Union Mail – August 2012

Internal Fraud Policy

Over the past few weeks we have participated in a review of the Internal Fraud Policy, and a Joint Statement (NBS04/2012) outlining a number of agreed changes to the Policy was published last week. This is an important Policy and we strongly recommend that NGSU members, particularly those working in the branch network, take time to read the Policy and associated guidance to ensure they comply with its requirements at all times.

Fortunately incidents of employee fraud are still rare but from time to time the Union is required to support members who have inadvertently breached procedures which fall within the scope of the Internal Fraud Policy. To help minimise these incidents the Policy and associated guidance have been revised to give greater clarity about the types of transactions and activities that employees can conduct on their personal Nationwide accounts (and those of their partners/relatives) using Society systems.

Employees are allowed to view account balances, print mini-statements and update passbooks with previous transactions if they are a named account holder but must not conduct any financial transactions. Employees (other than Senior Financial Consultants) are not allowed to conduct ANY transactions on the accounts of their partner or relatives. SFCs are allowed to sell products to partners and relatives but must inform their Area Sales Manager (ASM), normally in advance, so that the case can be reviewed.

If you have any doubts about the types of transactions you can do please ask your manager for clarification before conducting the transaction.

Disciplinary Action

The Union supports Nationwide’s activity to tackle internal fraud and accepts that the option to instigate disciplinary action for breaches of policies and procedures is a necessary part of the prevention strategy. However, we have been increasingly concerned that all breaches, including inadvertent mistakes, have been automatically considered to be gross misconduct, prompting disciplinary action to be called at dismissal level – even though it is accepted that a lesser sanction is the appropriate outcome. This causes individuals an unnecessary level of anxiety and stress.

As part of the review of the Policy we have asked the Society to take a more considered approach when determining the appropriate level for disciplinary action and we are pleased to report that this has been agreed. The revised Policy now recognises the need to manage cases appropriately and disciplinary action will be called at a level which is relevant to the circumstances in each case.

Instances where an employee’s actions are considered to fall within the agreed definition of fraud will still be considered to be gross misconduct and could result in dismissal and prosecution. The Society now operates a range of detection and monitoring systems, and fraudulent activity will be identified.

Any NGSU member facing disciplinary should contact the Union immediately for advice and support.
Tim Poil
General Secretary

Holiday Competition Winner

We are pleased to announce that the winner of our 40th Anniversary Holiday Competition is Gary Smart-Stead who works in E Support in Bournemouth Administration Centre (BAC). The competition draw was held on 1 August 2012 in Nationwide House and Gary’s winning entry was drawn by Louisa Flaviani, Head of Employee Relations, HR.

Gary wins up to £1000 towards the cost of a holiday booked with Whitesands Travel, part of the NGSU Travel Club operated by Benchmark Travel. Congratulations Gary – have fun and don’t forget to send us a postcard! Thanks to Whitesands Travel for their generous sponsorship of this prize.

The NGSU Travel Club offers genuine discounts for NGSU members. Whitesands Travel specialises in luxury and tailor made holidays. Benchmark Travel is the specialist for packages – weekend breaks, flights, hotels, car hire and everything else and aims to beat internet, teletext and travel agents’ prices 99% of the time.

Call the holiday hotlines to see how much you can save:

Whitesands Travel: 01422 893660
www.whitesandstravel.co.uk

Benchmark Travel: 0800 9531 263
www.benchmarktravel.co.uk

David Hopkins Awards

We’d like to remind members that the closing date to apply for David Hopkins awards is 31 August 2012. NGSU members can apply for financial awards of up to £500 to help fund the cost of personal development in work undertaken in their local community. This could include training in various activities to support work with groups such as the Guides or Scouts or other community based groups. The aim of the awards is to support personal development rather than simply to make donations to charitable causes.

Full details can be found in the summer edition of Rapport Magazine (Issue 73) which was sent to members in June or call us on 01295 710767 for more details.

Applications can be sent by e-mail to ngsu@ngsu.org.uk. The Union’s Trustees will notify successful applicants in September.

August Draw Winners

First Prize: £10,658

104643 : Cynthia Hall of Pension Fund Members

Second Prize: £5,000

101817 : Paul Richardson of Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Third Prize: £2,000

078580 : Kathryn Parker of Associate Members

Fourth Prizes: £500

105183 : Alison MacKie of Eclipse

097316 : Sunita Kumar of Redditch

119079 : Charlotte Dryland of Collections