Defence reps meet in London to drive sector forward

Senior defence reps across the public and private sectors met in person at Prospect’s HQ in Rochester Row, London on Thursday, 10 September for discussions on industrial, organising and legal updates, as well to debate and vote on a couple of motions.

Opening the meeting and welcoming the reps, Defence Sector President, Helen Carp spoke about the importance of regularly bringing the sector together.

“I know there are lots and lots of common issues… The members drive Prospect and the members drive us, and then we [reps] drive the sector. So, it’s really exciting… and we have an action-packed agenda.”

First item on the agenda, Bob King, Prospect National Secretary, gave a strategy and political update:  a “whistle stop tour of everything that’s going on around the sector.”

His presentation demonstrated the breadth of work going on across Prospect’s defence sector. It touched upon areas such as:

• Recent war games exposing supply chain resilience
• The dreadful state of defence estates and infrastructure
• AUKUS, nuclear skills shortages and a reciprocal partnership with Prospect’s sister union in Australia, Professionals Australia
• Latest political appointments, Prospect’s nomination of Steve Turner, to be the next General Secretary of the CSEU (Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions) and TUC defence motions
• GCAP, the Global Combat Air Programme, and the issue of UK defence workers transferring into it, losing their UK employment rights, health and safety protections, and union representation
• The Employment Rights Act, access rights and e-balloting

Later in the day, Bob and other Prospect officials also gave industrial updates on their respective coalitions, such as the Defence Nuclear Group, BAE Systems, Babcock, and the Scotland coalition.

Motions

Two last minute motions had been submitted to the meeting.

Bob King had earlier said: “Those of you who’ve heard me speak before will know that I get frustrated by the lack of direction. We’re honoured with the trust that members put into us, but we’d also very much like to know what you want us to do, because that’s what we do. We don’t just go away and make this stuff up; we’re guided by policy.”

Of the two presented motions, he added, “That’s exactly what we need more of.”

Motion 1: Opposition to mandatory 60% office attendance (DSTL)

DSTL branch proposed a motion to “oppose the continued application of a mandatory 60% office attendance requirement where there is no demonstrable business need.”

Further, it “calls upon the Defence Leadership to adopt a flexible, evidence-based approach to workplace attendance that empowers local decision-making” and to “support branches in undertaking campaigns and actions.”

The motion was carried with many reps in attendance speaking in support of its objectives.

Motion 2 – Appropriate Prospect representation for defence civil servants (DSTL)

Another motion, also proposed by DSTL, sought to address a situation, they say, where “Prospect Civil Servant (CS) members in the Defence Sector… have no means to get together to discuss just MOD CS issues within the Prospect sphere… The only body that exists is this Defence Sector, which packs together both private and public defence sectors – both of which have different issues, different perspectives…”

The motion proposed the formal creation of a group within the Defence Sector for all MOD CS and other relevant branches, to ensure such members are properly represented.

This motion caused some discussion among the reps, where it soon became apparent that some defence branches in the private sector, who would be excluded from the new group, are still affected by civil service decisions.

It was generally agreed that the sentiment behind the motion was appealing but that the practicalities still required some thought. One idea was for another coalition to be created. As a result, and with the agreement of the branch, the motion was remitted.

Training, legal and working groups

Other sessions during the day-long meeting included, Oli Robertson, Prospect’s defence organiser, outlining the training opportunities within the sector, such as on case handling, reps training, combatting sexual harassment and in organising.

He also specifically asked the assembled reps for any feedback and suggestions they had on courses they had attended, or whether reps felt there were any particular gaps in the training programme.

Laura Pearce, Prospect’s Acting Head of Legal, presented a refresher course on the time limits around different sorts of claims and dismissals.

Research and data officer Rodney  Wheeler presented the findings of a recent survey on neurodiversity in the defence sector. His briefing is available to download from the Prospect Library.

There were also updates on a couple of developments from the Employment Rights Act that are coming into effect: Access Rights and a new statutory role for equality reps.