Memorandum from the Public and Commercial
Services Union
INTRODUCTION
1. The Public and Commercial Services Union
(PCS) represents more than 315,000 workers predominately in the
Civil Service but also increasingly in the private sector, particularly
where those jobs were once in the public sector. PCS is the biggest
trade union in the Ministry of Defence, with almost 20,000 members
working at every level of the Department.
2. We welcome the House of Commons Defence
Committee inquiry into the into the MoD's Annual Report and Accounts
2006-07 and can provide further oral evidence if required.
SUMMARY
3. We believe that the continued programme
of arbitrary job cuts across the MoD is creating a risk to both
service delivery and improved capability.
4. Two key areas of concern arise directly
from the CSR 07 round. MoD has decided to press ahead and attempt
to cut 30% of all "Head Office" posts before it can
properly understand how these jobs support the frontline and who
will do the work currently undertaken by these staff. In logistics
and procurement the likely cuts and outsourcing in Defence Equipment
and Support (DE&S) under PACE and Future Options will result
in an inherent loss of skills and experience at a time of overstretch
across the Top Level Budget (TLB).
5. We have serious concerns regarding further
reductions in staff providing logistics and procurement support
to the frontline in Iraq and Afghanistan.
6. We have serious concerns regarding the
roll-out of the £4 billion defence information infrastructure
programme (DII) which our members report is significantly behind
schedule and causing them many problems in carrying out their
day to day work.
7. We recommend that MoD urgently examines
the merits of a period of stabilisation and allows a period of
pause and reflection in order that the department can operate
at a steadily whilst the last period of change is bedded down
and the threat to the provision of support arising from the last
round of cuts is comprehensively assessed.
8. We urge the Defence Committee to investigate
the morale of civilian staff working in MoD and to assess the
impact of the previous round of cuts, privatisations and re-organisation,
and the resulting erosion in the ability of civilian staff to
provide critical support to the military frontline.
STREAMLINING
9. As part of the administrative costs regime
(ACR) and in response to the capability review of the MoD, the
Defence Management Board has proposed a 30% reduction in the size
of the MoD head office.
10. This will involve the loss of some 1,300
posts (1,000 civilian, 300 military) by 2010-11, together with
the transfer of a further 800 posts out of London, to achieve
cost savings of £50 million per annum. It would also see
the closure of Old War Office and the potential closure or rundown
of St Georges Court.
11. To date MoD has failed to tell staff
and unions how these cuts are to be achieved, apart from a vague
commitment to "reducing unnecessary process, cutting committees
and over-briefing, removing duplication, and building a more strategic,
focussed Head Office".
12. We have met with the department to discuss
streamlining and to seek assurances about a range of issues including
protection for staff from compulsory redundancy and/or compulsory
relocation.
13. We have also raised a number of concerns
with the department about the impact on service delivery and understanding
why MoD decided to cut 30% of all posts in London—job cuts
which are additional to those previously made to head office during
the last CSR, without a proper supporting business case and any
real regard to the livelihoods of MoD staff or the services that
they provide. We believe that the threats to support to the frontline
and to service delivery far outweigh the savings of less than
£150 million over three years it is claimed the cuts will
achieve.
14. We are also surprised that MoD has so
confidently claimed that streamlining will create "a Head
Office which has the right number of people of the right quality
working only on tasks that must be carried out at the Centre".
MoD imposed the 30% target before making any attempt to assess
the viability of such cuts, before examining the work undertaken
by the business units involved, and before assessing the impact
of the work done in London to support the frontline.
15. We also dispute the claim by MoD that
funds will be diverted to the front line. We are not aware of
any example where cuts to "back office" functions have
led to increased resources on the "frontline". We would
like MoD to explain how much money saved through job cuts has
been passed to the frontline, and how much support to the military
frontline has been improved by a constant process of cuts and
re-organisation.
FUTURE OPTIONS
16. PCS understands that as a result of
CSR 07 planning decisions the Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S)
TLB will be required to axe up to 8.000 jobs by April 2010. At
present there is a total of 27,000 staff in DE&S. Over the
three year Gershon period staff working for DE&S have seen
7,000 job cuts, the merger of the Defence Logistics Organisation
(DLO) and Defence Procurement Agency (DPA), the introduction of
the Defence Industrial Strategy and the Through Life Capability
Management (TLCM) approach, the collocation of jobs from around
the country to one site and large scale re-organisation.
17. Final plans are still in development
however we are aware that managers have been instructed to review
all organisational structures. We believe that crude arbitrary
cuts and further outsourcing of work is planned to meet these
targets.
18. PCS has recently gained an assurance
that if the requirement to cut over one in three posts is judged
to damage output and support to the military frontline, this would
be made clear to the Defence Management Board and Ministers. We
believe such concerns have already been made privately by senior
figures.
19. We believe that a further cut of 8,000
jobs would have a devastating impact on support to the frontline.
Our members in this area directly support the military in both
Iraq and Afghanistan and are responsible for supplying the military
with everything from bullets and protective clothing to food and
toilet rolls. We believe that our concerns are privately shared
by senior officials in the MoD but for obvious reasons these individuals
are reluctant to speak out.
20. We have serious concerns about further
cuts in staff providing essential logistics and procurement support
to the frontline in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is already clear
that a number of key skill sets have been degraded by the last
round of cuts and thousands of years of experience has been allowed
to leave the Department. PCS members working in these areas are
already reporting huge workload increases and many are working
unpaid overtime to ensure that essential work is carried out in
support of the troops. We believe that DE&S is already stretched
to breaking point and that a further round of cuts and transformational
change will push the TLB (and the loyalty of the workforce) to
breaking point.
21. We believe that at the very least where
functions are reviewed MoD should determine whether that function
is required and how many employees and what mix are required to
carry it out. Where a function is not required or where it is
reduced a penalty statement should be produced.
DEFENCE INFORMATION
INFRASTRUCTURE
22. The defence information infrastructure
programme (DII) intends to replace all IT systems within the MoD
with one system, at a budgeted cost of £4 billion. However,
since the contract was let to the ATLAS consortium (EDS, Fujitsu
and EADS, with a range of other lower tier providers) significant
problems have become apparent. Our members report that the roll-out
of new PCs is significantly behind schedule, leaving many to operate
with obsolete systems. There are also major problems with software,
as the new DII system seems unable to operate many of the applications
which our members need in order to carry out their day to day
tasks (and which ran perfectly well on their previous, albeit
outdated, systems).
23. A recent investigation by Channel Four News
and Computer Weekly Magazine (http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/science_technology/mod+system+unmitigated+disaster/1054057)
highlighted significant problems with the roll-out, as well as
revealing that the cost of the programme had increased to £5
billion (MoD Accounts). They also identified that the MoD's own
economic advisor was unable to certify that the bid from ATLAS
for increment 2a of DII represented value for money, yet MoD went
ahead with the contract despite having no performance data at
all on the performance of ATLAS during increment 1.
24. PCS has had concerns since the outset
of DII that the programme was too ambitious and placed too much
reliance on providers with a significant track record of failure
on other IT projects, both within the MoD and wider government.
Although the MoD has broken the contract up into increments for
delivery purposes, the whole contract has been given to ATLAS
without what we believe are sufficient safeguards relating to
price or performance.
25. We believe the Defence Committee should
investigate whether the delivery and performance difficulties
experienced by the ATLAS consortium are affecting support to the
front line and whether the current contract offers value for money.
STAFF MORALE
26. The recently published MoD Civilian
Attitude Survey indicates the collapse in trust and morale across
MoD that should be of concern to those at the top of the department.
27. 71% of staff who responded stated that
they have no confidence in senior MoD management. 65% of staff
reported that they felt their contribution was not value. Staff
also reported significant instances of bullying and harassment.
A significant proportion also reported failings in the performance
management and appraisal system, with meaningful objectives neither
being set nor measured. This contrasts with departmental assurances
of developing capability through individuals.
28. Civil servants working in MoD have seen
three years of constant transformational change as the department
imposed over 11,000 job cuts over the last spending period. Across
the department staff report that morale is low, resources are
stretched and record numbers of fellow workers are seeking to
leave the department owing to dissatisfaction and frustration.
MoD civilian staff are noted for their loyalty and commitment
to the armed forces (indeed many are related to or are former
serving military staff) therefore these are significant being
reported.
29. Our members do not feel they have the
resources or the opportunity to deliver the support to the frontline
that our military deserve. Our members question the rationale
behind ongoing cuts, privatisation and re-organisation, particularly
when troops are actively deployed in two conflicts. Our members
believe that MoD needs a period of stabilisation in which it can
operate steadily whilst the last period of change is bedded down.
The proposed head office and DE&S cuts should be urgently
reviewed.
30. We believe investigations should be
conducted into the morale of civilian staff working in MoD, and
the impact of the previous round of cuts, privatisations, re-organisation
and the resulting degraded ability of civilians to provide critical
support to the military frontline.
27 November 2007
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