The Background
During the past few months PCS has been involved in consultation meetings with the employer around their intention to offer a new opt-in opportunity for staff currently on SDA & AAA to opt in to the employer’s preferred AHA system.
The offer has now been publicised to enable those in scope to make a decision as to whether they want to accept the offer. This MB will seek to address the offer itself and identify ‘positive & negative aspects associated with the issue.
The offer represents the following and is available from the 9th December till 19th January 2014:
- A non-consolidated, non-pensionable and taxable payment of £2750.00 which will be paid to those who opt in at the end of March 2014.
- One year’s pay protection will apply from 1st April 2014.
(SDA staff -If your current SDA & Holiday
Pay together amount to more than your new
Flexibility and RSA together then that will be
Protected.)
Once you opt in your decision is final – you cannot change your mind.
The employer has been busy issuing communications to staff to the extent that they are committed to creating only one system for determining reward for shift attendance patterns. They are committed to phasing out SDA over a two year period but can’t say how or when they’ll achieve this because SDA is a contractual agreement. It will take considerable time & legal processes to remove SDA.
In some areas these messages have been particularly robust as to the disincentivising of staff on SDA terms. PCS has concerns that such communications may verge on harassment & bullying and we have made the employer aware we will not accept the behaviour that was in evidence throughout the last opt in window in 2010. Staff deserve to be treated with respect & given encouragement rather than be exposed to threats.
At this stage Border Force have not issued such messages and PCS hopes that their approach and engagement over the current opt in will be reasoned and respectful to our members.
The Current Position
PCS has been told that moving shift working staff on to AHA will lead to significant savings but we await evidence of this claim (Currently it’s cheaper to pay SDA staff to work Saturdays than the AHA Saturday option)
The current AHA uptake in individual locations along with new opt in uptake will decide whether the employer may or may not be in a position to restrict pre 0600 starts, weekend & premium day working and overtime to AHA staff and deprive SDA staff of such opportunities. You will know the situation in your own location.
Members in every location may choose to retain a greater control around their work/life balance and remain on SDA as they then have a choice about these aspects of their working life.
Moving to AHA means your shift lengths can be extended or decreased on the day to suit business needs. It also means scheduling of shifts from 6 hours to 12 hours long. Members may prefer to retain their predictive pattern of 5 attendances per week and the choice of whether or not they want to work overtime.
Work areas where there is no nightshift requirement and restricted weekend/premium day work requirements are likely to be most at risk of reduced percentages after pay protection ends. This means less money every month. Is this your area?
SDA Rhetoric
Members on SDA cannot have failed to notice the rhetoric coming from the Department on SDA. Descriptions of it being ‘unacceptable’ have recently come from senior managers. It is perhaps pertinent to remember that SDA was and is a Home Office set of terms and conditions given by the Department to staff who they wished to be able to work shifts. If it was so unacceptable then why were staff given this set of terms and conditions? Add to that the fact that at least one senior manager was telling trade unions until recently that SDA was the business’ preferred option for their area of the business, and it is clear the real reason for the attacks on SDA and those who receive it.
Saving money!!!
ICE and CFI areas
AHA arrangements are particularly challenging in ICE teams & CFI teams due to the requirement to task jobs within a realistic timescale after the support package is received, to ensure greater success. It is therefore very difficult to deliver on the predictability element of AHA to an extent that it can reasonably support a healthy work/life balance.
There has been a general acceptance for many years that rosters should be published at least 4 or 5 weeks in advance of commencement but some staff on AHA in these areas have continually experienced unacceptably short notice of their rostered attendance and even less of subsequent changes to their rosters despite the requirements of the rostering toolkit which confirms as much notice as possible should be given.
Employers have a duty of care to their staff and that extends to rostering arrangements
Can I Be Forced Out Of SDA?
In a word. No.
In the minutes of the October Public Accounts Committee, when asked directly why there were still so many staff on SDA, the Home Office Permanent Secretary states – “People can’t be forced. They can be incentivised but they can’t be forced.”
So please be clear, you cannot be forced out of SDA if you choose to remain in the same job on those terms and conditions.
The Last Opt In Window
The farce of the last opt-in window is well remembered by many, and its repercussions still echo today. It is important to remember the following facts about that window –
The last opt-in window offered staff more money and a longer period of pay protection than this one.
AHA rates offered at the time of the window often reduced drastically at the time pay protection ended.
The lump sum received was fully taxed.
Many SDA staff ended up losing hundreds of pounds per month once the pay protection disappeared.
AHA rates can and do vary and can be reduced during the course of any given year.
In many areas the rotas given to those who took AHA, following the window, have been anything but family friendly, and the work life balance of those who signed up has deteriorated massively.
The Future For SDA
The Department state that they will ‘incentivise’ AHA and ‘disincentivise’ SDA, though in some areas they appear to have been inadvertently doing exactly the opposite…. Members need to understand that this means in areas they can and will reduce instances of weekend working, and some Senior Managers are also threatening ‘additional measures’ (currently unspecified) to pressurise SDA staff onto AHA.
Members may get a clue about the Departments future plans from additional questions raised in the Public Accounts Committee. The Permanent Secretary was asked whether negotiations were taking place to move staff from SDA, and how and on what terms that may happen. PCS would prefer open, substantive and constructive negotiations on this subject than the threats and attacks that already seem to have started in from some areas of the business. If negotiations were to take place then the more staff remaining on SDA the stronger our hand in the discussions.
Considerations For SDA staff
All in all members may prefer to retain stability in their salary and attendance patterns and have greater control over their income and work/life balance.
Members are advised to fully research all aspects of the offer before reaching a decision and to calculate whether reducing weekend working is likely in the short term in their work location. Furthermore they will need to consider the long-term financial impact of reductions in weekend working that will eventually occur, whether that may be in 2014 or years hence. Some members may gain through signing up to AHA; for others they will be better off on SDA even if they lose weekends. It is a personal decision based on your place of work, its SDA / AHA ratios, and your personal circumstances.
To carry out realistic comparisons members are advised to take great care over the accuracy of information input to the online calculators.
The reality though is that AHA is the Department’s ‘preferred’ set of terms and conditions. It is currently the case that if you accept promotion or make a voluntary move to another job or location then you must take AHA, so the ratio of SDA / AHA will gradually increase in favour of AHA, even if no one opts into this window.
PCS Advice
Members must weigh up all the information and reach a decision that is appropriate for their own situation but before doing so please:
- Make sure you absolutely understand what’s being offered
- Make sure you read the small print carefully
- Make sure you understand what the change means for you/your family
- Make sure you understand the impact on your working arrangements
- Make sure you understand what changes can be made to your shifts and when
- Make sure you understand how/when your shifts can be extended
- Make sure you discuss the situation with your family
- Make sure you consider the non-work aspects of your life and how things will fit
- Make sure you understand this will apply to the rest of your operational career within the HO
- Make sure you’re aware the financial incentive is liable to taxation
- Make sure you understand that take home pay protection lasts only for 12 months
- Make sure you understand that percentages offered can decrease as well as increase
- Make sure you understand that AHA rates in Ice Teams & CFI Teams are lower due to absence of night-time working and lower incidence of weekend working
- Make sure you’re clear what’s being offered to you
- Make sure you check & recheck your calculations
- Make sure it’s right for you & your family
- Make sure you understand the decision is final
Please direct questions to any of the PCS officers named below if you need further advice.
Michael.Chew@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
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