Fujitsu gov workers strike Monday: Unite on, PCS off Unionised Fujitsu workers have called off their strike set for Monday after bosses at the firm "doubled" the pot of money available for pay rises with an additional £500,000 brought to the negotiating table. This is according to the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union which following a ballot of its 720 members planned …
A lesson to all of you private sector workers, who froth with rage whenever a union stands up for its members, and roll out the usual "My job is shit and I haven't had a raise in five years so why should you get one!" complaints in their race to the bottom. Good work, PCS! And enjoy your 11%, Fujitsu workers as I'm sure it was richly deserved (as made evident by the raises and bonuses that hitherto only the managers there were enjoying).
The General Secretary of PCS, Mark Serwotka, when elected asked to be paid the average wage of the members that he represents. The general secretaries of other unions kicked off big style at this as it would make them look bad. Mark draws his salary and gives the difference between that and the average wage of the members that he represents to PCS's hardship fund.
Have a pop at union leaders if you like, I agree with you largely, but you've missed the target in this case. That isn't silence that you hear, but it is only a single voice so I can understand why you might have missed it.
no the tax payer won't be picking this up. It'll be out of the vast profits the company get from charging the tax payer for their services. So it'll be the share holders that pay, not that they'd notice the small amount. The senior VP's might get a reduced bonus though. The contract charges are fixed.
It means more people in the UK will have more money to spend, with more tax being paid.
No I'm not in the public sector. Not in a union either.
The taxpayer does pick up the bill.
The Fujitsu contact is negotiated with the HMRC periodically, on a non-competitive basis and all Fujitsu has to show is that is cost base has gone up, and the HMRC pays more. The shareholders get the same non-competitive rate of return and are unaffected.
The public pays because we have no say and cannot use a cheaper alternative service.
This is not really a private sector business unit, but a public sector one that got TUPE'd over but which is still given a single stream of business with no competition, and able to choose what price it charge.
The tax payer will only pick up part of the bill, Fujitsu will pick up some, but their empolyees will probably pick up most of it. A lot of Fujitsu's employees have bonuses linked to profitability and if profits are affected because of a pay rise that was not forecast then the bonuses will be reduced or not paid at all.
You are correct that Fujitsu can say to HMRC that their cost base has increased and justify a increase in charges. However, the periodic reviews that have happened over the past 4 years have always resulted in some senior mgr @ HMRC saying "we have overspent", "our budget has been cut", "we wish to invest in some new technology but can't afford it", "have we got an oppurtunity for you!" . These have always resulted in a significant reduction in charges (many millions per year).
To be honest if our government started to treat it's IT infrastructure like it was one business rather than 100's of businesses costs would reduce significantly.
AC because Yes I work for Fujitsu, No I am not in either of the two unions and Yes I was involved in the HMRC contract over the past 4 years.
Working for Fujitsu on a government contract, and a member of PCS.... transferred under TUPE, which only lasts a year...
Hardly reaching the 'starting salary' for IT helpdesk personnel, yet we're doing more than just that role, an 11% payrise we wont be around to see because we're looking at being made redundant by 2012... It has been on the books for a while and ontop of that treated like **** the whole time! Wouldnt be too bad if they could get any procedure or policy correct...
It makes me sick...
Go figure that one
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