Public and Commercial Services Union

Date: 7 July 2010             Ref: BB.66/10

Government attacks civil service compensation scheme

The coalition government has launched a savage attack on the Civil Service Compensation Scheme (CSCS) which has major implications for jobs and terms and conditions.

The government has informed the Council of Civil Service Unions (CCSU) of their intention to introduce a bill to Parliament, most likely on Thursday 8th July.

This Bill will include capping all compulsory redundancies at a maximum of 12 months pay and limiting payments for voluntary exits to 15 months salary.

In addition they are seeking to make changes to the 1972 Superannuation Act to  remove the basis on which we were able to win the judicial review on the compensation scheme.
 
This is worse than the previous proposals that we successfully secured a legal ruling over and is a further attempt to remove accrued rights which members are entitled to. They were wrong to try to do this under the previous government and they are wrong now. 

The government justification for these actions is not simply about saving money. In a dishonest attack on PCS, they state that their action “to limit the excesses of the current prohibitively expensive terms is because of (the PCS) unilateral action in contesting the previous government’s scheme.”

It is simply scandalous that the government should seek to blame, openly, directly and unashamedly, PCS for challenging an illegal action by the previous government.

If our legal action had created the need for the government to introduce new legislation, then the Bill would have simply brought in the previous government’s amendments to the scheme. In fact, the government is throwing up a smokescreen to hide its intentions to make severe cuts.

We went to court twice to prove that the attacks on the CSCS were illegal. We were right to do so to defend members’ terms and conditions. We were vindicated by the court ruling that the government had acted illegally.

Refusal to negotiate with us

Following that legal victory, on 23 June we wrote to Sir. Gus O’Donnell, the Head of the Civil Service offering to return to the negotiating table. That offer was not taken up.

Now the government says it wishes to negotiate protections for the low paid, but with the threat of legislation hanging over any such talks it is hard to see they can be meaningful.

Creating division, paving the way for job cuts

We should be under no illusions that the government’s actions now are about paving the way to a huge swathe of redundancies in order to save money to reduce the budget deficit.

In the Government’s announcement and press release they have stated that the Civil Service must play its part in reducing the budget deficit.

But we know that the deficit has not been caused by the public sector or ordinary workers or the unemployed. £175bn of public funds has been used to prop up private financial institutions – the banks and the tax gap stands at over £120bn. This alone more than accounts for the £164bn budget deficit.

There is no need for that deficit to be halved in five years as the Government asserts.

Indeed it is economic madness to even consider public spending cuts during a recession – this will simply lead to a worsening of the economic crisis with more people unemployed.

The government is intent on making ordinary workers pay for the crisis via cuts in services and jobs, which will impact disproportionately on the low paid, and the most vulnerable and poor in our society.

They hope therefore to create division in the movement to make it easier to push through their cuts at a time when we know unity is crucial.

By trying to scapegoat one union as being the reason for their bringing forward legislation on the CSCS they hope to undermine any unity we may seek to create to make their cuts easier.

Way forward

The National Executive Committee will meet on 14 July to agree a wide ranging campaign strategy including a response to the government’s attack on the CSCS.

We are seeking urgent legal advice over the Government’s actions. We are seeking support from opposition MPs and also Assembly Members and the Scottish office. We are in discussions with the other trade unions over unity in response to this unprecedented attack. The PCS website will be updated regularly with information and resources for branches, reps and members. A Q&A for members will be posted on the PCS website.

Branches are urged to:

• Encourage members to write to their MPs asking them to lobby on our behalf against the new legislation that is proposed
• Sign up to the e-action on the and continue to use social networking and the local media to protest at these proposals
• Keep updated on the latest news and resources on the PCS website.

Mark Serwotka        Janice Godrich
General Secretary   President