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.