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Strike to save the CSCS! take action on the 8th and 9th of March

The home sector chickens are coming home to roost

Members in PCS have voted for strike action over threats to the civil service compensation scheme (CSCS). This is a communication to all members in the Home Office explaining why this action is so important.

Like all civil servants, members across the Home Office are facing cuts in their terms and conditions and the threat of job losses. The plans for The CSCS would result even further and deeper cuts within the Home Sector.

It is time to send out a strong message that attacks on our terms and conditions will not be tolerated now or in the future.

Don’t let them change the subject

The government and our employers are trying to make hardworking civil servants pay for the economic crisis.

Last year the government bailed out the banks to the tune of billions and left a huge hole in the public finances as a result. They are now arguing that there must be massive cuts in the public sector, beginning with their plans for the CSCS, in order to pay of the country’s debts. They are changing the subject and they’re getting away with it.

We didn’t cause the crisis and we shouldn’t be made to pay. There are billions and billions of pounds of uncollected tax hereand abroad which could be utilised to pay off the national debt.

It is time to draw a line in the sand over the CSCS.

The Home Office and the strike

Home Office civil servants in all departments and agencies work hard to protect the public. Many members in the Home Office have long service within the departments and agencies and indeed other law enforcement agencies such as the police force.

It is a slap in the face for these long and hardworking public servants to be told that they have to pay for the crisis through attacks on their terms and conditions.

The Home Sector has already been subject to restructuring exercises leading to job losses.

  • In the Identity and Passport Service, production jobs have been lost through restructuring exercises and now the Interview Office Network is under threat, along with jobs in HR, finance and customer services.
  • Many Serious, Organised Crime Agency officers are waking up to the fact that they are no longer 'redundancy immune' and that any severance would mean, not only less compensation, but also a significantly reduced pension
  • At NPIA there are restructuring exercises which could result in job cuts. There have already been large cuts in the run up to the creation of NPIA.
  • At IPCC there some members have received redundancy notices.
  • At the UK Border Agency we have seen the privatisation of case work at SERCO, budget cuts in the Border Force leading to the slashing of allowances along with staff being declared surplus in the London and the south east.

From these tales of woe from the Home Department and its agencies we can see that members are already suffering enough from job cuts and the threat of cuts.

If the revised CSCS plans are implemented we will see further and worse attacks. It’s clear from management’s behaviour that they are already hungry to attack jobs in the Home Office. They are clearly enjoying the ‘starter’. Let’s fight to ensure that they don’t get the ‘main course’. By taking action we can close the restaurant before they even finish their meal!

Standing together

Across the Home Office, thousands of civil servants will be taking action along with thousands more in the rest of the civil service. We will be able to close 34 sites at SOCA, 8 at NPIA, 5 at the IPCC, 68 at IPS and over 200 at the Home Office and UK Border Agency. The rest of the Civil Service will be striking too. Hundreds of thousands of people will be standing together to protect themselves and each other from these disgraceful attacks.

PCS's Home Department Sector committee urges you to join this flood of resistance to cuts and attacks on the services and protection we provide. All around the country, and indeed around the world, ordinary working people are making a stand. BA workers are striking. In other areas of the economy workers have occupied their factories. In Greece, civil servants are leading the way in the resistance to cuts and attacks on the public sector.

Send a message to our employers at the home office that the chickens are coming home to roost and that we’ve had enough.

Protect the civil service compensation scheme. Strike on the 8 and 9 March.