Union members at Fujitsu Services have voted for strike action over pensions, pay and job cuts. The action is not yet decided. Senior Unite union reps are meeting today to decide the next move after 74 per cent of members who voted called for a walk out. Some 92 per cent agreed to industrial action short of a strike. A …
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Posted Monday 2nd November 2009 16:12 GMT
Whatever the internal rights and wrongs of this, the UK tax payer out sourced IT to Fujitsu, it was yet another classicly bad deal for the government to get the costs of out sourcing AND the threat of strikes...
Has any other out sourcing contract ever had a clause that allowed the out sourcer to strike?
Posted Monday 2nd November 2009 17:07 GMT
"Has any other out sourcing contract ever had a clause that allowed the out sourcer to strike?"
The UK is, believe it or not, a democracy. This means that with the exception of certain key services (armed forces, emergency services), workers may perfectly legally withdraw their labour.
If somebody was trying to take my pension off me, I might well strike too.
Posted Monday 2nd November 2009 17:07 GMT
And now they decide to strike as well!
Seriously though, I'm fairly certain that government IT will only get better if Fujitsu stop pissing around with it, now all we've got to do is persuade EDs to strike as well!
Nonymous 'cause I'm at the sharp end of this deal.
Paris because I want to.
Posted Monday 2nd November 2009 17:07 GMT
I'm not sure I understand your post. The right to strike is somewhat blurrily defined in UK law, certainly the requirements on the unions to call strikes are well defined, exactly what the workers' right to strike is is not as clear.
What I don't understand is your implication that it is possible to write an outsourcing contract which precludes the right to strike. Assuming that there is a right to strike (as I say not as clearcut as it could be), then Fujitsu or any other outsourcer would have no right to sign a contract where they committed that their employees would not strike.
I would assume that the Ts & Cs for Govt. contracts would be no different in this to private sector clients.
Posted Monday 2nd November 2009 17:07 GMT
I guess we are back in the 70s. There are government-related strikes in Britain, the Dems got the White House again with a president who has the same philosophy as Carter, Labour has everyone in the UK cheesed off, car companies are getting government bailouts, governments are spending their way out of debts (?!), bad fashion is back, the Prius looks like AMC/BL warmed over, greens are loony, commies are starting to dominate the globe, a Nobel Peace Prize is given to a US President, ...
If disco returns, though, I'm taking a hostage. And I don't think I'm alone in that.
Posted Tuesday 3rd November 2009 00:03 GMT
Don't see what you mean, don't government establishments generally also have the right to strike?
I'm asking cause I don't actually know, thought most government workers still had the right to strike...
Posted Tuesday 3rd November 2009 00:03 GMT
Fujitsu (for example) run some Government IT.
Fujitsu staffers go on strike.
That does not mean that Government IT goes on strike - even those bits provided by Fujitsu.
I would expect all Government outsourcing contracts to specify the required service levels and also to specify a regime of service credits to be paid in the event of the contractual service levels not being met.
Fujitsu surely have an obligation to ensure that all required systems are up and running, even if their staff on strike.
Could work out expensive if a strike day were to coincide with a high volume workload day.
(AC because I don't want anyone coming after me if by some chance all the IT falls over on the first strike day. Nothing to do with me, guv.)
Posted Tuesday 3rd November 2009 10:19 GMT
How will we know?
p.s. Jeremy 3, it's 'loses' not 'looses' – a common but ugly mistake.
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