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Have you ever thought about losing your job?

25 August 2010

Have you ever talked over the possibility with your wife/husband, partner, friends - that you may lose your job, or even thought about it yourself?

What would it mean for paying the mortgage what would it mean for your dependants?

Even if you feel secure for the time being, spare a thought as to how, with your pay frozen, you will cope with rising prices and rising bills.

These are real issues for all of us.

The Department itself is floating the idea that train companies should be able to charge higher fares next year to replace declining subsidies from the department. Many members have to travel to work by train. Each pound in extra train fares is a pound less in your pocket. The same of course goes for increasing food, electricity, petrol, and other prices.

This coming October, John Hutton, a former New Labour Secretary of State, will make his initial recommendations regarding our pensions. It is widely believed that he will propose that our pension contribution rates increase; maybe even that the pension age be raised for staff in the premium, classic and classic plus schemes, to 65.

All this will impact not only on your standard of living (higher contributions mean lower take home pay) but a higher pension age means that you will have to work longer to get the same pension as now.

If that wasn’t bad enough we have the proposed changes to the Civil Service Compensation Scheme (CSCS). The Government says that if an agreement cannot be reached with the unions concerning a new CSCS then it will try on 21 October, to change the law to cap redundancy and early retirement pay outs. We believe that such a move will be illegal.

In Department for Transport centre (DfT(C)) and Highways Agency (HA) where voluntary exit schemes are being run this leaves members in a dilemma. Should they leave now (if they can) before the cap on the CSCS is imposed, or should they wait?

In the non- trading fund parts of the department - DfT(C), HA, Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) and Government Car & Despatch Agency (GCDA) - the Government has ordered that the administrative budget be cut by one third. Many staff are paid out of this budget and so a cut in this budget is in essence a cut in staffing.

In DfT(C) senior managers are currently taking a ground zero approach with plans to make the cuts in the administrative budget and to impose wholesale re-organisation, all we are told within six months of October. The senior manager in charge of change has raised the possibility that staff in the centre will have to apply for their own jobs.

The trading funds Driving Standards Agency (DSA), Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), Vehicle & Operator Services Agency (VOSA), and Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) are not immune from change either. When in opposition, Philip Hammond, now DfT’s Secretary of State, argued that the public sector is 20% less productive then the private sector. This comparison was in our view flawed; nevertheless he is in charge of the department. We believe that he will demand a closure of the claimed “productivity” gap. That means fewer people doing more work.

Of course the trading fund agencies (as with the rest of DfT) will have to make their contribution to reducing the department’s expenditure by 25% over the next few years.

Last by no means least, privatisation and out-sourcing of the Shared Service Centre is now actively being discussed.


THAT’S THE BAD PART: HERE COMES THE GOOD NEWS

Of course all these things will happen if we, as individuals, and as a collective, do nothing. The PCS has already defeated previous changes to the CSCS on two occasions. We are arguing that any attempt to cap our redundancy and early retirement rights will breach the Human Rights Act. We say that those rights are our “possessions” as defined by that Act and we are entitled to their use. The PCS will legally defend those possessions.

We are also arguing at a national level that there is an ‘alternative’ in the form of collecting unpaid taxes rather than cutting the services that people up and down the country, not only rely on, but are essential to a modern economy. Most importantly we do not believe that our members should be subjected to the type of treatment being dished out by a Government who have not even bothered to attempt to engage us, or to find out what we deliver before they slash and cut our jobs and living standards.

There is an increasing head of political steam against the cuts. This will increase even further as the real impact of the cut backs become clear. All public sector unions are affected by them. John Hutton’s recommendations and the pay freeze affect all of the public sector. This raises the possibility that the millions of members in those unions can act together to protect each other.

PCS has won an equal pay case that allows staff in DVLA to legally compare their wages with those in DSA. We are intent on gaining equal pay across the Department and Civil Service and we may be able to use this victory to achieve equal pay, and hence higher pay, across DfT.

We all know that centralisation is taking place within the Department and that what happens at the Centre will happen elsewhere. So if staff raise their voices sufficiently then the lets-do-it-all-in-six-months plan will be changed, and we can prevent this being rolled out across the Agencies when they attempt to implement their cuts.

Senior managers, and Ministers, seem to take it for granted that you, our members, will not object. We think they are wrong. We are not all in it together, as this Government claims.

The Union has asked for talks with DfT to sort out some of the immediate Departmental problems, the major issues such as CSCS, Pensions etc will require a national response but that does not mean that we can therefore ignore these and the other issues facing us. Our first response must though be to sort out and gain assurances for our members in the Department and its Agencies. If those talks fail and assurances are not forthcoming then we will ask you: what next?

what next?

In those circumstances the PCS in DfT have agreed that we will ballot members in the next weeks. We will ask your opinion (nobody else does!!) about what should be done.

This is the time where all staff should be in the Union and existing members need to and should become more active. So please ask a non union member to join. If you want to know how to get involved and become more active just e-mail mailbox.pcs@dft.gsi.gov.uk; you can also get a membership form by e-mailing that address as well.

Our message to all members is simple but nevertheless as important today as it was in previous times;

‘United together we can be strong and united we can win’.
 

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