Category Archives: Fair Work

Dialogue Wins As Parliamentary Candidates Pledge Action

On 2nd December, 181 people from 19 diverse community organisations gathered at Church of Christ the Cornerstone to hear MK’s parliamentary candidates introduce themselves and respond to the campaign interests of Citizens:mk alliance.

The event aimed to promote respectful dialogue for more informed voting at the General Election on 12th December. All candidates were invited and co-chairs Kurshida Mirza of Truby’s Garden Tea Room and Neil Hutchinson of MK Academy (pictured above) expressed disappointment that the Conservative Party candidates for MK North and South, held by Conservative MPs since 2010, were unable to attend this Citizens:mk assembly because they were busy elsewhere.

A rap video was played, Planet Water by pupils from Orchard Academy primary school (see lyrics), and some attendees put on Greta Thunberg masks (pictured above) to show solidarity with the children and young people in MK and around the world who are campaigning for action on climate change.

After short welcome speeches from Rev George Mwaura and MK Mayor Sam Crooks (pictured below), the presentations from Citizens:mk’s campaign leaders (pictured below) got underway:

After everyone was asked to have a short one-to-one conversation with someone they didn’t know (pictured below) the six attending parliamentary candidates made their five-minute presentations, each strictly timed by Boyzie Morse of MK Quaker Meeting.

The candidates were asked to respond to the following questions:

  1. why are you standing for election? (one minute)
  2. response to one question selected by Citizens:mk Leadership Group from questions emailed in advance by registered attendees:  If elected, how would you make sure your priority is to Milton Keynes before your party, and how would you ensure the views of local residents aren’t ignored?  (one minute)
  3. response to Citizens:mk Asks below (two minutes).

The asks – If elected, will you…

  1. Attend and contribute to our Annual Assembly
  2. Convene meetings we arrange with local business and other leaders, in support of a local Campaign (one per year)
  3. Call for and support in Parliament measures conducive to our local  campaigns
  4. Meet with our Leadership Team twice a year for one hour, either in MK or Westminster.

These were the candidates and their responses:

  • Alan Francis, The Green Party (MK South) – see video
  • Stephen Fulton, Independent (MK South) – see video
  • Hannah O’Neill, Labour Party (MK South) – see video
  • Aisha Mir, Liberal Democrats (MK North) – see video
  • Charlynne Pullen, Labour Party (MK North) – see video
  • Catherine Rose, The Green Party (MK North) – see video

In the absence of the Conservative candidates, the Leader of the Conservative group on MK Council was given the opportunity to read statements from them (pictured below). He pledged to organise a meeting between any Conservative MP(s) elected and members of Citizens:mk Leadership Group within three months of the election.

Saleyha Ahsan, Liberal Democrat candidate for MK South, sent her apologies for absence due to ill health.

In a group Evaluation immediately after, the event was scored 8 out of 10, with points being dropped for lower than target turnout and insufficient audibility of all speakers. As Headteacher Neil Hutchinson later pointed out, “this would be a very high grade in GCSE or A level!”

Photos by Liam Hyatt. Filming by Chris Valentine.

Fair Work Round Table Wins pledges for action

30 people from six member and 4 non-member institutions attended the Fair Work Round Table at St. Augustine’s Catholic Church in Heelands.

The aim was to share issues of inequality at work, build relationships with parliamentary candidates for MK North and, through open dialogue, develop ideas for common goals to which candidates will be asked to pledge commitment at a Parliamentary Candidates Assembly on Monday 2nd December.

After a welcome from Debbie Wilson of MK Quakers and Fr Francis Higgins of St. Augustine’s, and special addresses from Mayor Sam Crooks (pictured) and Ian Revell of MK Community Foundation, who presented latest Vital Signs findings on work and the economy), various testimonies of unfair working practices were heard:

Hala Alify of Trubys Garden Tea Room talked about a lack of transparency of contract and termination processes when she was fired from a zero-hours contract, after more than two years of continuous service, by email.

Marion Cole of Works4Us talked about how her organisation supports workers in this situation.

Rukhsana Malik of MK Muslim Association announced the results of an online survey conducted by Citizens:mk between September and November.

Nick Peacock, Managing Director of Ascendant Recruitment, spoke from a recruitment employer’s perspective. He explained his feelings of discomfort at watching workers being unfairly treated in zero hours contracts.

Wider research on fair work policies was presented by Jane Whild of The Open University and Professor Susan Edwards of University of Buckingham.

Jess Goble of the national Living Wage Foundation talked about the Real Living Wage and a new national Living Hours campaign.

David  Chapman of Church of Christ the Cornerstone and Hala Afify of Truby’s Garden Tea Room asked for reactions from guest parliamentary candidates, Charlynne Pullen of the Labour Party and Aisha Mir of the Liberal Democrats (The Conservative Party was invited).

Each was asked to agree to include a statement of support for Fair Work in Milton Keynes. Aisha Mir, the Liberal Democrat candidate, agreed that she would include the Fair Work Team’s recommended statement in her maiden speech:

“Milton Keynes is proud to be a place with good employment opportunities for all, and I will be working with local employers, community groups and Citizens:MK to further strengthen fair work practices in the city. Milton Keynes is committed to ensuring that all workers receive a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work and intends to lead the way with best practice fair employment contracts.”

Charlynne Pullen, the Labour Party candidate also agreed to include these words her maiden speech, with the proviso that she would add ‘trade unions’ to the list of people she would work with in order to strengthen fair work practices,

Other parliamentary candidates will be asked to make a similar Fair Work pledge, as well as pledges for action on other Citizens:mk campaigns, at the Parliamentary Candidates Assembly on 2nd December.

Fair Work campaigners disappointed not to see MP in Westminster

Hala Afify’s team of Fair Work campaigners were disappointed not to see their MP, Rt Hon Mark Lancaster, at the end of their day with Citizens UK in London.

Mark’s PA had explained he was too busy with work at the Ministry of Defence, but campaigners hoped their gift of fresh cookies would give him a break for a few minutes!

In the end Hala and the cookies didn’t get past Reception.

David Chapman of Church of Christ the Cornerstone said: “I know MPs are busy but it is disappointing that my MP seems so hard to get to speak to. We are quite a friendly bunch and would have enjoyed sharing our cookies with him! But it was an enjoyable outing all the same, and hopefully we’ll get to speak to Mark back in Milton Keynes sooner rather than later.”

The team is determined to see Mr. Lancaster, to ask him for advice and support in their campaign to address the issus of unfair dismissal from zero hours contracts and termination of contract by email, and look forward to meeting with him soon.

In photos below, Hala and the team with the cookies and a card outside the MoD. (Note in the photo above BBC reporter Laura Kuenssberg also out and about in Westminster at that time – yes that’s her!)

Of the Citizens UK Delegates Assembly which the team attended during the day, Rob Paton of MK Quaker Meeting said: “It was another uplifting day with Citizens. The agenda we all came up with is quite distinctive. Its politics, Jim, but not as we know it…’

Researching ‘fair work’ at stadium:mk

On the night of freezing 29th January, a small team of Citizens:mk leaders ventured to Stadium:mk, the home of MK Dons FC, for their game against Oldham Athletic.

The purpose of this research action was to find out from workers at Stadium:mk, including both security and catering staff, how they perceived their experiences of working there.

The action began at IKEA nearby, where workers there were asked about their experiences of working at IKEA. Three staff members were approached and all three said they were happy working for IKEA, highlighting the benefits of permanent contracts, flexible hours and progression opportunities. They felt cared for by the management team.

At Stadium:mk, seven workers were asked, and the responses were more mixed. Most felt loyal to the club, but raised a range of including free parking facilities and promotion opportunities, both of which seemed very limited. One security supervisor had been in role for seven years with no pay increase or progression.

One young security attendant was wearing just a fluorescent bib over her own clothes said the flourescent coats had run out. Others said that the 50p subsidy on hot drinks (sale price £2.20) was too low.

This first ‘Fair Work’ research action was deemed successful in terms testing the questions which can now be used in similar research actions with workers from other companies in MK.

Fortunately, because it was really cold, Dons won 2-1, though it was a bit of a scrape!

Leaders Forum launches research teams

Citizens:mk’s annual Leaders Forum, this year hosted by St. Paul’s Catholic School, attracted 40 people including leaders from 16 member institutions and some external guests.  Each member institution presented one or two priority social problems arising from their listening campaigns, powerful testimonies were heard and the following research teams (with named leaders and institutions) pledged to work over the winter months with the goal of reporting to Delegates Assembly on 5th February:

  • Cycle Safety – Craig Broadbent, Deborah Cooper and Phil Ashbourne of Green Alliance, Leo Nicholas of St. Paul’s Catholic School; The Open University.
  • Fair Deal/Work – Hala Afify and Linda McComie of Truby’s Garden Tea Room, William Appaih of St. Augustine’s Catholic Church; Middle East Cultural Group.
  • Housing & Homelessness – Lawrence Morgan and Carol Barac of Green Alliance, Ayser Al jawad of Middle East Cultural Group.
  • Mental Health – Saira Sajid of MK Academy; Gabi and Tom Navin of St. Paul’s Catholic School, William Appaih of St. Augustine’s Catholic Church.
  • Police at Primary Level – Tony Berwick of Jubilee Wood Primary School, Kate Matthews of Southwood Primary School; St. Paul’s Catholic School.
  • Refugees Welcome Schools – Elysia Roach of St. Paul’s Catholic School, Craig Warne of NASUWT, Susie Hancock of The Open University.
  • Youth for Elderly – Richard Lyons of St. Frideswide’s Church, Sofia Hassan of Middle East Cultural Group, Rachel Redford of The Open University.

The goal of each team is to create SMART campaign goals to propose to the Delegates Assembly on 5th February 2019, where three campaigns will be selected for action with power holders at the Accountability Assembly on 25th April 2019.

Research team leaders were asked to contact Community Organiser Tom Bulman, tel 07962 838685,  asking him to attend their first research team meeting and deliver training to the team.

An alliance-wide training workshop has been arranged for Saturday 1st December 2018, 9.30am-1.30pm at St. Frideswide’s Church, where leaders from all teams/institutions will receive Action Research training from Tom and Jonathan Cox of Citizens UK.

In post-event evaluation, this internal action was scored 8/10.

Below are pictures from Leaders Forum 2018.

 

Hala’s testimony

Driving on the M1 to attend the 6-Day leadership training course organised by Citizens UK, I could not help but thinking how I got involved with this organisation and what am I going to benefit from this course.

Only six weeks before, I was working as an Arabic Language tutor with the Ministry of Defence (MOD), I loved my job and the rapport that I built with my students over the two and half years that I worked there was great. I was looking forward to the summer holidays, a time in which my family and I go back to Cairo to see our relatives. Then the bomb shell fell, I received a notice of termination of contract with immediate effect.

I was devastated, considering this decision came only after ten days from the renewal of my contract.

I realised that as a contractor I did not have any rights under zero-hour contracts, unlike employees who could go to a tribunal for unfair dismissal, nor did I have the right to appeal. I was, in every sense of the word, stuck and the overwhelming feeling of injustice and shock engulfed me to the point of despair.

Then I bumped into a dear friend of mine, Kurshida Mirza, at the door step of the Citizen’s Advice Bureau in Milton Keynes. I told her about my ordeal and she suggested that I speak to the community organiser of Citizens:mk, Tom Bulman. Tom and I met and he mentioned the 6-Day training course.

Driving back home after finishing the course, my head was full of ideas, plans, questions, answers, good memories, but above all, a sense of relief due to the skills I acquired during the course.

On the first day of training, we were engaged in the most interesting yet provocative role play; The Athenian/Melian Dialogue. At the beginning of the task, I had so many detestable stereotypical views about power holders, and very favourable opinions about ordinary people whose only power is to take the moral high-ground. To my utter surprise, at the end of the task I appreciated the Athenians, the power holders, and wanted to emulate their tactics and vision. The lesson I learnt is that power is good and it is a force to be embraced, not shunned. Relational power is the ultimate power to be sought and this can be achieved by conducting 121s, establishing self- interest, acquiring leadership role, and actively building core teams to serve the goal of the group or the campaign.

The other crucial concept is that of bringing about change to achieve social justice. The experience I had with the termination of my contract left me feeling isolated and helpless. However, when I started thinking that I would not want anyone to feel what I felt, I realised that the change I am seeking is not only to benefit myself but every contractor who may experience such treatment under the terms of such contracts, and this emboldened me with a sense of purpose.

I went to a course in leadership, however there is no real leader without followers; followers who share the vision, feel the same pain, are power hungry in the wider sense of the word.
So, I need to hear from people who have been in the same unfortunate position, people whose contracts have been terminated abruptly, people who want to see changes in the terms of self-employment and zero-hour contracts, people who want to follow me in my campaign against these contracts.