Border staff strike - should strikers be sacked ?

[ferring seagull]

I work for UKBA and will not be striking. Why? As pointed out on here it is about professional pride and serving the public - doing what I am paid a decent wage to do. I count myself lucky to have a job, I count myself doubly lucky to have the flexible working arrangements, a pension arrangement, a decent salary and a career, in times of austerity. Yes there have been changes to pensions, yes it is common knowledge that there have been cuts but the vast majority of the people who have left over the past couple of years left on voluntary release schemes. Nobody forced them out and they got paid decent monetary compensation for leaving. The civil service has been bloated for over a decade and the government measures to cut back, including introducing tougher performance management procedures to ensure those that are "workshy" are moved on I fully support. I don't like to read generalistic negative statements about civil servants but I accept the public perception when the small minority do things like this. Given the numbers involved it's probably just the reps themselves that voted for it! There are some good, honest people in the service who care, who are being turned inside out by the Olympics (my wife has been on call for the past five weeks solid), so please, don't tarnish us all with the same brush.

Alfie, I think your post was excellent. I was flamed yesterday for suggesting that it was inappropriate to take strike action at this time given that it is a matter of National Pride that the Olympics should be negotiated without the UK falling flat on it's face. Sadly some do not recognise this ! It is not quite a wartime situation but , in my view, just about on par. My abuser did not look at previous posts and, well there it is, I was previously a member of UNISON who did nothing for me in my time of need.

I have to say however that I think the government were somewhat quick out of the blocks in reducing the number of UKBA agents with the games coming up.

 

[Alfie22]

Fair do's then, you probably do work for them and I am sorry I didn't believe you. My point is that I know people who worked for the Border Agency who painted a different picture and who felt that their abilty to do the job properly was being compromised and getting worse. To a large degree there not complaining just about pay and conditions but also about staffing levels.

Anyway again my apologies.

Apology accepted, although not necessary. The two departure schemes afforded people the opportunity to leave, to a certain extent so that the government could lessen the volume of "redundancies" and yes, there was a large swathe of work that moved to Sheffield and those who used to do it in Croydon had to re-apply for their posts in other areas. In other areas the same volume of work was still being carried out but now by less staff, due in the main to the HO getting the numbers wrong and letting too many people leave on each scheme. That's possibly why now you know people complaining about staffing levels and why the media report staff being re-employed. But with such a vast organisation it was never going to be an exact science and nobody could confidently predict what impact an event like the Olympics would have on resources. I still would say though that those staff complaining had the choice to leave, with potentially a year or so's pay in some cases, and they would've been aware of what was expected of them going forward, so really any complaints now I do take with a reasonable amount of salt. We are paid to serve the public and should get on with it. Sounds like laziness to me - harking back to a time/conditions when there were more staff so one could presumably "get away" with doing less work.

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

Strike called off.

 

[Southover Street Seagull]

I work for UKBA and will not be striking. Why? As pointed out on here it is about professional pride and serving the public - doing what I am paid a decent wage to do. I count myself lucky to have a job, I count myself doubly lucky to have the flexible working arrangements, a pension arrangement, a decent salary and a career, in times of austerity. Yes there have been changes to pensions, yes it is common knowledge that there have been cuts but the vast majority of the people who have left over the past couple of years left on voluntary release schemes. Nobody forced them out and they got paid decent monetary compensation for leaving. The civil service has been bloated for over a decade and the government measures to cut back, including introducing tougher performance management procedures to ensure those that are "workshy" are moved on I fully support. I don't like to read generalistic negative statements about civil servants but I accept the public perception when the small minority do things like this. Given the numbers involved it's probably just the reps themselves that voted for it! There are some good, honest people in the service who care, who are being turned inside out by the Olympics (my wife has been on call for the past five weeks solid), so please, don't tarnish us all with the same brush.

Your view is welcome as it gives a different view from someone inside the UKBA to what I have heard, you also managed to put your view across without insulting anyone unlike some posters on this thread.

A close family member of mine works for the UKBA and he works at Gatwick, he has worked for them for approximately ten years. He is moderate when it comes to politics and was originally a member of the ISU but last year joined the PCS because of the situation with the pensions. He like lots of people object to their pensions being changed due to the colossal f*** up by the banks and the current and previous governments. He is not work shy, lazy and is a hard worker and is extremely frustrated by the way the UKBA is run and this was another reason why for the first time last year he went on strike in his life.

Have a look at this report from the BBC two days ago, the UKBA is failing: BBC News - UK Border Agency backlog worries MPs
One of the reasons it is failing is because of this: "The committee said it would take the UKBA "years" to clear the backlog and it was concerned the agency might not have enough resources to do so."

Another report about the strike being called off: BBC News - PCS union calls off pre-Olympics border staff strike
From reading the article it seems the strike is about protecting jobs: "The PCS union had been planning the action in protest at job losses."

So given that the parliamentary report says that the UKBA is failing and one reason for failure is lack of resources, shouldn't the PCS union be congratulated for asking the government for more staff and to stop redundancies thereby helping the UKBA serve the public better by having the correct amount of staff to do the job?

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

Sack workers because they dare to go on strike ? We might as well adopt the US constitution and follow their employment rights.

 

[Nibble]

No they should not be sacked. If the current government continues to show British workers what it thinks of them the workers should have a right to show the government what it thinks of them. Ans I wholeheartedly agree with striking at the point of most inconvenience to the country, it's tactically relevant.

 

[Nibble]

Of couse they should be sacked,the wankers are lucky to have a job let alone such a secure one.Anyone who dislikes there working conditions has the choice to leave the company they work for so that another person can benefit and take the job in there place.

You have fallen hook, line and sinker into the Conservative trap.