The election for the management appointees (they will have to be pre-approved by the Bank so staff won’t have a free choice) who will be sat on the Bank’s new forums will be announced shortly.
Also, we now know that those two apologies for trade unions, Accord and Unite, rolled over when Lloyds threatened to derecognise both organisations for all staff in Grades A-G. The General Secretary of Accord said: “The risk was we’d lose the recognition arrangements through all the work force if we didn’t sign”. Having been utterly humiliated by Lloyds, he then, bizarrely, goes on to claim that it wasn’t “union-bashing” and “in fairness to Lloyds they’ve never been an anti-union company”. It’s as though Accord are suffering from the organisational equivalent of so-called Stockholm Syndrome (where hostages or captives develop positive feelings towards their captors). So, dependant is Accord in particular on Lloyds for financial support and defending its agenda – at the expense of all staff – it’s lost the ability to act independently of the Bank.
Instead of facing Lloyds down and telling it where to get off, Accord and Unite agreed not to challenge what it was doing or criticise it in communications with their members.
The three new forums – ‘People’s Forum’, ‘People’s Consultation Forum’ and the ‘Management Advisory Forum’ – read like the organisational structure of the Chinese Communist Party. As an engagement strategy for a leading organisation, it’s laughably amateurish and naïve.
The problem with low rent senior executives is they steal an idea that works in other organisations and implement it in Lloyds claiming it’s the best thing since sliced bread. It isn’t, and it never works. The culture of Lloyds is different from Google, Amazon, Apple, or any other tech company. Lloyds staff, whether or not they are union members, are going to be less engaged knowing that their terms and conditions of employment and working lives are being decided by a bunch of self-serving careerists in forums that Lloyds controls. They will understand that the real purpose of these forums is to try to snuff out any independent commentary and silence what has come to be termed ‘employee voice’.
In its communication on the new forums, Lloyds said the role of representatives:
“……provides a unique opportunity for colleagues where you’ll be able to develop new skills and grow your career, as well as network or engage with senior leaders across the Group.”.
Is that the kind of representative Grades D+ staff want to look after their interests; careerists who are only interested in promotion opportunities or those who like to network with senior managers?
This new cadre of amateur careerists will agree to anything Lloyds wants on a range of issues including:
Pensions
Redundancies
Redundancy terms
Pay
Bonuses
Grading
Working from home
Compressed working arrangements
Changes to contracts of employment
TUPE transfers
The idea that 61 careerists and Bank appointed stooges could represent the collective interests of Lloyds staff is a joke. The fact that the two weakest links, Accord and Unite, have let it happen and done nothing about it tells you all you need to know about those two organisations.
Let’s be clear none of this is going to change what we do. We will fight tooth and nail to protect all our members regardless of grade and by any means necessary including taking legal action when we think that’s appropriate.
We will be covering more of these issues in more detail in future Newsletters. In the meantime, members with any questions on this Newsletter should contact the Union’s Advice Team on 01234 262868 (choose Option 1).
MEMBERS SHOULD PASS THIS NEWSLETTER ON TO THEIR COLLEAGUES SO THEY TOO CAN BENEFIT FROM THE ONLY INDEPENDENT TRADE UNION IN LLOYDS AND HALIFAX