Public and Commercial Services Union

Joanne McCartney, Labour

1. PCS is campaigning for fair pay for its members, meaning that their pay should increase in line with inflation and be negotiated nationally instead of 200 separate sets of negotiations. Do you support PCS’s campaign for fair pay for public servants?

Our Group totally backs fair pay for all. We have voted on many occasions in support for the implementation of the London Living Wage as a a minimum wage for all employees across the Greater London Authority and its functional bodies, either directly employed, or those employed by our contractors, which is set at a higher level than the Government's Minimum Wage. The Greater London Authority has a progressive pay policy we believe is consistent with your objectives.

2. The government has proposed to cut over 100,000 civil and public service jobs. They claim these cuts will not impact service delivery to the public, however every day our members are seeing how less staff means a poorer service to the public. Where do you stand on cutting civil and public service jobs?

At City Hall, employee numbers have risen considerably since the first Mayoral and Assembly elections in 2000. Through the support of the Labour Group, the Mayor's budget, which includes staffing costs, has been passed each year, despite calls from the opposition groups to cut staffing levels.

3. PCS is concerned that privatisation of the civil service has continued since 1997. We believe this is costly and unnecessary and jeopardises services being delivered to the public, often the most vulnerable in society. Where do you stand on privatising public services?

The Mayor and Assembly do bring in consultants from time to time to do specific areas of work, but on the whole we use our in-house departments. City Hall is in the process of looking at, in the longer term, the possibility of converging some departments, which may include converging across the functional bodies, to avoid duplication of work, but any such move must ensure that service provision is not affected and union colleagues are consulted and their views taken into account.