Capita/PCS union recognition agreement signed!

After MyCSP/Equiniti’s insisting on elevating bloody-mindedness to an artform, and refusing to recognise the union because, well, ‘just because’; today PCS and Capita signed a union recognition agreement, ahead of the transfer of the Civil Service Pensions work on Monday 1^st December 2025.

This means that from ‘Day 1’ of the Capita contract, our union will be recognised by the new employer for negotiations, consultation and information purposes. In short, there’ll be proper union engagement.

You can find the union's report of the agreement here.

In the coming days, the union will be publishing the full details of the agreement, including the new ‘dispute resolution process’.

Our dispute was never with Capita, but we’re confident that the action MyCSP members have been taking over the last five months or so, has left no-one in any doubt that members working on the Civil Service Pensions contract, want real representation in the workplace by a real Trade Union.

So as the MyCSP strike draws to a close, we can look back and be proud that our action has played a key part in bringing about a better approach to our way of working.  

Sent PAC-ing

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) published its latest report into the handling of Civil Service Pensions administration today (24 October) and it’s jam-packed full of material that supports our position.

The report says that “in order to ensure a smooth transition from MyCSP to Capita it is important that appropriate consideration is given to the rights of staff members transferring across”; and on the matter of union recognition, the committee’s report says:

“We queried with the Cabinet Office if it was normal practice to let a contract to an organisation that does not recognise trade unions. Although unable to give us a definitive answer at the time, the Cabinet Office subsequently wrote to the Committee to confirm that there is no government policy requiring trade union recognition in contracts. The Cabinet Office did say, however, that if non-recognition had a direct impact on performance, then it would be a concern from a value for money perspective.”

The report also offers a view about our recognition talks with Capita progressing; describing it as “…a positive development and underlines the importance of employers who supply contracts to government engaging meaningfully with unions including through formal recognition.”

The report’s recommendations include that the Cabinet Office should set-out in its response “its approach…to ensure that suppliers that it contracts with are committed to giving adequate recognition to the voice of employees, for example, through union recognition.”

Well, having a big chunk of your staff out on strike for four months (and counting) obviously has “a direct impact on performance”, and given the Public Accounts Committee’s view about the importance of engaging with unions, presumably the Cabinet Office will think-on if Equiniti have the audacity to bid for any more Civil Service work in future.

There’s plenty of other stuff in the report that we agree with; including:

• that the Cabinet Office should consider the cost and benefits of delivering the administration in-house; and 

• in any event, when consideration is given to work being outsourced, Cabinet Office should set-out how it intends to ensure that it has enough commercial capacity and contract management skills so it can hold the contractor to account.

It's all good stuff. You can read the report here. Go on. You know you want to. 

Rinse and Repeat

PCS negotiators met with Equiniti’s Human Resources team on Friday 10 October; and sadly, it went more or less as predicted.

They started off saying they weren’t prepared to agree our 2-page draft agreement, adding there was nothing in it for MyCSP to recognise the union, because as far as they were concerned, there was no bargaining left to be done.

The employer again said that we weren’t prepared to compromise. We pointed-out that PCS were the only party who had offered any real proposals and counter-proposals; and all Equiniti had done was reject them, and offered nothing meaningful in response.

They argued that they had talked about allowing us into the TUPE talks (which, by the way, was never a formal proposal from them, apart from that one time they said PCS could look at what had already been agreed with the Employee Forum, but we wouldn’t be allowed to change anything).

'If you don't like that excuse, we have others'

We reminded them that our original position was put forward on the basis that at that time, Equiniti had said that they didn’t want to foist recognition on Capita; but then when Capita agreed to the principle of Day 1 recognition, that excuse no longer existed.

We also reminded them of their next excuse, which was that their staff didn’t want a union, and then their own plebiscite disproved that as well.

The 'All-England Dummy-Spitting' School of Bargaining

PCS went on to say that even so, Equiniti could have made a counter-proposal, but they didn’t; they simply said they rejected our agreement. We made the point that “Proposals and counter-proposals: Everywhere else, that’s how negotiations work; but clearly not in Equiniti.”

We asked them again, that if they had one, what their counter-proposal was; and they then implied (but no more than that) that allowing us into TUPE talks was a possibility. We asked for the counter-proposal in writing by early this week (w/c 13 October).

As we said, in the past, the only time they’d suggested that we could be invited into TUPE talks, they said we could see the material that they’d been discussing since the summer, but we couldn’t change anything. Even if they do respond early this week, it is conceivable that they’ll regurgitate that line, but we’ll see.

Aside from the recognition issue, we raised the issue of Christmas Leave, and strikers not being given the opportunity to book Christmas Leave, leaving open the possibility of them having less favourable Leave options open to them. The employer said that they would come back on that issue.

'If it walks like a duck, and quacks like  a duck, it's probably...'

One final thing: we called them “Equiniti” all the way through the meeting, and they became more than a bit agitated; and kept saying “it’s MyCSP” - so they’re clearly sensitive about that.

In any event, we reminded them that MyCSP is “wholly owned by Equiniti, they’ve all got Equiniti email addresses; and none of its bosses will be made redundant when the company closes, because they’ll all go back to their day job in Equiniti.” We added that “When we’re writing to Crown Commercial and doing our media releases, we’ll be making that point, especially where future contracts are concerned”.

MyCSP's plans 'poll'-axed

MyCSP’s plan must have seemed so easy when they first dreamed-it up:

‘Let’s organise a ‘poll’ asking the staff whether or not they want their union to be recognised; and organise it using work contact addresses; making sure the union can’t talk directly to voters about the benefits of recognition; and that striking workers won’t be directly involved in the vote. That way, we’ll be guaranteed a majority voting against union recognition and we can say to PCS ‘you should abide by the popular will of the masses.’

Oh dear. To virtually no fanfare whatsoever, MyCSP have now announced that 41.9% are in favour of having the union recognised, with only 28.6% voting against recognition. 29.5% of staff didn’t express a view one way or another.

You would think that MyCSP would look at that 28.6% figure, throw their hands up and say ‘It’s a fair cop guv – hardly anyone doesn’t want a union’ and start talking to PCS about immediate involvement in the TUPE talks.

Alas not. In their publication of the result to staff, they’re more or less saying ‘if you add-up the number of staff opposed to recognition, and the number of staff who didn’t vote at all, you get a majority against recognition’.

Incredible. You could of course, just as easily say ‘if you add-up the number of staff in favour of recognition, and the number of staff who didn’t vote at all, you get a thumping majority of just shy of 3:1 in favour’  but we guess that doesn’t fit with management’s long-standing narrative, that hardly anyone working for MyCSP wants a union.

So months into the industrial action, and against a backdrop of excuse after excuse regarding why MyCSP won’t recognise PCS; with a clear majority of opinion being expressed in favour of recognition, and following a ‘poll’ that management – not PCS – organised, the only commitment the Chief Executive will give is ‘This will now strongly inform how we proceed with further union engagement from here and form part of my discussions with the MyCSP Board’.

And all the time, the clock is ticking; with TUPE talks carrying-on with no independent trade union involvement, and the contract ending in just over two months from now.

Given the vote in their own plebiscite, we genuinely hope that MyCSP will now bring their long-running drama to a close. Back in July we sent a simplified 2-page agreement that would cover the union’s involvement in the TUPE talks and recognition to the end of the contract. Two signatures on that agreement – one from them and one from us – and the dispute is effectively over.

The ball is where it always has been, in their court. 

A Taxing ‘Poll’

We understand from sources inside the building that MyCSP management’s ‘poll’ on union recognition, is going ahead this week; with staff being told to expect to receive an email from the polling company ‘Civica’, asking them if they’re in favour of union recognition or if they’re opposed.

The message from the Chief Executive says that an “anonymous, one-question poll” will be sent to the work email address of staff this week (w/c 26 August). The Chief Executive goes on to say that management are having discussions with the company managing the ‘poll’ about how they can presume the votes of those people who are currently on strike, and that they will also be ‘contacting staff on long-term absence’.

Leaving aside the idea of a ‘poll’ being so independent that the scrutineer can be asked to ‘presume’ some votes will go a certain way; nobody is being given the option of (for example) meeting with the union and having the opportunity to properly discuss the benefits of recognition and collective bargaining, before they exercise their vote.

Then there is the matter of who actually gets to vote in the management-run ‘poll’. As we’ve said before, for our strike we had to provide precise numbers, grades and locations of any and all staff being balloted. As far as we can tell, all MyCSP are doing is providing the scrutineer with a list of people with Equiniti email addresses, and they’re getting a vote.

Finally, even in the increasingly unlikely event that a management-run, cold-called plebiscite, sent to a list of Equiniti staff provided by an anti-union management, actually produces a vote in favour of recognition; there’s still no guarantee that MyCSP will recognise PCS - given the Chief Executive’s email goes on to say that:

“Regardless of whether you are a member of the union, having a recognised union in MyCSP will impact every Employee Partner. We therefore want to ensure we can take your views into consideration when deciding how to proceed from here.”

So, all things considered, we think we can be forgiven for not taking MyCSP’s ‘poll’ very seriously.

Capita Update

The next meeting between PCS and Capita, to discuss taking forward the in-principle agreement to voluntary union recognition, is taking place on Wednesday 3 September.

We’ve already provided Capita with formal proposals about the wording of an agreement, and we’ve asked for their thoughts on our suggested terms ahead of next week’s meeting.

Denial: It’s not just a river in Egypt

PCS are pleased to have received an email from Jonathan Hinder, MP for Pendle and Clitheroe, who has written to the MyCSP Chief Executive, and has provided us with a copy of the response he has received.

Jonathan has expressed concern that the response “did not engage with the substance of the points [he] raised and leaves several key questions unresolved”. Jonathan has also said he would be happy to chat to PCS to discuss our concerns further.

In his response to Jonathan, Duncan Watson said:

• “Further, as you may not be aware, as part of the consultation process PCS has been sent all information which has been made available to employees and their representatives”

• “There has also been an offer to PCS to participate more formally in the TUPE consultation process in order to represent its members”; and our personal favourite

•  “There is no formal documentation whatsoever that supports the assertion that Union recognition moved to MyCSP on its creation in 2012.”

PCS have replied to the Pendle MP to thank him for his involvement; and we’ve provided him with more information regarding the response.

The key take-aways from the MyCSP response, that we all need to remember, are:

• On the first point, we’ve been sent a list of all the information that has been made available to their ‘Employee Council’, and being sent a list of all the information is a bit different to actually being sent all the information.

• On the second point, what Duncan omits is the fact that we’ve been locked out of the talks throughout, and although we’ve latterly been offered the opportunity to have a limited involvement now, the offer expressly excludes our being able to revisit the TUPE elements the company has already set, during the months we’ve been locked out of talks.

• The third point is the most amazing, given the fact that we have provided MyCSP with an actual copy of the original measures statement, showing that the recognition of the Civil Service unions carried over into MyCSP, and yet the company’s response is to effectively deny the document exists.

It’s a funny thing, denial. It can happen for a number of reasons; but here at Transferring Values, we like the definition given by the famous psychologist Sigmund Freud, who defined it as “an ‘ostrich policy’ for avoiding distressing aspects of reality”.

Anyway, we like good, solid facts and we’ll stick to those. What we’ll also do is take Jonathan up on his kind offer to chat about our campaign, and as usual, we’ll keep everyone informed.

We were ‘Superpickets’, they were just ‘Supercilious’

The PCS ‘Superpicket’, marking the first six weeks of the MyCSP strike, was a massive success. Not only was the turnout so big that we needed a really wide-angle shot to get everyone in; but the atmosphere was great throughout, something which carried on into the ‘after-picket party’ in the Lion.

But while the atmosphere was good outside the building, clearly inside the MyCSP offices, management were projecting some serious toxicity.

Firstly, management fixed up a ‘Teams’ meeting where they’ve told everyone they plan to talk about the industrial action, and promptly sent the invitation to all the strikers, suggesting that they had to attend too.

Then management started threatening strikers with disciplinary investigations for taking part in the strike.

PCS are in the process of writing to the home email address of all members in MyCSP, to respond to management’s latest clumsy attempt at intimidating its own workforce. (Spoiler Alert: If you’re on strike, they can’t make you go to the Teams meeting; and they can’t discipline you for taking part in what the law accepts is a ‘protected strike’).

In fact, when we told one of our Headquarters Officials about the Teams meeting and the threat of discipline, they told Transferring Values:

“I don’t know who’s advising their managers, but it’s entirely possible that they come to work in a Clown Car.”

Gallows 'Poll'

It looks like the same management that has spent the last few months trying to keep unions out of the office, is going to press ahead with its management-run ‘poll’, regarding whether or not there should be union recognition for the office.

Given MyCSP management’s distinct lack of impartiality on the subject; coupled with their obvious fondness for trying to intimidate any members of staff who don’t agree with them, there’s no chance that anyone is going to consider their ‘poll’ as anything other than an attempt to manufacture an anti-union position in the workplace.

Incidentally, management’s little foray into pretending to listen to people, has once again meant that MyCSP has found its way into the pages of Civil Service World. You can find the article here. Enjoy.