Victimisation of Reps – Support Jon Bigger
Members will be aware that recently a PCS rep in the Home Office Merseyside Branch was sacked after raising a grievance against his manager. This follows the sacking a couple of years ago of two high profile reps in the Home Office Group.
In our own branch the outgoing Branch Secretary, Jon Bigger has been surplus since June 2010. On being declared surplus he was told that every effort would be made to avoid his redundancy. However, earlier this week he was handed a Compulsory Redundancy Notice.
Jon has applied for numerous roles within the Home Office and for the vast majority of these he has been the only candidate. When declared surplus he was told that if he was the only candidate for a role then the process would be a matter of meeting the hiring manager informally before being slotted into the role. Instead, on each occasion Jon has been forced to take a formal interview. On one occasion he was forced to take a 2 hour test for a job in an area where he worked previously and in another he was told to prepare for a presentation and then wasn’t asked to deliver it at the interview.
He has been asked to jump though hoops, despite being the only candidate for roles and then he has been refused those roles.
The Home Office gave him his notice last week despite these issues and despite still advertising roles at his grade. They also did this despite the formal meetings between the Cabinet Office and PCS not coming to an end, although the Cabinet Office now seem to have pulled out of these meetings.
This is a scandalous way to treat a dedicated member of staff who has consistently told management that he is willing to work in any role in London across the civil service at his grade. Meanwhile others have been slotted into position during the redundancy process without having to be interviewed. We have to ask what is different about Jon? Why have management moved to end his contract without affording him the same help?
The answer is that Jon is a prominent trade union rep. Jon has successfully delivered industrial action, fought and publicised the issue of institutional racism within the organisation and consistently questioned the motives and activities of senior people. Jon is appealing the latest refusal to give him a role and the decision to make him redundant. We are also looking at legal options.
You can help in our campaign to keep Jon in the civil service. Next week we will be establishing a template letter you can send to the Permanent Secretary of the Home Office to seek him to re-consider the redundancy notice. When you get access to this letter it will simply be a matter of posting or emailing it to his office and we would urge everyone to do so.
Support your reps! They support you all year round and without them the union could not function.
Branch Executive Committee
Related articles
- Victimisation on the rise (morningstaronline.co.uk)
- Strike Ballot : Vote Yes! (pcsglobe.wordpress.com)
PCS Globe 
Reblogged this on Civil Service Rank & File Network and commented:
Reposted from the PCS Globe website. Following the case of Kevin Smith at Home Office Merseyside Branch, this is another worker victimised for organising.
The motion to CSRF Conference supporting Kevin Smith agreed to offer similar support for other victimised reps – further information of campaign activities in support of Jon’s case will follow.
sounds like a good case for unfair dismissal, and victimisation. But hopefully the PCS lawyers won’t wait until the horse has bolted and will get an injunction to prevent his dismissal. Now he has been served his notice the legal obligation to avoid redundancy kicks in. There is clearly suitable alternative employment available. He shoud ask for a trial period in the job the has been refused and is appealing.
Reblogged this on Trade Onion.