When will the #PCS leadership act to stop #sanctions?

I try to be patient about these things, but have run out on this one.

Am sure people have seen this (last week’s standout No Shit Sherlock headline):

Sanctions ineffective, jobcentre staff say.”

A PCS survey showed that “jobcentre staff do not believe stopping people’s benefits encourages them to look for work.”

Right. We know that sanctions are punitive and pointless, but it is useful to have confirmation of this from the people who implement them:

“Echoing the government’s own research, in a survey of our members who work as jobcentre advisors, 70% of respondents said sanctions had no positive impact.”

And

“In the survey, 23% said they had been given an explicit target for making sanction referrals and 81% said there was an ‘expectation’ level.

Almost two thirds said they had experienced pressure to refer claimants for a sanction inappropriately.

More than one third stated they had been placed on a performance improvement plan (PIP) for not making “enough” referrals and 10% had gone as far as formal performance procedures.

The performance system can lead to dismissal so this kind of pressure is a thinly veiled threat to people’s jobs.”

There we are.

My question: What next, Mark?

The PCS needs to pull finger, fast. I say that as a friend. I think.

You don’t have to be a great analyst to understand that the government’s unachievable Help To Work scheme will increase the pressure on jobcentre staff in a terminal way. We’re seeing pretty bad scenes as it is. As readers of this site will know, I’ve spent a lot of time at jobcentres lately, talking to JSA claimants about their experiences in those centres. They already report a poisonous atmosphere as staff and claimants fight each other over sanctions and jobsearch requirements. I’ve certainly heard about confrontations to which the police have been called.

The PCS seems to get this:

“The stricter regime has led to an increase in violence and threats, with 72% of respondents reporting an increase in verbal abuse and 37% seeing an increase in physical abuse.”

Can’t see those numbers changing in a way that will help staff, I have to say. What I can see is the entire jobcentre “function” being handed over to G4S, or A4e, or whoever. That will be a nightmare. Privatisation inevitably is and those companies are, as we all know, as dodgy as they are voracious. The great irony is that a privatised setup will probably prove easier to fight. That is – amazingly – the point that we’re at. Activists can target a private company and turn the brand toxic – witness the impressive campaign against Atos. By comparison, fighting this era’s government departments without serious public sector union action (ie lengthy strikes and an ongoing refusal to follow government orders) is yielding very thin results.

Hope the PCS announces strike plans soon. There’ll be nothing left if it doesn’t. This government is not big on negotiation. Union leaders are taking a seriously long time to get that. I mean – it’s been four years. I do wonder how long do these people plan to wait. I also wonder what they are waiting for, exactly. More death?

2 thoughts on “When will the #PCS leadership act to stop #sanctions?

  1. It’s becoming harder to continue fighting – more people are reaching breaking point every day and still…those we expect to act as leaders and to take the actions necessary let us down; whether this be the majority of opposition Politicians or Union leaders.

    It seems these people have bought in to the Austerity Myth, maybe because they personally have to much to lose, they persistently refuse to behave in the manner they are expected/elected to.

    Perhaps its time members of Parties and Unions use their vote and replace them?

  2. Hi, Kate

    While I agree with what you write above, I note from having stood with PCS members on a picket outside HMRC offices, Euston Tower and talking to PCS people there, it seems that Civil Servants on short-term contracts tend to be in the GMB union while the more permanent staff are PCS — and GMB staff in the Civil Service never go on strike. So there should be co-operation between the two unions as there is between the teachers unions.

    Anyhow, yesterday I attended a Department for Work & Pensions ‘Customer Compliance Section’ interview at Kentish Town Jobcentre, where I was told that HM Revenue & Customs had passed on to Jobcentre Plus information that in 2010/11 over £800 interest accrued on a Co-operative Bank a/c registered at my address that I had not told them about — and that I knew nothing about! The really great thing was that I had a friend with me from Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group and so I did not fall to pieces as I would have done otherwise and my accompanist was so brilliantly practical that after I had signed a statement that I had never had a Co-operative Bank a/c, she said to me, “How about walking to the Co-operative Bank branch along this street and enquiring there, rather than doing everything by post?” and so we got a letter of confirmation from that branch stating that according to their records no such a/c existed, leading to a smile from the ‘Customer Compliance Section’ interviewer and a much relieved but still shocked me. But is the witch-hunt drive to uncover ‘undeclared income’, coupled with involvement of private companies on ‘payment by results’ in public service delivery leading to a state of ‘guilty until proven innocent’?

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