflect the

policy of trade union NIPSA.

Enniskillen courthouse under closure threat

NIPSA opposes courthouse closures

Page 3NEWS

THE real impact 600 HousingExecutive jobs going over thenext 18 to 24 months will meanthe loss of a combined total of20,000 years of housing experi-ence. The resulting knowledgegap that will be felt by thosewho rely on the Housing Exec-utive to ensure they have ahome.

On May 31, 2015 almost 200jobs will be lost through voluntaryseverance in the Housing Execu-tive. While NIPSA have beenpressing for exact details on thelocations of these jobs on an of-fice-by-office basis, this informa-tion is still lacking.

What we do know is that staffwith some 700 years of housingexperience are exiting the Hous-ing Executive, which is a signifi-cant loss at a time when morethan 9,500 families and individu-als have been declared statutorilyhomeless, in addition to almost22,000 other families and individ-uals in housing stress.

While NIPSA recognises thatmany of the staff who have de-cided to avail of the Voluntary Re-dundancy/Early Retirement

Scheme are entitled to do so, it isregrettable that all this very valu-able experience is being lost inone go with further job losseslater in this financial year andmore in the 2016/17 financialyear.

NIPSA has been advised thatthe Department of Social Devel-opment has approved up to 600job losses over the next 18months.

The union has real and genuineconcerns that service to tenantsand prospective tenants will de-cline significantly as a result andthat once again the Housing Ex-ecutive will be in the spotlight forall the wrong reasons. This issomething that cannot be allowed

to happen. While NIPSA was aware that

the Housing Executive was pro-posing to cut staffing levels dueto a new model of working –these figures are far in excess ofwhat was envisaged.

Deputy General Secretary Ali-son Millar told NIPSA News:“NIPSA is deeply concerned forthose members of staff left be-hind who will be required to con-tinue to deliver a service. NIPSAhas put in place action short ofstrike action in a bid to protectmembers from being in a positionof being asked to cover for thosecolleagues who will leave at theend of May.

“NIPSA is advising membersnot to cover the work of absentcolleagues and those who haveleft. With 200 fewer posts in theorganisation, it is obvious that thepressures on staff will continue torise.”

She added: “Members mustlook after their own health andwell-being and NIPSA will standby those members who refuse totake on the work of colleagueswho have left.”

NIACRO staff who have beenon protective redundancysince Christmas had beenbraced for bad news about joblosses, but nothing could haveprepared them for the bomb-shell announcement deliveredto them on March 30.

The workforce had been ex-pecting losses of around 16 jobsbut when it was announced thatin addition to a cut in central gov-ernment funding, the organisationwould be losing all its EuropeanSocial Fund money, it meant that50 jobs would go.

This cut of over half of theworkforce calls into question thelong-term viability of the organisa-tion that have carried out vitalwork for those who need a sec-ond chance to stop them reof-fending.

Without the services of NI-ACRO (or with significantly re-duced services) there is no doubtthis will have a major impact onthe vital work of helping ex-pris-oners stay out of prison.

NIPSA had been working withmanagement to seek to reducethe impact on staff and ex-prison-ers.

NIPSA Official Tommy Brown-lee, speaking soon after the an-nouncement, told NIPSA News:“The staff have been on protec-tive redundancy notice sinceChristmas and yesterday theirlast hope was extinguished.

“Our members are devastatedat this development and the con-sequences for their clients.NIPSA have seen figures thatshow when NIACRO works withprisoners on release, reoffendingrates drop from over 50% to lessthan 25%. NIPSA will be lobbyingMLAs and government depart-ments to try and reverse this de-cision even at this late stage.”

Deputy General Secretary Ali-son Millar, also speaking after theannouncement, said: “So muchfor our political representativessaying that no staff memberwould be forced out and thateveryone who left the public serv-

ices would go on a voluntarybasis. We have more than 30members in NIACRO who arebeing made compulsorily redun-dant on March 31.

“NIPSA will be calling on theNorthern Ireland Executive andMLAs to reverse this decision andensure that their commitment thatno-one would be forced out islived up to.”

She added: “Our members aredevastated by this news andmany are wondering how they willget other employment or meettheir household bills in the com-ing weeks.”

NIACRO is not the only area inthe voluntary and community sec-tor, that has lost vital funding. Inan attempt to fully understand theimpact of the cuts to central andEuropean funding, NIPSA has or-ganised a meeting of all reps andmembers in the sector to con-sider a campaign aimed at pro-tecting the sector and those insociety who rely so heavily on itsservices.

Bombshell announcementsees 50 jobs lost at NIACRO

NIHE... 20,000years of housing experience lost!

TENS of millions of pounds later,with the much-lauded Educationand Skills Authority (ESA) finallydead and buried, the much lessambitious Education Authority –note that “skills” now seems to beoff the agenda too – sneaked intoexistence on April 1. There was no fanfare, no massivepublicity drive or smiling politi-cians clambering for a photo op-portunity and no over zealousclaims of it being a momentousoccasion or the like. Rather there was muted referenceby the Minister to the new EAbeing “an opportunity to strive todo better …” (Report card dulynoted). There was also, somewhat amus-ingly, a comment by the new ChiefExecutive about it being “just thebeginning of an exciting journeyfor education”. It looks like this isgoing to be one epic journey in-deed – as it has already takenseven years just to arrive at thestart of that “exciting journey”.Meanwhile, back in the real world,the backdrop to this new Educa-tion Authority is one of ever-in-creasing cuts and uncertainty forworkers. On the very day that the EA wasset up, a group of 84 tutors em-ployed in the Primary ModernLanguage Programme with pri-mary schools started their noticeperiod for compulsory redun-dancy.Assistant Secretary Paddy Mackeltold NIPSA News:“Whateverabout the political failure whichthe EA clearly represents, the re-ality for our members is this – youcan’t deliver quality educationservices to children and youngpeople by cutting more than 400jobs before it gets off the groundor announcing that the budget forthe new EA will be £10m less thanlast year, equating to another 250to 300 job losses. “Our children deserve better fromthose politicians who were en-trusted to protect them. It is quitesimply wrong to penalise thosewith no voice for the failed eco-nomic policies of Westminsterand the political ineptitude of theStormont Executive.”And he warned: “What we havewitnessed in the first few days ofthe EA is that the agenda of cutsto education service provisionand job losses is likely to con-tinue until politicians get a clearmessage that workers will standup for their rights. “NIPSA will continue to fightagainst these cuts and our mem-bers will remain resolute and willremain committed to taking strikeaction and action short of strikeaction to defend their jobs and thevaluable services they provide.Significant disruption lies aheaduntil such times as education isproperly funded.”

No fanfare atbirth of new EducationAuthority

Page 4 NEWS

Resist… don’t let them d

Solving issue of brick by brick…THE right to a decent home and somewhere tocall home is something that many of us take forgranted, yet there are still almost 40,000 house-holds in Northern Ireland on the social housingwaiting list.

This list, which is operated by the Northern Ire-land Housing Executive, has 22,000 households inhousing stress including more than 9,500 house-holds deemed statutorily homeless.

The reason for the continual growth in peoplelooking for a social home is not straightforward butthere are many and complex reasons such as theRight to Buy Scheme, introduced during theThatcher years, which reduced the NIHE housingstock by some 100,000.

NIPSA and ICTU were opposed to this schemefor a number of reasons including the fact that the‘house sales’ money was not reinvested in buildingmore social homes but was in effect redirectedback into the coffers of Westminster.

In 1996, the Housing Executive’s power to buildnew homes was removed and instead that functionwas transferred to the Housing Association move-ment.

The Housing Association movement was able toobtain a Housing Association Grant (HAG) andthen borrow the money from banks and othersources of finance, including hedge funds.

Unfortunately for a number of reasons – includ-ing the difficulty in borrowing, lack of available gov-ernment funding as well as the sell-off of publichousing stock – this has led to the crisis we seetoday in housing and homelessness.

A March for the Homeless took place on Satur-day, March 18 ar which NIC.ICTU Assistant Gen-eral Secretary Peter Bunting spoke of howhomelessness made people feel “guilty andscared”.

He told marchers: “We want to avoid that, so wecross the road and look away instead at the shinybaubles of a consumer society. We are encour-aged to see homelessness as not a political issue.We are encouraged to blame the victims.

“We are told that there is nothing we can do. Ohyes there is and, yes, we should do something –something political…”

Mr Bunting continued: “What can be done? Weneed more homes, houses fit for the people, oper-ated by the people and owned by the people. We

need more social housing. Therefore we mustkeep the Housing Executive as a single publicbody. We need more affordable homes for workingfamilies. Therefore we must resist the Tory pledgeto privatise the properties managed by HousingAssociations.

“We need more starter homes. The young aresaddled with debt when they leave education andstranded in jobs that pay below the Living Wage.We need rent controls and enforced housing regu-lations, to protect students, migrants and otherpoor tenants from rapacious landlords. We mustabolish the modern rack-rent market.”

The Social Development Minister also set up aTaskforce for a Housing Strategy for Northern Ire-land which, in the view of the trade union move-ment, is not really about getting more people intosuitable accommodation but will potentially growthe private rented sector. This private rented sectoris burgeoning out of control with many tenants andprospective tenants fearing crippling rents, sub-standard accommodation and, in some cases, un-scrupulous landlords.

While it is accepted that part of the Taskforce isto root out unscrupulous landlords, that cannot beguaranteed.

NIPSA Deputy General Secretary Alison Millarhas queried the proposal to split up the HousingExecutive into separate bodies – one to deal withstrategy and the other to deal with the landlordside of the business.

The Housing Executive has already effectivelyseparated these elements of the business inter-nally with the landlord functions having to be self-fi-nancing from this financial year.

This is because the previous Minister had indi-cated his intention to change Housing Executiveradically with the effective transfer of 88,000 hous-ing stock units to one or a number of Housing As-sociations.

NIPSA is fundamentally opposed to this proposalwhich would result in rent convergence to eco-nomic-based rents rather than affordable rentswhich the Housing Executive has had in placesince its inception.

NIPSA recognises and appreciates that there isa role for Housing Associations. However, thedogma with which the current Federation of Hous-ing Associations is pressing forward supporting the

FIVE years on from the initial lie of “we’re all inthis together”, it could not be clearer that aclass war that calls itself “austerity”, led by aCabinet of Millionaires has at its root a longerterm ambition.

This is to reduce or withdraw public funding andcreate a US-style economy where services have tobe bought and not provided freely as a duty to citi-zens.

That the Tories could go into a General Electionstill talking of a further £12 billion in “welfare cuts”shows there is no bottom line or end in sight forthis savage agenda.

The Westminster Coalition’s aim has been toshape an economy built on job insecurity (includingzero-hour contracts) with a minimal or charity-based welfare system replacing any idea of gen-uine social security from the “cradle to the grave”.

This is the world these extremists want to create,the “dog eat dog” society with a disposable work-force – worked for as long as feasible, paid as littleas legally required, then “pensioned” as cheaply aspossible.

At a local level the detail of the Stormont Cas-

tle/Stormont House agreements shows what un-challenged austerity offers. As well as further payfreezes, increased workloads, pension cuts etc. forthose still in work, the Executive Parties threaten20,000-30,000 job losses throughout the publicsector with the inevitable knock-on effect this willhave in the private sector. Sickeningly the samepoliticians are simultaneously arguing for a (corpo-ration) tax cut for big business.

We should be clear that what we are currentlyfacing has nothing to do with the non-implementa-tion of welfare reform – this attack has beenplanned since 2010 and is shaped by the UK Gov-ernment’s removal of around £4bn to £5bn fromthe Northern Ireland block grant and the NorthernIreland Executive’s decision to “back-load” its cutsi.e. to enforce them at the end of their four yearspending plan.

This is why members in every part of the publicsector as well as those employed in voluntary or-ganisations that rely on public funding, are begin-ning to feel the increased and acute impact of cutsso dramatically at this time.

In 2010, the leaders of the devolved Assemblies

NIPSA has agreed a three-year pay dealwith the Utility Regulator that will see theoverall pay-bill increase by around 10.12%with many lower paid staff seeing signifi-cant increases in salary.

It follows months of negotiations. As a resultof an equal pay audit carried out in early2014, NIPSA had argued that a comprehen-sive pay offer was needed to deal with a num-ber of concerns raised by the audit.

NIPSA engaged proactively with manage-ment at the Utility Regulator and NISRA, thegovernment statistics agency, proposing thefinal agreement that would see significantchanges to pay scales, assimilation on tothese scales, salary progression and salaryprotection.

Dooley Harte, the NIPSA Official for theRegulator, told NIPSA News the deal wasgood for all members in the Utility Regulator.

He said: “This deal will see significant in-creases in pay-bill over the next three yearsand, in our opinion, deals with outstandingequal pay issues that were raised as part ofthe equal pay audit.

“Some members will see their salaries in-crease by up to 25%, highlighting the pay dif-ferentials that existed in the organisationbefore.”

Mr Harte added: “Local NIPSA representa-tives and management have worked success-fully together in getting this deal over the lineand delivering real increases in salary formembers.”

NIPSA has agreed a three-year pay dealwith the Utility Regulator that will see theoverall pay-bill increase by around 10.12%with many lower paid staff seeing signifi-cant increases in salary.

It follows months of negotiations. As a resultof an equal pay audit carried out in early 2014,NIPSA had argued that a comprehensive payoffer was needed to deal with a number ofconcerns raised by the audit.

NIPSA engaged proactively with manage-ment at the Utility Regulator and NISRA, thegovernment statistics agency, proposing thefinal agreement that would see significantchanges to pay scales, assimilation on tothese scales, salary progression and salaryprotection.

Dooley Harte, the NIPSA Official for theRegulator, told NIPSA News the deal wasgood for all members in the Utility Regulator.

He said: “This deal will see significant in-creases in pay-bill over the next three yearsand, in our opinion, deals with outstandingequal pay issues that were raised as part ofthe equal pay audit.

“Some members will see their salaries in-crease by up to 25%, highlighting the pay dif-ferentials that existed in the organisationbefore.”

Mr Harte added: “Local NIPSA representa-tives and management have worked success-fully together in getting this deal over the lineand delivering real increases in salary for

NIPSA brokers‘significant paydeal’ withUtility Regulator

WHILE NIPSA will not be involved intaking strike action on May 6, ourUnite colleagues in Translink have de-cided to do so and this will affect Ul-sterbus, Metro and NI Railwayservices on the day.

NIPSA will, of course, support workersin Translink in their fight against cuts andprivatisation.

However, members across NIPSA inHealth, NI Civil Service, Education, Fur-ther Education, NIHE etc will be involvedin various forms of action short of strikeaction to defend their jobs and ensurethat those staff left behind following theexit of staff on various voluntary redun-dancy/exit schemes are not left shoulder-ing the burden of additional work, causingthem additional stress and potential ill-health.

Meanwhile, the Society of Radiogra-phers together with their colleagues in theRoyal College of Midwives took fourhours of strike action on April 30, togetherwith Unite members in the AmbulanceTrust.

The RCM voted 9-1 in favour of takingstrike action – the first such vote in theCollege’s 134-year history.

As NIPSA News goes to print, talks arecontinuing through NIC-ICTU to ensure in-dustrial action across the various sectorsis carried out in a co-ordinated way.

Stoppages andstrikes planned

Page 5NEWS

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@nipsa

o this to public services

homelessness

Concerngrows overdelays to new NIW payand pensionsagreement

transfer of the Housing Executive stock to theHousing Association movement is, in NIPSA’sview, not a substitute for a central, publicly-fundedhousing body. There have already been two volun-tary stock transfers in Northern Ireland – in theCreggan and in Bangor.

Unless the shackles are removed from the Hous-ing Executive and they are allowed to upgradetheir own stock by performing multiple element im-provements [new kitchens, bathrooms, heating etcin one go] then the growth of the Housing Associa-tion stock and the rents that go with them will be-come a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The NI Housing Federation is opposed to statu-tory rent setting – one reason is that they will needto set rents at a level which will ensure they canrepay their loans [and it is likely that the HAG willbe phased out].

NIPSA strongly advocates statutory rent settingto ensure that the rents for tenants are set at an af-fordable level and not left to the vagaries of themarket, loan charges and repayment schedules.

Many will say there are no alternatives but if we

look at the Stormont House Agreement, it is clearthere certainly are alternatives. Rather than bor-rowing £700m to cut 20,000 public sector jobs, thatmoney could be used instead to build many thou-sands of public homes.

New homes, built to house our families, our sin-gles, our elderly and our disabled are more than ahuman right – they are an economic necessity.There is good work for thousands of people, thatshould be carried out as a vital public investment.It is hard to believe that our Assembly and our Ex-ecutive are about to borrow £700 million to lay off20,000 workers, in health, in education, in the arts,in the community and voluntary sector and in thecivil service, but we cannot find money to provideshelter to the homeless.

There is certainly an alternative and we mustpress our political representatives to examine theirconsciences and ask them to ensure that they in-vest in the future of the society we all live in to en-sure everyone has a place to call home which is ofa decent standard and homelessness is finally castinto the abyss.

and their Finance Ministers publicly issued a jointstatement decrying the four-year public expendi-ture settlement for the UK and declared that it wasbad for the devolved areas. Should the opportu-nity arise again in May 2015, this common ap-proach involving Northern Ireland, Scotland andWales should be rekindled.

This time, however, seizing the opportunity thatthe political leverage of a hung parliament mightoffer, a much more robust and aggressive engage-ment is needed in order to capture a major prizefor the whole community – an adequate public ex-penditure settlement.

NIPSA is very clear that there is no satisfactoryNorthern Ireland-specific solution to these publicexpenditure crises and reallocating funding fromone public service to another – robbing Peter topay Paul – simply transfers the problem ratherthan deals with it.

We must stop the debate being reduced to“which cut do you support?” and, rejecting the ide-ology of “austerity”, instead argue for investment inpublic services, a rejection of the “daylight robbery”of privatisation, genuine social security and decent

public sector jobs. Public services provide the spine of society, in-

deed they show there is such a thing as society.We will continue to defend the direct interests ofour members, their families and the wider societyagainst the economic extremism offered by bothWestminster and the Northern Ireland ExecutiveBudgets. The attack on all of us emphasises whywe, together with our colleagues in the rest of thetrade union movement, must continue to supportand build our public service defence campaign.This is to protect members’ direct interests, to playour part in creating a better society, one with thevalues of community and solidarity at its heart.

We see the power, reach and universalism of thestate as an asset to use, not strip. Austerity is thereverse – a programme written by and for the Cityof London, fuelled by massive corporate welfare,targeting the remaining free-at-the-point-of-usepublic services and aiming to turn them into for-profit services for private shareholders. We do notaccept this anti-social programme. We must andwill resist it.

AS NIPSA News goes to print, unionmembers at NI Water are becoming in-creasingly anxious that the pay andpensions deal agreed between theWater Group of Trade Unions and NIWWater Management is yet to be signedoff by Finance Minister Simon Hamil-ton.

The terms of the settlement requiredthe usual approval process via the De-partment of Regional Development andthe Department of Finance and Person-nel to be completed before NI Waterwould be allowed under governmentaccountancy rules to implement theagreement.

All three unions at NIW, includingNIPSA, will now consult their memberson an appropriate response to any con-tinued delay. Informed sources havesuggested that further industrial actioncannot be ruled out.

NIPSA Assistant Secretary Ryan McK-inney told NIPSA News: “During the ne-gotiations which led to the suspensionof the dispute the unions were alwaysconscious that NIW would be forced tosubmit business cases for any addi-tional expenditure.

“Previously these have taken up to ayear from submission to implementa-tion, so we were adamant that thiswould not be sufficient as a means ofresolving the dispute and agreed aneight-week timeframe.”

He added: “The Minister has had thepay remit at this stage since the end ofMarch and staff are keen to get moneyin their pockets. Any further unduedelay and the unions will have to rec-ommend to members that industrial ac-tion is resumed.”

The suspension of industrial actionby around 1,000 members of NIPSA,UNITE and GMB employed by NI Waterwas rubberstamped at mass meetingsof union members in January afterunion members received copies of theproposed agreement.

Page 6 NEWS

CUTS by “stealth” havecost Britain’s hard-pressedacute hospital services atleast £2 billion, according toresearch published in April.

And unions warned thathospitals face “financialdoom” as budgets continue tobe slashed.

The warning came after theTUC commissioned researchinto NHS funding by anti-cutsgroup False Economy.

The group investigated thefixed tariffs paid to hospitalsfor different medical proce-dures by NHS England.

It found that cuts to tariffshave ranged from 10 per centto more than 50 per centsince the Con-Dems tookpower in 2010.

False Economy examinedthe tariffs for nearly 700 treat-ments.

One in six procedures — in-cluding treatments for kidneystones, asthma, blood poison-ing, glaucoma, tuberculosisand sickle cell anaemia —had their tariffs slashed byover 50 per cent.

TUC general secretaryFrances O’Grady said: “Thesestealth cuts may have beenlargely hidden from the publiceye, but the effects aregrave.”

BRIGHTON beach was coveredby hundreds of protesters inbody bags, highlighting the gov-ernment’s “shameful” failure tosave 800 migrants who drownedin the Mediterranean Sea.

Two hundred Amnesty Interna-tional campaigners lined up for astark remembrance of the thou-sands who have died attempting tocross treacherous waters in over-crowded, easily capsized fishingboats.

A white flower wreath and ban-ner with the hashtag #DontLet-ThemDrown were displayed aftermore than 800 refugees, mainlyfrom Africa and the Middle East,died while sailing to Italy fromLibya on Saturday, April 18.

Only 28 survivors have beenfound so far.

Amnesty UK director Kate Allensaid: “Until now, the government’sresponse has been shameful butfinally they have been woken up tothe need to act.”

TUC General Secretary FrancesO’Grady called on the EU to re-es-tablish search-and-rescue opera-tion Mare Nostrum, which saved atleast 150,000 people from drown-ing in a 100-mile area around Italybefore it ended last year.

The coalition refused to back anyreplacement scheme as the For-

eign Office claimed that savingdrowning migrants would encour-age others to try and cross.

Ms O’Grady said: “The hugenumber of migrants who have losttheir lives in the Mediterranean thisyear alone must move EU leadersto immediately resume the MareNostrum search-and-rescue opera-tion.

“It is inexcusable that this opera-tion which could have preventedthe deaths of migrants at sea wasstopped last year.”

London Mayor Boris Johnson

told LBC radio that warshipsshould be deployed to Libya toprevent boats from being filled upby refugees escaping war, povertyand persecution.

A total of 1,727 people have diedin sea-crossing disasters this year.

The current death toll is already30 times higher than the 56 fatali-ties recorded by April 21 last year.

It is feared the number couldreach 30,000 by year’s end, ac-cording to the International Organi-sation for Migration, including2,500 children.

£2bn cuts toNHS revealed BEACH BODIES

Amnesty lines up 200 body bags in Brighton, April 22,showing the true, terrible impact of migrant deaths

Page 7NEWS

TORY claims of an economicrecovery were blown apartagain in April as the UK’sbiggest foodbank charity re-vealed that the number ofpeople relying on essentialhandouts had soared by afifth over the last year to astaggering million.

The Trussell Trust, whichruns 445 foodbanks acrossBritain, said over 400,000 chil-dren were among the 1,084,604people who received suppliesover the past financial year.

Many more have been allo-cated essential provisions bylocal churches and small chari-ties.

A qualified teacher who hasbeen driven to taking parcelson a regular basis said she re-lied on her foodbank to “putfood on the table” for her 18-month-old son and an eight-

year-old stepson.“There are times when (my

partner) doesn’t get enoughhours of work, and we reallystruggle to afford food and paythe bills,” she said.

Trussell foodbank supremoAdrian Curtis said: “It’s diffi-cult to be sure of the full extentof the problem as TrussellTrust figures don’t include peo-ple who are helped by otherfood charities or those whofeel too ashamed to seek help.

“Trussell Trust foodbanks areincreasingly hosting additionalservices like debt counsellingand welfare advice at our food-banks, which is helping morepeople out of crisis.”

TUC general secretaryFrances O’Grady said the fig-ures “should make all of usashamed.”

“It tells us that the govern-ment has done grave damage

to the welfare safety net,” shestormed.

“Of course we should dealwith those who abuse it, but vi-cious sanctions and benefit

cuts — even for those whopaid in all their working lives —are destroying the support anyof us might need if we lose ourjob or have an accident.”

UK food banksnow feeding 1m

Page 8 Health and Social Care Central Panel

NHS will continue to existas long as we fight for itTHERE was a packed agendaand plenty of debate at theHealth and Social Care CentralPanel conference, held at theDunadry Hotel on March 27.

In his opening remarks,Damian Maguire, who chaired theevent, sent his congratulations tothose who voted for and took partin the March 13 stoppage.

He noted that the fact that littlehad happened subsequent to theNovember 30, 2011 strike meantthat trade unions were “still carry-ing the burden of that day”.

Mr Maguire told delegates thatwhen members asked him whythey should lose a day’s pay bygoing on strike, he had a simplereply…

This was: “The NHS will con-tinue to exist as long as there arepeople who are willing to standup and fight for it. Fundamentallywe have to stand up and fight forthe NHS and I would extend that

to fight to all of our public serv-ices.”

Mr Maguire said he had noteda “growing disillusionment”among staff “for all the right rea-sons” because “what they are try-ing to deliver what they want todeliver can’t be done”.

“What we have seen overall issome extremely unhappy peopleand a complete dilution of serv-ices, people unable to deliver aproper standard of healthcare.”

He described as an “utter dis-grace” the peddling of myths bysenior management and politi-cians about improving services“when there isn’t any improve-ment and things are only gettingworse”.

“This, I believe, is the plan torun down our services so muchthat the private sector becomes aviable alternative as our servicesare so screwed. This is the realityon the ground.”

PAT Lawlor (Branch 730), mov-ing Motion 1, attacked “As-sembly propaganda” in hidingfrom the public the level ofcuts in the health sector.

Motion 1 had called on localpoliticians to “take responsibilityfor the cuts” and “to be honestwith the electorate”.

Mr Lawlor told delegates: “Weare in living interesting times andwill become more interesting asevents unfold in relation to thecuts agenda and those [who are]responsible for the cuts.”

But he warned: “Unfortunatelythere is Assembly propagandathat is unfolding around the cuts

[issue] and their prioritisation ofcuts.”

Mr Lawlor continued: “Every-body in this room is very clearthat this is a day and daily occur-rence not only in our acute sec-tor, but in our community sector.”

He challenged any local politi-cian to take “an honest walk-through our Health Service” andspeak to ordinary staff or pa-tients so that they could get a“real, genuine feeling about whatit is like” on the ground.

“Dilution of roles, reduction inthe skill mix, the daily ongoinggrind that our health staff have toendure, the ever-increasing

workload, salami-slicing of ourprovision of services…”

Mr Lawlor insisted the primarypurpose of healthcare was toprovide for those who were mostvulnerable.

“That is what our health serv-ice is about. That is what theNHS was founded on. The prob-lem is with the current cutsagenda being imposed, this pro-vision of care is being dramati-cally reduced to the point thatpeople’s lives are being put atrisk. In fact, I would go as far asto say [that lives were] are beinglost…”

Motion carried.

NIPSA members were urged to “take alook at the bigger and longer-term pic-ture” with regard to voluntary redun-dancy packages.

Patricia Quinn (Branch 701), movingMotion 2, told conference: “As a union weappreciate that those with a long servicewould like to get away early. However, weall need to look at the bigger and longer-term picture.

“Northern Ireland has always relied onthe public sector to create employment forits resident population, so therefore wehave to do all we can to oppose thesecuts. Otherwise, there will be no jobs forour children and grandchildren.”

Motion carried.

Damian Maguire chaired the conference

Pat Lawlor

Patricia Quinn urged members to oppose cuts

Cuts agenda is costing lives

Oppose cuts orface jobless future

Page 9Health and Social Care Central Panel

Proud of our fighton March 13PADRAIG Mulholland, who spoke to theconference on the union’s Public SectorDefence Campaign, began by thanking ac-tivists on behalf of the General Council forthe hard work they had put in preparing forthe March 13 strike.

He told them: “You need that network [orreps] and you need that activism – it is an indi-cation of the lifeblood and health of the union.”

Mr Mulholland said the “nitty-gritty detail” ofwhat the cuts will mean had now becomeclear which he described as “absolutelyshocking”.

“The list of cuts goes on and on,” he toldconference, “to the point that it is almost anavalanche.”

He said that it was important that there is no“pick-list” of what services are more importantor front-line that others.

“Everybody delivers health. Everybody whoworks in the Health Service delivers the healthservice,” adding, “and an injury to one is an in-jury to all…”

In particular, he singled out the voluntary

sector which is going to see the loss of 4,000jobs.

“They are not part of the £700 millionmarked for redundancies. They don’t have anexit scheme they just get kicked out on theirarses.”

Expressing his support for going on strike,Mr Mulholland asked: “Where would we standas a union today if we had decided not tofight? If we had taken the decision that it was-n’t worth the fight on March 13?

“Thank God we stood our ground on March13 and we as activists and we as strikers canbe proud that we fought back.”

He suggested that the March 13 stoppagehad already achieved results.

“Do you really think the politicians would berenegotiating Welfare Reform if March 13 had-n’t been coming down the track at them?

“The reason our politicians are runningscared of Welfare Reform is because they seethe strength of the movement that is gatheringbehind. They are in a crisis and thank Godthey are in a crisis.”

And he claimed that NIPSA’s traditional ene-mies, the Westminister parties of government,had been replaced by the local parties whowere implementing the cuts agenda.

“For the first time in at least a generation theenemy is not across the water, it is not a safedistance away – it’s not the Tories, it’s notLabour, it is the DUP, Sinn Fein, UUP, SDLPand the Alliance Party.

“We have to begin an open discussion onthis. This is the political reality for our tradeunion movement. These are the people wehave to take on these are the people who areimplementing the cuts.”

And Mr Mulholland lashed those local politi-cians who claimed that they can do nothing toresist the cuts.

“If someone told our politicians to fly a flagwhich they didn’t want to fly, they’d burn thebloody place down! There would be protestson every street corner but when they’re givenan instruction to destroy the whole economy,to sack people, [they say] what can we doabout it? Sure it’s been imposed upon us.”

MOTION 4 also hit out at attempts at privatisingjobs and services traditionally carried out byHealth Service employees.

John Gillespie (Branch 734), who moved the motion,claimed all public services were at risk “but none moreso than health”, warning that was “already happening”.

“There is quasi-privatisation already – it’s all therefor the taking. We’ve got acute care, social care sec-tor, older people’s and children’s services, disability,mental health services – all these sectors have [pri-vate] companies that can take care of things – if we letthem. This is already in the politicians’ minds to do it.”

Mr Gillespie pointed out that trade union were “onlydefence” against this happening.

“If we can’t stem that tide, unfortunately NorthernIreland is going to descend into something quiteridiculous.”

He continued: “Privatisation is something we have to

fight with every single tooth, nail, claw – whatever wehave at our disposal.

“Let’s expose the politicians who support privatecompanies. Let’s get their names out there and let’ssee what companies they are related to. Let’s see theconnections with their business counterparts.”

Pat Lawlor (Branch 730), speaking in support, saidhe found that the threat posed by privatisation wasoften lost on workers and the public.

“They don’t fully grasp what privatisation of ourHealth Service will mean. The notion of what it waslike before we had a Health Service is gone – there isno understanding of that. The privatisation agenda isvery well established. I think NIPSA does needs tograsp the nettle and build a real public campaignagainst this…”

Motion carried.

“A SIGNIFICANT drive” by theWestminster Government “todownsize and privatise thepublic sector,” was slammed atconference.

Margaret Dooley (Branch733), moving Motion 3, claimedthere was “growing evidence”pointing to every part of thepublic sector “coming underscrutiny” with a view to privati-sation.

But she told delegates: “It isworth pointing out that theNHS does not belong to theCon-Dems – it’s ours becausewe have paid our taxes; wehave paid for it through ourtaxes. It is not theirs to carveup and give to their corporatemates!”

Reminding conference of“previous [failed] attempts toprivatise our catering serv-

ices”, Ms Dooley said: “Youmight recall the ingredients ofthe stew which saw the in-house provider serve fivepounds of beef as opposed tothe contents of one pound ofbeef by the private provider.

“It doesn’t take a genius towork out which is the preferredserving for members, the pub-lic and for patients!”

Calling on Central Panel to

mount a campaign of opposi-tion across all sectors, sheadded: “The current serviceprovided by our members hasstood the test of time, hasbeen proved to be value formoney, efficient, and a firstclass service. It is not broken,why would we fix it? They saycut back, we say fight back!”

Motion carried.

John Gillespie

We’re only defenceagainst privatisation

In a stew over privatisation!

DOING more for less has been the mantraof the Health Service for years – and it hasimpacted heavily on both services andstaff, conference was told.

Jake Lange (Branch 731), while moving Mo-tion 5, called on Central Panel to initiate a ‘fairstaffing level’ campaign.

He flagged up one example of an elder caresocial work team that through natural

wastage, was reduced from 10 full-time staffto just one member of staff in just over a year.

“Month after month after month, one personfell off, another person fell off and another felloff… basically a 90% loss of staff through nat-ural wastage because the Trust wouldn’t back-fill the staff.”

He pointed out that it was only when this sit-uation was highlighted in the media that the

Trust “swooped in and provided teams fromother areas”.

“This was a situation that should never havegot that far. We would hope that a campaignwould stop natural wastage argument – it isterribly short-term. We think the first poster forthe campaign should say ‘Natural Wastage isSh*t!’”

Motion carried.

MOVING Motion 5,Kevin Lawrenson(Branch 730) firstlycongratulated thosemembers who votedfor strike action andthose who took partin the March 13stoppage.

He said delegatesneeded “to go awayfrom here today bymaking the pointthat that was onlythe start of the cam-paign. It was thelaunch of the cam-paign.”

Mr Lawrensonalso criticised the“audacity” of somelocal political par-ties that claimed tosupport the strikeaction while alsoimplementing the

budget “that causedthe problem in thefirst place!” Thisneeded to be ex-posed “as soon aspossible”, headded.

He also called onthe union to “look atthe detail” of imple-menting industrialaction short ofstrike action. Ifmembers onlyworked their con-tracted hours, hesuggested, it wouldexpose the fact thatmembers werebeing exploited andwere being asked todeliver a servicethat was “very, verystretched”.

Motion carried.

THE important roleplayed by admin staff inthe health sector washighlighted in Motion 7,moved by Grainne Lawlor(Branch 730).

Attempts at emphasisingthe importance of nursingand medical professionalsover admin staff was a cyn-ical ploy, the motionclaimed, at sewing “disunityand mistrust betweengroups of workers”.

Ms Lawlor told delegates:“We are concerned that theroles of the admin and cleri-cal staff and auxiliary staffare not being highlighted.This does have a knock-oneffect. We believe this is a

cynical ploy to pit workeragainst worker.

“We believe that allhealth workers are front-line staff and have a role incare – any cuts will have animpact.”

A second speaker, speak-ing in support, pointed outthat social workers werehaving to do much morework because admin work-ers were being cut.

She said: “You’re gettinga Band 6 person being paidto do a Band 3 person’swork. It doesn’t makesense to me. It is absolutelyridiculous.”

Motion carried.

Expose politicians’duplicity over strike

Kevin Lawrenson speaking at the conference

Natural wastage stinks!

Page 10 Health and Social Care Central Panel

Admin staff are front-line staff too…

GERARDETTEMcVeigh (Branch 733),moving Motion 8, calledon Central Panel tochallenge the “ludi-crous proposals” tobring together IT serv-ices under the guise ofa shared service.

Flagging up past fail-ures, she claimed thecost of “putting thingsright” and the “timeand effort” it took “toensure it does not hap-

pen again” was “be-yond calculation”.

She continued: “Wemust not let ourselvesbe fooled into allowingthis to happen again.We call on CentralPanel to launch a cam-paign to use everymeans to fight for theirmembers’ jobs and es-pecially in their currentlocations.”

Motion carried.

JAKE Lange (Branch731) flagged up the dif-ference between ‘con-sultation’ and‘implementation’ inmoving Motion 10 onTransforming YourCare.

He said: “We under-stand in the NorthernTrust ‘consultation’ tomean ‘implementation’.So when they come to‘consult’ the staff, whatthey are actually say-ing is, ‘We want to im-plement this, [we] justwant to tweak how weimplement it’.”

Mr Lange pointed out

that this was not con-sultation and asked,“Where is the engage-ment process?”

“Where are theygoing to staff andworking with them toshape what you are try-ing to do rather thanshape it around purelybudgetary concerns?”

However, Mr Langewanted to let delegatesknow that the NorthernTrust had in fact an“staff engagementstrategy” in place. “Weoccasionally pull it out,blow the dust off it andshow it to managers...”

He continued: “If theNorthern Trust rolled itout, I would be verysurprised if it wasn’trubberstamped at theother Trusts [as well].Use it as a tool to say[to management], ‘Ifyou don’t show properconsultation or en-gagement, we’re goingto go to automaticgrievance’. We wouldlike this issue to behighlighted morewidely by headquar-ters.”

Motion carried.

THE squandering of scarce HPSS re-sources linked to the implementationof HRPTS was the subject of Motion 9put forward by Branch 734.

The motion called on NIPSA to write tothe Public Accounts Committee so that aninvestigation could be launched into the“mismanagement and waste of publicmoney associated with this vanity proj-ect”.

Pat Lawlor, who moved the motion, tolddelegates: “There is no-one in this roomin any doubt that we need efficient IT sys-tems – [but] what we do need are sys-tems that work and [that] are also valuefor money.”

He added: “We need to raise these is-sues now through FOI requests. To findout how much public money has beenwasted and how it has not been in thebest interests of public service.”

Another speaker said members were

being faced with using a system “that hasbeen imposed on them” and which was“not fit for purpose”. Staff had, she added,being given little training and had beenleft to cope with the implementation of thenew system.

Gareth Abernethy (Branch 701) gaveconference a practical example of the im-pact staff cuts would have on SharedServices payroll. He told delegates thatcutting staff from 145 to 80 would meanthat each worker would spend sevenhours 15 minutes processing invoices.

This, he added, would leave 20 minutesonly for individual workers to deal with“queries from suppliers, queries fromHealthcare Trusts, supplier reconcilia-tions, human error, computer error – 20minutes of the day to do all that and it isnot feasible and it is not workable.”

Motion carried.

‘Ludicrousproposals’slammed

Gerardette McVeigh, a delegate from the Southern Trust Branch

Jake Lange speaking at conference

Sean Holland, the Chief Social Services Officer

TYC staff engagementstrategy highlighted

‘Not feasible,not workable’

Page 11Health and Social Care Central Panel

Page 12 Health and Social Care Central Panel

A MOTION calling on Cen-tral Panel to “vehementlyoppose” the closures ofstatutory residentialhomes under Transform-ing Your Care as an at-tempt “to progress theGovernment’s privatisa-tion agenda” was carriedat conference.

Jack Lange (Branch 731),moving Motion 11, said themotion was a “no brainer”,but added: “Because thingshave gone quiet, doesn’tmean that issue isn’t reallyserious…”

Motion carried.

JAKE Lange (Branch731), moving Motion 13,brought up the issue oflatex allergies.

Admitting to delegatesthat it sounded like a“niche issue”, he said itraised health and safetyconcerns and cited the ex-ample of a worker whoselife had been seriously im-pacted by the conditionwhich developed over anumber of years.

“The Trust initially mis-di-agnosed the problem, ourown Health and Safetypeople didn’t know whatwas going on.”

He concluded by statingthat his Branch felt it wasimportant that this issueshould be raised at theconference.

Motion carried.

A MOTION calling onCentral Panel to protectmembers from beingoverwhelmed as jobs andservices are cut and forthe negotiation of morefacility time was carriedat conference.

A Branch 734 delegate,moving Motion 16, told con-ference that members werebeing “overwhelmed, over-worked and overstretched”as well as being “under-staffed, under-resourcedand undervalued”.

She told delegates thatthis situation was “not inany way sustainable”.

“Facility time is an invest-ment – not a cost. More fa-cility time is needed to dealwith the onslaught on ourmembers. It has proven tobe good value for money.We need to fight to hold onto this and we need to gainmore. Otherwise we risklosing members, reps andour reputation.

Motion carried.

EILEEN Webster (Branch734) moved Motion 21which called on CentralPanel to redesignate staffon so-called back officefunctions as front-lineworkers.

She slammed “thosene’er-do-wells on a fortunewith a list of management ti-tles” are included in admincosts tallies but “play no rolein enhancing the quality anddelivery of service”.

But added: “The people

we are concerned about arethose who are on Band 2, 3and 4 out-front who are de-livering services.”

Ms Webster continued:“We have an opportunity notjust to support our front-lineadmin staff but to recruitthem into NIPSA. As far as Iam concerned, they are thebackbone of the delivery ofhealth and social care serv-ices – they should be thebackbone of our union!”

Motion carried.

MOTION 17 also called on Central Panel to “articu-late a robust argument in defence of facility time”.

Geradette McVeigh (Branch 733), who moved themotion, underlined the “vital role” facility time played indealing with members’ interests.

She told delegates: “The fact is under current em-ployment legislation a member of a trade union is enti-

tled to seek representation. The role of NIPSA reps isvital in supporting members, being reasonable, and onoccasion bringing meetings to order in cases wheremanagement are being unreasonable or inaccurate.

“This has proven on many occasions to make a differ-ence in outcome to members.”

Motion carried.

A MOTION highlighting the“excessively high case-load levels” shouldered byboth Social Work studentsand Assessed Year of Em-ployment (AYE) socialworkers was carried atconference.

Jake Lange (Branch 731)described AYE socialworkers as “effectivelycannon fodder” and he un-derlined the importance ofgetting HQ and CentralPanel to build a campaignto draw them into theunion.

Motion carried.

Opposition to homeclosures voiced We need a

stress auditTHERE should be an audit on HealthTrust staff to gauge the impact of work-place stress, conference heard.

Margaret Dooley (Branch 733), movingMotion 12, referring to the findings of astaff survey carried out three years agowhich showed that one in four workershad experienced work-related stress, com-mented: “If you think about all the naturalwastage since 2012, what is it like now?”

She told delegates: “More pressure isbeing put on our members than ever be-fore through natural wastage, voluntary re-dundancies, cuts in jobs. Staff are beingexpected to do more with less. They aretaking work home, they are not taking theirbreaks.”

Describing the situation as a “scaryplace to be”, she pointed out that “thingsare not getting any better and it looks likeit will get worse as more cuts are comingthis year…”

She continued: “The sad fact is thatmanagement are moving staff around tocover areas. It’s really robbing Peter topay Paul. The scary bit for me over thelast while is that a small minority of mem-bers are willing to say ‘enough is enough’.Members are becoming apathetic [and]they are scared to rock the boat. That iswhat is happening out there. That is a bigproblem.”

Motion carried.

Latex allergies

More facility time todeal with ‘onslaught’ Facility time plays ‘vital role’

Admin staff should bebackbone of our union

AYE social workersneed union protection

Margaret Dooley calling for a staff stress audit

Page 13UNION LEARNING

FIGURES from unionlearn’s Quarter 3 Per-formance Report, which covers the nine-month period from 1 April to 31 December2014, includes the work of unions workingon Union Learning Fund (ULF) funded proj-ects, as well as unionlearn and TUC Educa-tion directly.

The report highlights unions’ learning andskills successes, including:n 13,323 learners engaged in English andmaths learningn 22,486 learners on ICT coursesn 27,841 learners benefiting from CPDn 28,146 learners engaged in informal adultand community learningn 27,934 union reps (excluding union learning

reps (ULRs)) trained via TUC Educationn 634 new ULRs completing initial stage 1trainingn 52 new learning centres openedn 107 new employer learning agreementssigned.

unionlearn director Tom Wilson said: “This is

a fantastic achievement that over 185,000people have been given new learning opportu-nities thanks to unions. Thousands of ULRsare working with hard to reach learners thatotherwise would not receive any training.

“That is what makes the ULR role so unique.Through the support and encouragement ofULRs, disadvantaged learners are being giventhe confidence and belief to help proceed andprosper at work.

“We’d like to see more union members mak-ing a difference in their workplaces, by becom-ing trained ULRs. And, if you’re interested inworkplace learning and not in a union, join upand look at the training available to help youimprove your skills.”

THIS year’s NIPSA ULR Conference tookplace at the Wellington Park Hotel, Belfast,earlier this year, and was, as on previousyears, well attended.

ULR colleagues from PCS were invited tothe conference. Our ULR network has beenwell established over previous years withULRs from both unions finding this relation-ship invaluable.

The conference featured a number of guestspeakers and presentations.

In his opening remarks, NIPSA GeneralSecretary Brian Campfield thanked ULRs forthe dedication they showed and underlinedhow integral they were to the work of theunion.

During the event, Janice Walsh from theWestern Health and Social Care Trust(WHSCT) was awarded ULR of the Year.

Janice has, within a short space of time,taken to the role of ULR, organising manyevents, as well as promoting and raising

awareness of the initiative within the WHSCT.Her enthusiasm has reinvigorated her Branchand she has, along with her Branch Commit-tee colleagues, worked on putting in place aUnion Learning Agreement with her employer.Other certificates were also issued to ULRswho had completed ULR Stage 1 or Stage 2training since the last conference and they re-ceived their ULR badges.

Our next speaker, Padraig Mulholland,NIPSA President, reiterated the sentimentsexpressed earlier by Brian Campfield as wellas thanking Roisin Graham, the Project Co-or-dinator, for her input into making Union Learn-ing such a success.

Gail McCullough, who has responsibility forthe Operational Delivery Profession (ODP)Programme in the NICS, delivered the firstpresentation. This programme is at the veryearly negotiation stages with NIPSA and ULRswill be kept informed of any future develop-ments.

After a short break we had our second pres-entation from Bernie Diver from Action onHearing Loss and she outlined the group’sservices to the conference. Her colleagueshowed the ULRs how to sign the alphabet inBritish Sign Language (BSL). There were alsohearing checks offered to the ULRs during thebreak for lunch.

After lunch, Martina O’Coisneachain, ofNIPSA’s Recruitment and Organisation Unit,gave a presentation about recruitment as wellas other services offered by the union. Shereminded conference that the Unit also offeredhelp with organising Branches.

The day finished with a quick round-up fromULRs following a discussion about the union’scampaign against austerity. Feedback fromparticipants was very positive –ULRs were de-lighted with speakers, presentations and infor-mation given to them.

Unions have helped morethan 185,000 membersaccess learning, according to new figures from unionlearn

Union learning reps praised for their work in engaging new members

ULRs integral to NIPSA’swork, conference told

Successful ULRs along with NIPSA’s Project Co-ordinator Roisin Graham (front left)

Page 14 NEWS

Concern Worldwide has thankedNIPSA for supporting its HungerStops Here appeal - with dona-tions in Northern Ireland topping£925,000.

In all, the UK public gave £1.4million to last autumn’s campaign –and match-funding by the govern-ment means that every penny do-nated to the internationaldevelopment charity has been dou-bled, taking the total to £2.8 million.

The money will go to pro-grammes tackling malnutrition insome of the world’s most margin-alised communities helping thou-sands of vulnerable people toescape the trap of hunger.

“We are very grateful that NIPSAmembers and people in NorthernIreland have shown their generos-ity by backing the appeal,” saidPeter Anderson, NI Director ofConcern.

“They have been motivated to doall sorts of things to raise money,such as organising street collec-tions, bake sales and quizzes, fast-

ing for 24 hours, donating items toour shops and taking on a chal-lenge.

“A massive high point was whentwo people, inspired by the oppor-tunity to have their donation dou-bled by the UK government, madean incredibly generous donation of£500,000 to the appeal.

“The matched funds will have ahuge impact for thousands ofmothers and their children in ruralZambia, helping to free them froma life-sentence of hunger through acombination of nutrition and healthtraining together with agriculturalsupport.”

As part of the appeal, NIPSANews reported on Concern’s workand the project that will benefitfrom matched funds in one of thepoorest regions in Zambia, wheremore than half of all children sufferfrom chronic malnutrition.

The RAIN project, which recentlywon a major international award,has been addressing the nutritionalcrisis in the area for the past three

years. Working with Zambia’shealth and agriculture ministries, itgives women the seeds, tools andknow-how they need to createsmall vegetable gardens to providea more varied and nutritious dietfor their families. That is combinedwith health and nutrition support forboth mother and child.

So far, there are 180 homestead

gardens in the area with 4,500people benefitting from thescheme. Health professionals arealready reporting a vast reductionin the number of cases of child-hood undernutrition since it began.

The successful project will nowbe used as a model to be rolled outto other areas in Zambia and evenfurther afield.

UNLESS you have been hiding under a rock re-cently, you can’t have failed to notice the pressthat has been generated by the recent changesto pensions that came into force this April, atthe start of the new tax year.

Headlines are great, and it all sounds very posi-tive, but the question is, ‘How do these changes af-fect you?’ Hopefully in this article I can shed somelight on all things pension without confusing you toomuch with jargon or you losing the will to live!

The first thing I will say is, in the main, thesechanges are indeed a positive thing and will givepeople more control over their pension income.However, as someone much wiser than me oncesaid, ‘with great power comes great responsibility’and that is certainly true when it comes to yourpension decisions.

Potentially you will now have more flexibility withyour pension so it is more important than ever tomake the right choices.

Public Sector Pension SchemesTraditionally ‘final salary’ schemes, these defined

benefit pension schemes are the main stay of thepublic sector pension scheme provision. These arethe schemes that the majority of you will currentlybe members of, such as the Civil Service Classic,Premium and NUVOS schemes, the Northern Ire-land Local Government Scheme, or the 1995 and2008 sections of the Health Service, to name themost common.

The majority of NIPSA members will be membersof one of these schemes and the vast majority ofyou will moving to one of the new ‘Career Average’Defined Benefits schemes introduced this April.You will by now I’m sure be familiar with these newschemes, such as the new Alpha scheme in theCivil Service or the new sections of the HealthService scheme or Local Government scheme.

These schemes do what they say on the tin andprovide a defined benefit for members at a speci-

fied age when they are entitled to receive these de-fined benefits. These defined benefits include apension and, dependent on the scheme, an auto-matic lump sum.

Members of these schemes do not have to con-sider a number of things such as the (ever increas-ing) cost of buying a pension, the level of overallfunding required, investment choice or the impactof inflation – all that responsibility is left with thescheme.

New Pension FlexibilitiesThe new flexibilities that have received so much

coverage recently, allowing people to up to 25% taxfree cash and the ability to access the rest of thebenefits flexibly, relate not to defined schemes but‘defined contribution’ schemes; the type of schemewhich is the main stay of the private sector.

Again these schemes do what they say on thetin; it is the level of contribution that is defined for

members of these schemes. This will build up a‘pot’ of money which they will then use to providetheir pension benefits in retirement.

This places much more control with members ofthese schemes but also much greater responsibilityfor the investment of these monies as well as thecost of securing a pension income using thesefunds as mentioned earlier.

In order to avail of these new flexibilities, mem-bers of defined benefit schemes will need to trans-fer their benefits to a defined contribution scheme.This option is not available to those members of‘unfunded’ public sector pension schemes such asthe Civil Service and Health Service defined benefitschemes.

So, if you are in one of these schemes, movingyour benefits to a defined contribution scheme isnot an option making the decision very simple.

Members of ‘funded’ public sector pensionschemes, such as the NILGOSC and Water Serv-ice defined benefit schemes, can avail of this op-tion but this is certainly not without risk. That is notto say that in some cases this won’t be the right de-cision but my advice is very much ‘tread with cau-tion’.

Under the new rules this must be an ‘advised’process so anyone considering this option musttake advice from a suitably qualified adviser. Therewill of course be the cost implications of taking ad-vice and any charges applied by the providershould you wish to transfer your benefits to.

Transferring to a defined contribution schememeans you could get your money out more easily,and pass it on to descendants. But, again, you maynot get the best value.

Defined benefit schemes usually offer inflationproofing, and the ability to pass some of the in-come on to a spouse. They also have a particularadvantage in how they are valued against the life-time allowance if you are getting close to the limityou are allowed to have in a pension pot which Iwill cover in more detail later.

Pension changes – Jonathan Scott

DirectorPlatinum Financial

f i n a n c i a l p l a n n i n g

F

Concern Worldwide thanks NIPSA forbacking its Hunger Stops Here appeal

Small-model women farmers taking part in an agriculture train-ing session as part of Concern’s RAIN project

Page 15NEWS

YOU MIGHT think that now that the RPA im-plementation date of April 1, 2015 haspassed, things would be a little quieter inlocal government circles in Northern Ireland.

On the contrary. One of the aims of reduc-ing the number of Councils from 26 to 11 wasto make efficiency savings and improve serv-ices to ratepayers. And such a move requiresa fundamental review of the structures withineach new Council – with up to four Councilshaving become one on April 1.

NIPSA is working tirelessly to ensure thatthe best interests of members are being pro-tected as each Council structure is reviewedfrom the top tier by tier.

This involves a review of all existing jobdescriptions and any new job descriptionsas well as a comparison made in what iscalled “the matching process”, which is un-dertaken by a panel comprised of Manage-ment Side and Trade Union Siderepresentatives.

When the existing posts, which may besimilar to the new post, are “matched”, anagreed process is followed to fill the new po-sitions.

These processes have been agreed to best

protect members’ interests as well as theirterms and conditions of employment, toavoid redundancies and to put into practicethe Public Service Commission’s GuidingPrinciples.

However, in one Council, NIPSA has al-ready had to challenge Management Sidewhen there was an attempt to increaseweekly working hours, decrease holiday enti-tlement and to remove rights to a flexi-scheme and TOIL.

The union challenged the newly-formedNewry, Mourne and Down District Council inearly April by stating that it believed the ac-tion was a potential breach of the RPA StaffTransfer Scheme and the PSC’s GuidingPrinciples.

NIPSA Official Kim Graham told NIPSANews: “While we understand that, in time,Councils may wish to table changes to termsand conditions of employment to ensure thatstaff working side by side are doing so oncommon terms, any amendment to termsand conditions of employment must be amatter for negotiation and agreement withthe recognised trade unions.

“Existing terms are protected TUPE-style

unless and until such agreement is reached.We will not accept, and will continue to chal-lenge, any employer who attempts to intro-duce diminution by stealth.”

Ms Graham said that NIPSA was so con-cerned about this development that it hadbeen referred to the Local Government Re-form Joint Forum Trade Union Side “for in-formation and response”.

She continued: “We have asked the Coun-cil to reconsider its position and would ad-vise any member who is offered a newcontract to read it in detail, paying particularattention to any changes to their terms andconditions.”

Ms Graham warned: “Once the new con-tract is signed, it cannot be challenged.Therefore please do not sign unless you aresatisfied that your rights have been pro-tected.

“If you are concerned and need advice,please contact your local NIPSA representa-tive in the first instance, who will work withNIPSA HQ to ensure any diminutions arechallenged.”

Restructuring of new NICouncils continues apace

TaxationWhether you already have a defined contribution

scheme, or are considering the merits ofstarting/transferring to one, it is important to under-stand the tax implications of how you then accessyour benefits.

As I mentioned earlier, you will be able to accessup to 25% of your ‘pot’ as a tax free lump sum but,having made this decision, how you use the re-maining funds is where taxation becomes an issue.

If we take someone retiring with a pension pot of£150,000, from which they take their 25% tax freecash, it is the remaining £112,500 which has poten-tial tax implications.

Whether this money is taken in one lump sum,equally over a number of years or used to providean income through an annuity, the money that themember receives is subject to income tax in the taxyear it is received. This can be exasperated furthershould the person have other taxable income in thesame tax year.

However, assuming they have no other incomeand the member decides to access all of the re-maining £112,500 in the current 2015/16 tax year,the tax position would be as follows:

First £10,600 non-taxable – £0Next £31,785 taxed at 20% – £6,357Balance of £70,115 taxed at 40% – £28,046Tax payable – £34,403As you can see, by accessing the balance of

£112,500 the member ends up with a rather largetax bill of £34,403 and a nett payment of £78,097after tax free cash.

This may be an extreme example but not outsidethe realms of possibility. Hopefully this does how-ever highlight the importance of making the rightdecisions and taking some professional adviceshould you be considering these options.

The pension changes mean that many people,who would have bought an annuity, will not now do

so. Income drawdown is a more flexible option formany. In fact it has not been compulsory to buy anannuity since April 2011. Nevertheless, for manypeople, annuities will still be the best option – or amixture of an annuity and drawdown.

Lifetime AllowanceFrom 6 April 2016, the maximum you can have in

a pension pot and can be paid without triggering anextra tax charge will be £1m, reduced from £1.25m.This figure will rise with inflation from April 2018.The government says the change will only affectwealthy people.

Bear in mind, a 60 year old spending all their£1m pension pot purchasing an inflation-linked an-nuity could – according to current annuity rates –expect a maximum annual income of around£27,000.

However, anyone in a defined benefit schemewill be treated more generously.

Such schemes have a notional capital value, cal-culated by multiplying the annual income by 20. Soif the scheme pays an income of £10,000 a year,the notional value of the pension pot is £200,000.Given that the maximum pot will now be £1m,members of defined benefit schemes can thereforeexpect annual incomes of up to £50,000 withoutany tax charge.

The annual allowance for pension savings re-mains at £40,000.

Selling AnnuitiesIn the budget of March 2015, the chancellor said

he would make this possible, and the governmentwill now carry out a consultation. This could allowyou to swap your annuity for cash, from April 2016.

However, no one knows how much demandthere will be for second-hand annuities. Many sus-pect that those selling their annuities will find it hardto get a good price. Watch this space.

State PensionFrom 6 April 2016, the additional state pension

and part of pension credit is being abolished, to bereplaced with a single-tier state pension. The ratewill rise from £113 a week to around £155, but theprecise amount will be set towards the end of 2015.

However, most people will not qualify for the fullpension, as their schemes were contracted out ofthe second state pension, and they paid lower Na-tional Insurance (NI) contributions as a result. Toqualify for the full pension, you will now need 35years of NI contributions, instead of 30 previously.

GuidanceFree guidance – not advice – is available through

the Pension Wise website. Those aged 55 orabove can book a telephone interview with thePensions Advisory Service, or a face-to-face inter-view with Citizens Advice.

The service will give general guidance, but willnot advise on specific pension policies or invest-ments. The number to book is 030 0330 1001. Oth-erwise advice can be had through private providerssuch as ourselves, which will usually be charge-able.Please note the above article does not consti-tute advice and should not be relied on to makeany decisions in relation to your own financialplanning.Jonathan Scott is the Managing Director of Plat-inum Financial, officially recommended financialadvisers to NIPSA and their members, specialisingin pension and investment advice. Should youwish to discuss any of the above issues with theteam at Platinum Financial, they can be contactedby telephone on 02890 655305 or by e-mail atinfo@platinumgroup.co.uk. As a NIPSA memberyou are entitled to a complimentary initial consulta-tion.

how they affect you

Page 16 NEWS

AFTER years of lobbying by cor-porate interests and as part ofthe Stormont House Agreement,our local political parties havesecured the passing of a Bill atWestminster, that will enableNorthern Ireland to set its ownrate of corporation tax from April2017.

Announcing the measure,Theresa Villiers, Secretary of Statefor Northern Ireland, said: “There isstrong support for this changeacross all five of the parties in theNorthern Ireland Executive and thebusiness community who believe itwould provide a major incentive fordomestic businesses to invest fur-ther in Northern Ireland and signifi-cantly increase foreign directinvestment.

“Given the land border sharedwith a lower corporation tax juris-diction, this measure has the po-tential to create thousands of newjobs and stimulate crucial growth inNorthern Ireland’s private sector,leading to a stronger, re-balancedeconomy.”

To prepare the ground for thismeasure these same parties arelooking to ‘lose’ 20,000 public sec-tor jobs in the next four years. Thiswill enable the Assembly to makeup the immediate shortfall in taxrevenue lost to the Treasury, untilthe point is reached where new in-vestment exceeds the amount sac-rificed.

The “re-balancing” of our econ-

omy will come apparently, from theForeign Direct Investment (FDI)that will be attracted by the “har-monisation” of the current 21% ratepayable, to the 12.5% rate payablein the Republic of Ireland.

If the rate is lowered, around34,000 businesses in Northern Ire-land would stand to benefit, includ-ing 26,500 SMEs.

But here’s the rub. None ofthese businesses need to create asingle extra job to benefit from thiseffective windfall and there is littleor no evidence that FDI will comeflooding in.

Indeed the Assembly’s supportfor this measure flies in the face ofthe evidence gathered in the Var-ney Review into Tax Policy pub-lished in December 2007 of whichthe then-UK Chancellor AlistairDarling stated: "I welcome SirDavid Varney's report, which pro-vides a professional and in-depthanalysis of the case for a lower rateof corporation tax in Northern Ire-land. The Government accepts hisfinding that there is no convincingcase for such a change."

The issue was examined again,in depth, by PricewaterhouseCoop-ers (PwC) in January 2011 in a re-port titled Corporation Tax - GameChanger or Game Over. Just read-ing the Executive Summary of this

report should send alarm bells ring-ing in Stormont. Amongs theirfindings they noted: "Low Corpora-tion tax is not a key driver of invest-ment for FDI locating in the UK,ranking 17th in a list that prioritised:language, culture and values; infra-structure; skills and proximity tomarkets.”

They also noted that the Repub-lic of Ireland had a lower rate ofcorporation tax for three decadesbefore the 1980s and the boomthat was dubbed the ‘Celtic Tiger’.They noted too that other incen-tives were offered in the Republicand a more significant factor in re-spect of tax, is the total tax rate,representing the sum of all of thetaxes payable in a jurisdiction.

Ominously, they state: "We couldnot find any clear evidence that lowcorporation tax alone would createsub-regional competitive advan-tage sufficient to create a dispro-portionate increase of FDI into theUK or Northern Ireland and in-creased competitiveness amongstindigenous companies."

PwC also reported claims madein a report by the Economic Re-search Institute of Northern Ireland(ERNI) in 2006, which assertedthat cutting corporation tax could"create 180,000 new jobs by 2030."But they noted that by 2010, theNorthern Ireland Economic ReformGroup had revised this "forecast"down to 90,000 jobs by 2030 andreduced expectations, to the hope

that it might cut employment "muchfurther than would otherwise be thecase."

In plain words the Assembly istaking a reckless gamble with oureconomy. And they are doing sodespite the relevant evidence thatis freely available.

For example, a DOE report, titledAn Analysis of the Social and Eco-nomic Impact of Loss of Jobs inNorthern Ireland, examining theclosure of local vehicle licensing of-fices, noted: “A large proportion ofthe population is registered asbeing economically inactive, withsocial exclusion levels well aboveother parts of the UK. Many of ourhouseholds live in poverty, with job-lessness and skills deficiencies, im-portant contributory factors.”

And further on the report statedthat: “The percentage of the North-ern Ireland workforce (aged 19-59/64) without any qualifications…significantly exceeds the UK aver-age.”

This is significant, not least be-cause PwC point out that "a grad-ual shift of manufacturing awayfrom the 'Western economies’ isbeing compensated for by a growthin FDI by business services, finan-cial intermediation, pharma, re-search and software."

However, these sectors are con-centrated in London, the SouthEast and Scotland, where there isnot the "skills deficiencies" and dis-advantages identified in Northern

Corporation Tax – th By Michael Robinson

Chair, Branch 15

Shared Parental Leave...Yo The Work and Families (Northern Ireland) Act2015 and associated regulations has intro-duced new rights for working parents. From5th April 2015 the key changes under the Actinclude:n New right to shared parental leave; n All employees can apply to work flexibly; n New right for partners to take unpaid time offto attend up to two ante-natal appointments; n New rights for those intending to adopt, bring-ing adoption rights and pay in line with thosewho have biological children.

Shared Parental LeaveThe new system applies to mothers whose ex-

pected week of childbirth is on or after 5 April2015 as well as adoptive parents who havebeen matched for adoption on or after that date.

The leave must be taken within the first yearafter the baby is born and the mother has to takeat least two weeks maternity leave directly afterthe birth. Under the new system:n Mothers will still be entitled to 52 weeks’ ma-ternity leave but will have flexibility as towhether to take the leave as maternity leave orshared parental leave. n Mothers can choose to end their maternityleave after the initial two-week compulsory ma-ternity leave.

n Mothers will no longer need to wait until theirchild is 20 weeks old before their partner can goon leave (a condition of additional paternityleave, which is being scrapped). n Working parents can decide how they wouldlike to share the remaining leave. n The new regulations will allow parents to con-vert the woman’s entitlement into parental leaveand pay which they can both share, either sepa-rately or at the same time.

To qualify for shared parental leave, employ-ees must meet a number of eligibility require-ments and then follow prescribed noticerequirements in order to take the leave.

Additional Paternity LeaveAdditional Paternity Leave and pay will no

longer be available for babies due after 5 April2015. It will be replaced with the new right toshared parental leave and pay.

Flexible WorkingThe Work and Families (Northern Ireland) Act

2015 extended the right to request to work flexi-bility to all employees, regardless of their caringresponsibilities. The existing statutory frameworkwhich has existed since 2002 will continue toapply in terms of timeframes, accompaniment

and appeals and so on.There is still not a right to work flexibility, but

an employer is under a statutory duty to con-sider a request and to provide good reasons forrejecting it.

To be eligible to apply for flexible working, anemployee must:n Be an employee; n Have worked for their employer continuouslyfor 26 weeks at the date the application is made;and n Not have made another application to workflexibly during the past 12 months. For further information see the LRA InformationNote 12.For more detailed information on flexible workingprovisions see NI Direct website.

Ante-Natal AppointmentsFrom April 2015, an expectant father or the

partner of a pregnant woman has a legal entitle-ment to unpaid time off work to attend up to twoante-natal appointments.

The maximum amount of time off work thatcan be taken for each appointment is 6.5 hours.All employees have the right from day one.

Agency workers qualify for this right if theyhave been in the same role for the same hirerfor 12 weeks or more.

Page 17NEWS

Ireland. And yet the Assembly hasjust cut investment in Researchand Development in our economy,notably in the Agri-food sector andmade cuts in further education.

The fundamentals of our econ-omy are outlined in another report,titled NI Annual Survey of Hoursand Earnings (19/11/14), which ex-plains the relatively higher publicsector pay compared to the privatesector, by noting “differences in thecomposition of the respective work-forces. For example, many of thelowest-paid occupations, such asbar and restaurant staff, hair-dressers, elementary sales occu-pations and cashiers, existprimarily in the private sector, whilethere are a larger proportion ofgraduate-level and professional oc-cupations in the public sector.”

It also notes: “Full-time employ-ees in Northern Ireland had thelowest median gross weekly earn-ings (£457) across the UK regionsat April 2014.”

Having established that we havethe lowest wages in the UK, the As-sembly has determined we willcontinue on that path, refusing toinvest in the sort of skills and infra-structure that attract higher valueFDI to London, the South East andScotland.

To make up the shortfall in rev-enue from reduced corporation tax,we will instead have to rely on at-tracting significant volumes of newand highly labour intensive FDI –

at low wages. Another Deloreananyone?

All of this will be done despite theevidence in the DOE report that aloss of around 300 jobs from thepublic sector then, would “not onlyaffect the public sector, it couldalso have an impact on the privatesector, given the multiplier effects.This is likely to be severely damag-ing to businesses in Northern Ire-land, particularly given the current

economic landscape. Given howrelatively weak the local labourmarket is, the timing of this pro-posal could not be worse and willbe extremely damaging to theNorthern Ireland economy.”

The “multiplier effect”, they ex-plained, effectively means that 1.5jobs will be lost in the private sectorfor every public sector job cut.

The economists also indicatedthat economic inactivity and unem-

ployment “is expensive for govern-ment, for taxpayers and for societyas a whole.” Using “a conservativefigure”, they estimated that “a re-duction in employment of 300 inNorthern Ireland would representan additional cost to taxpayers of£3m a year.”

No one has yet estimated the im-pact that “a reduction in employ-ment” of 20,000 public service jobswill have. But it won't be good…

e job creation myth

ur Questions Answered

Adoption Leave and PayFrom April 2015 statutory adoption pay is

brought into line with statutory maternity pay bysetting it at 90% of normal earnings for the firstsix weeks. The right is introduced for prospectiveadoptive parents to take time off before theadoption to have contact with the child and pro-fessionals making arrangements for the adop-tion. Entitlement to adoption leave and pay isalso introduced for parents in surrogacyarrangements.

Further information on the new law for parentscan be found at the NI Direct website

Shared Parental Leave…your questions answered

Q. How do we know if we qualify for sharedparental leave?A. There is a list of requirements that you bothhave to meet on the DELNI website. Basically, ifyou’re both in paid work and you’re entitled tomaternity leave, statutory maternity pay or ma-ternity allowance then you’ll be able to convertsome of that into shared parental leave and paywhich your partner can use if they have at least26 weeks’ service with their employer by thetime you’re about 5-6 months pregnant.Q. Can I share parental leave with my partner

even if he’s not the baby’s father?A. Yes, you can if you’re married to your partneror in a long-term relationship and your partner isgoing to share responsibility for bringing up yourchild with you.Q. Can a mother take shared parental leave in-stead of maternity leave?A. Yes. Once a mother brings her maternityleave to an early end and creates some sharedparental leave she can use it as well as her part-ner. The advantage is that shared parental leavedoesn’t have to be taken in a single block likematernity leave does, so a mother can go backto work for a bit and then use shared parentalleave to take some more time off later on.Q. What about single mothers?A. If a mother isn’t sharing responsibility for rais-ing her child with a partner or the father of thebaby then she won’t qualify for shared parentalleave. She can only use maternity leave.Q. Can both parents take leave at the sametime?A. Yes, both parents can be off work at the sametime. For example, a mother could let her em-ployer know before she has her baby that shedoesn’t plan to use all of her 12 months mater-nity leave and she wants to change some of itinto shared parental leave. Her partner couldthen take some of that shared parental leave tobe off work just after the baby is born.Q. I’m adopting a child with my partner will we

have access to shared parental leave too?A. Yes, if you qualify for adoption leave and payyou’ll be able to convert some of that to sharedparental leave if you want to.Q. What about parents in same-sex relation-ships?A. You’re entitled to the same leave and payrights as parents in opposite-sex relationships.Q. My employer provides fully paid maternityleave, will they have to provide full pay to any-one who takes shared parental leave as well?A. No, they won’t – although some may chooseto (and some lawyers think if they don’t thismight be challenged as sex discrimination). Ifyou do get full pay for maternity leave then youneed to think carefully about ending your mater-nity leave early and switching to shared parentalleave as you could lose out financially.Q. Can I take shared parental leave after mychild is a year old?A. No, it can’t be used after the child’s first birth-day. However, you could use the entitlement to18 weeks’ unpaid parental leave. From April2015, this leave can be used up to your child’s18th birthday so it could be useful for things likeschool holidays.Q. As a father can I request flexible working?A. All employees with 26 weeks or more servicewith their employer have the right to requestflexible working. Your employer has a duty toconsider a request.

Page 18 WHISTLEBLOWING SPECIAL FEATURE

MOST employeesare aware that theyare entitled to blowthe whistle on theiremployer. But whenwill an employee beprotected by lawfrom being sub-jected to dismissalor detrimental treat-ment by their em-ployer.

PROTECTED DISCLOSURE1. Under the provisions of Article 134A of theEmployment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order1996, (the 1996 Order). An employee who isdismissed shall be regarded for the purposesas unfairly dismissed if the reason, or, if thereis more than one reason, the principal reason,for the dismissal is that the employee made aprotected disclosure.2. Article 67A of the 1996 Order states that a“protected disclosure” means a qualifying dis-closure (as defined by Article 67B) which ismade by a worker in accordance with any ofArticles 67C to 67H.3. In order to determine whether or not an in-dividual has been dismissed for making a pro-tected disclosure a number of matters musttherefore be analysed, including:I. Is there a qualifying disclosure?II. Is that qualifying disclosure a protected dis-closure?III. Is the reason or the principle reason for thedismissal the fact that the employee made aprotected disclosure?

QUALIFYING DISCLOSURE4. A “qualifying disclosure” means any disclo-sure of information which, in the reasonablebelief of the worker making the disclosure,tends to show one or more of the following: (a) that a criminal offence has been commit-ted, is being committed or is likely to be com-mitted;(b) that a person has failed, is failing or islikely to fail to comply with any legal obligationto which he is subject;(c) that a miscarriage of justice has occurred,is occurring or is likely to occur; and(f) that information tending to show any matterfalling within any one of the preceding sub-paragraphs has been, is being or is likely tobe deliberately concealed.5. The concept of a qualifying disclosuretherefore encapsulates a number of elements.There must be:a. A disclosure of information;

b. A reasonable belief in that information;c. The information must relate to a relevantfailure.

DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION6. Information involves conveying facts and isdifferent from making an allegation or statinga position. In the case of Cavendish MunroeProfessional Risk Management Limited vGeduld [2010] ICR 325 Slade J, at paragraph24 stated:“Further, the ordinary meaning of giving infor-mation is conveying facts. In the course ofthe hearing before us, a hypothetical was ad-vanced regarding communicating informationabout the state of a hospital. Communicating‘information’ would be ‘the wards have notbeen clean for the past two weeks. Yesterdaysharps were left lying around’. Contrastedwith that would be a statement that ‘you arenot complying with health and safety require-ments’ in our view this would be an allegationnot information.”7. This was further illustrated by the case ofMaini v Department for Work and PensionsET Case number 2203978/01, 15 October2002. In that case the Claimant was employedby Department of Work and Pensions andmade an allegation of corruption to the Na-tional Audit Office. The EAT held that this wasa mere allegation as it did not contain any in-formation tending to show one or more rele-vant failures.

REASONABLE BELIEF8. Babula v Waltham Forest College [2007]EWCA Civ 174 The test involves both a sub-jective test of the worker’s belief, i.e. did theyin fact have such a belief, and an objectivetest of whether it was reasonable to have thatbelief.9. In Darnton v University of Surrey [2003]ICR 615 the EAT stated:“In our opinion, the determination of the fac-tual accuracy of the disclosure by the tribunalwill, in many cases, be an important tool in de-termining whether the worker held the reason-able belief that the disclosure tended to showa relevant failure. Thus if an employment tri-bunal finds that an employee's factual allega-tion of something he claims to have seenhimself is false, that will be highly relevant to

the question of the worker's reasonable belief.It is extremely difficult to see how a workercan reasonably believe that an allegationtends to show that there has been a relevantfailure if he knew or believed that the factualbasis was false, unless there may somehowhave been an honest mistake on his part.”10. The question of the burden of proof inrespect of reasonable belief was dealt with inBabula by Wall LJ where it was stated: “Itseems to me that in each of the instancesidentified in the six subsections, the whistle-blower has to establish a reasonable beliefthat the information being disclosed 'tends toshow' one or more of the situations identified.”

RELEVANT FAILURE11. In short summary, the relevant failures al-leged in the present case can be described asfollows:Criminal Offence: Requires a criminal offenceof any degree. It can involve the breach of aminor regulation. Legal Obligation: Involves a breach of anystatutory requirement, contractual obligation,common law obligation or administrative lawrequirement. Miscarriage of Justice: Includes all interfer-ence with proper judicial process such as per-jury or failure to disclose evidence.

PROTECTED DISCLOSURE12. In order to be a protected disclosure, aqualifying disclosure must be made to a speci-fied person or body in accordance with Arti-cles 67C to 67H of the 1996 Order i.e.employer or other responsible person (Article67C), a legal advisor (Article 67D), a Ministeror NI Department (Article 67E), or a pre-scribed person (Article 67F). 13. There is, however, a wider right where adisclosure has already been made to makethe disclosure to a non-prescribed body. Asidefrom the requirements of reasonable beliefand good faith, it requires looking at whetheror not it was reasonable to make the disclo-sure to the group in question. The 1996 Orderstates:

Disclosure in other cases67G.(1) A qualifying disclosure is made in ac-

Chancery House, 88 Victoria Street, Belfast BT1 3GNTel: 029 9032 9801 www.mtb-law.co.uk By John McShane

Whistleblowing – when a

Page 19WHISTLEBLOWING SPECIAL FEATURE

cordance with this Article if:(a) the worker makes the disclosure in goodfaith;(b) he or she reasonably believes that the in-formation disclosed, and any allegations con-tained in it, are substantially true;(c) he or she does not make the disclosure forpurposes of personal gain;(d) any of the conditions in paragraph (2) ismet; and(e) in all the circumstances of the case, it isreasonable for him to make the disclosure.(2) The conditions referred to in paragraph(1)(d) are –(a) that, at the time he makes the disclosure,the worker reasonably believes that he or shewill be subjected to a detriment by their em-ployer if he or she makes a disclosure to hisemployer or in accordance with Article 67F.(b) that, in a case where no person is pre-scribed for the purposes of Article 67F in rela-tion to the relevant failure, the workerreasonably believes that it is likely that evi-dence relating to the relevant failure will beconcealed or destroyed if he or she makes adisclosure to their employer, or(i) that the worker has previously made a dis-closure of substantially the same information(i) to his employer, or(ii) in accordance with Article 67F.(3) In determining for the purposes of para-graph (1)(e) whether it is reasonable for theworker to make the disclosure, regard shall behad, in particular, to:(a) the identity of the person to whom the dis-

closure is made;(b) the seriousness of the relevant failure;(c) whether the relevant failure is continuingor is likely to occur in the future;(d) whether the disclosure is made in breachof a duty of confidentially owed by the em-ployer to any other person;(e) in a case falling within paragraph (2)(c)(i)or (ii), any action which the employer or theperson to whom the previous disclosure in ac-cordance with Article 67F was made hastaken or might reasonably be expected tohave taken as a result of the previous disclo-sure; and(f) in a case falling within paragraph (2)(c)(i),whether in making the disclosure to the em-ployer, the worker complied with any proce-dure whose use by him or her was authorisedby the employer.(1) For the purposes of this Article a subse-quent disclosure may be regarded as a disclo-sure of substantially the same information asthat disclosed by a previous disclosure asmentioned in paragraph (2)(c) even thoughthe subsequent disclosure extends to informa-tion about action taken or not taken by anyperson as a result of the previous disclosure.

GOOD FAITH14. A disclosure must also be made in goodfaith. Good faith is not simply equated withhonesty. It requires a consideration of the mo-tive of the person making the disclosure.15. Personal antagonism or pursuing a per-

sonal campaign has been held to be ulteriormotives that negative good faith.

WHETHER IT IS REASONABLE TOMAKE THE WIDER DISCLOSURE

16. A number of principles are immediately ev-ident from the legislation.17. The Tribunal are required to assess eachof the factors set out at Article 67G(3) and allthe circumstances of the case. Street v Der-byshire Unemployed Workers Centre [2004]ICR 213.18. Reasonableness is assessed in light of allthe circumstances. Where the employeemakes the further disclosure whilst investiga-tions are still continuing into his primary dis-closure it is arguably unreasonable. 19. The person to whom the wider disclosureis made is also relevant, as whilst there is nolimit on the range of people to whom the dis-closure could be made, it is important to showwhy the particular person was the appropriateperson and whether there was a more appro-priate person.

The above article does not purport to be acomprehensive statement of the law ofpublic interest disclosure which wouldtake considerably more space than this ar-ticle allows to explain but is my attempt tooutline some of the main factors relevantto “whistleblowing”.

re employees protected?

Page 20 NEWS

There is an alternativeNO ONE could be in any doubt from the im-pressive strike and public rallies acrossNorthern Ireland on 13 March that the tradeunion movement is determined to resist theimplementation of austerity policies on ourpeople.

The main message of the day is a directchallenge to the anti-social ideology of austerityand a determination to argue for a better, fairerway forward.

Many commentators lazily describe NorthernIreland as having an imbalanced economy andan unsustainable public sector. Whatever one’sviews on the constitutional question, such‘analysis’ confuses Northern Ireland’s eco-nomic power/potential with that of a separatesovereign state and ignores the fact that whileas a region we are comparable in many re-spects to other deindustrialised areas, our un-equal economic development wascompounded by a 40-year conflict. To suggestthat we can act in unilateral economic termsdeliberately misses the point about unequal de-velopment and the need for a collective ap-proach, based on a redistributive tax system.

Investment in public services, social securityand public sector jobs – i.e. opposition to aus-terity – is therefore economically essential.After the May Westminster election NorthernIreland’s MPs must be ready to seize the op-portunity to use their potentially enhanced polit-ical leverage in a hung Parliament and capturea major prize for the whole community here –

an adequate public expenditure settlement. In2010, the leaders of the devolved assembliesand their finance ministers publicly issued ajoint statement decrying the four-year publicexpenditure settlement for the UK and declaredthat it was bad for the devolved areas. Shouldthe opportunity arise again in May, this com-mon approach involving Northern Ireland, Scot-land and Wales should be rekindled but with amuch more robust and aggressive engagementwith any party or parties seeking support forany new government. In other words, no sup-port for austerity.

In the meantime the Northern Ireland Execu-tive can do things differently. For example, thefinancial elements of the Stormont HouseAgreement propose using £700 million to rundown public services via 20,000-30,000 redun-dancies – a destructive interpretation of theReinvestment and Reform Initiative.

If the borrowing rules are now so ‘flexible’,why not use such money constructively? Forexample, this £700 million and the £350 millionsurrendered to corporations via a tax cut couldbuild 25,000 homes for our citizens and createthousands of jobs in the construction industry.This would be a real boost to the economy notthe accountants’ self-interested fantasies aboutwhat the ‘holy grail’ of lower corporation tax willbring.

Similarly, the infrastructural investment pro-posed by the Nevin Economic Research Insti-tute in January 2013 (supported by both the

trades unions and the construction employers)outlined support for the green economy, by in-vestment in the retrofitting of homes acrossNorthern Ireland, saving energy, reducing car-bon emissions and creating employment (over3,000 jobs for each £10 million investment).

The trades union movement understands therestrictions that our peculiar political arrange-ments and the block grant, as the source of themain available funds, have on the ability of theNorthern Ireland Executive to meet all theneeds to our community. Some of our politicalparties want additional fiscal powers but thepurpose of having fiscal powers is to use them.The absence of any reliable information aboutthe scale and distribution of wealth in NorthernIreland and how it could be subject to some re-distributive fiscal instruments is a real problemand rectifying this deficiency must be a priorityfor the Northern Ireland Executive.

We see the power, reach and universalism ofthe state as an asset to use, not strip. Austerityis the reverse; a programme written by and forthe City of London, fuelled by massive corpo-rate welfare, targeting the remaining free at thepoint of use public services, and aiming to turnthem into for-profit service for private share-holders. We do not accept this anti-social pro-gramme and will resist it.

Article first appeared in the April edition of agenda NI magazine

NIPSA General Secretary Brian Campfield sets out the trade union movement’s policy platform for countering austerity