Public and Commercial Services Union

On this page you will find an additional brief for use in meetings, and other discussions with members, about why they should vote ‘yes’ to both questions in the national ballot which opened today.

It provides details of the government’s proposals made in talks with the unions and the detrimental impact they would have on PCS members.

The brief should be used in conjunction with the speakers’ notes previously circulated to branches which contain a comprehensive overview of the issues. In particular, it is very important to keep in mind the central issue: the reason the Government is attempting to tear up contracts with civil and public servants is to steal from us the accrued redundancy rights we have built up over the years, in order to drive through thousands of job cuts and to make it cheaper and easier to privatise our jobs.

Concessions

Despite previously saying that it had reached its ‘final position’, the government has, as Sir Gus O’Donnell has said in his message to civil servants, moved from its original draconian proposals and offered some degree of protection to some existing civil and public servants.

These concessions have been won by the resolute opposition of PCS members over 18,000 of whom emailed the Cabinet Office opposing the government’s plans to slash their entitlement to redundancy payments and by the lobbying amongst MPs carried out by the union, 138 of whom have signed an early day motion calling on the government to change course. The concessions would still leave tens of thousands of PCS members unprotected, however.

Other unions

As the Cabinet Office has stated, Prospect, FDA, POA, Unite and GMB have accepted the government’s offer. NIPSA and PCS have not. The Council of Civil Service Unions (CCSU), as a body, has not agreed the proposals. A consensus is required for that to happen.

It is no surprise that the other unions have accepted the proposals. The other unions represent about 20% of civil service union membership. Prospect represents about 25,000 people in specialist roles.

The FDA represents about 12,000 higher paid senior managers and other senior civil servants. Unite and the GMB represent small numbers of industrial staff in the MoD. The POA represents prison officers.

Some members of these other unions would not suffer the same degree of detriment as PCS members. The other unions may also have different views about the potential for legal and industrial action to get results in the run up to a general election.

PCS is more than three times larger than the other unions combined with 270,000 members in the civil and public services.

We have not accepted the government’s offer for the reasons set out in the speakers brief: a large proportion of our members would still suffer a detriment, in some cases amounting to tens of thousands of pounds.

As a union which stands for fairness and solidarity, we have decided that we must continue to try to find a settlement which covers all our members, not just some.

Moreover, accepting such divisive cuts in so many people’s entitlements, as the other unions have done, would weaken the whole union and make job losses and compulsory redundancy much more likely at a time when we know that the major political parties are planning such cuts.

The latest proposals made by Cabinet Office were, in fact, conditional on PCS giving up its right to seek legal protection in the courts. We cannot accept that and we will press ahead this week with a judicial review along with NIPSA, a sister union.

Settlement

The government originally stated that they wanted to make a £500 Million saving from cuts to the CSCS. CCSU suggested ways of saving much of this amount whilst retaining the rights of an overwhelming number of existing civil servants to current CSCS arrangements. This clearly indicates that there is still the basis for a negotiated settlement.

Representing over 80% of union members in the civil service, as well as many more in related public services, PCS will continue our judicial review, together with balloting our members on industrial action to exert the maximum pressure on Government to come to an agreement with us.

All branches are urged to make every effort in the coming days to discuss the issues with every member and build the biggest possible YES vote.
 

 

Mark Serwotka                                                 Janice Godrich

General Secretary                                            President