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Pay update 22 - MoD bonuses

23 November 2009

Over the past week our union has spoken to hundreds of members about the press coverage regarding bonuses in our department. Our union shares the anger and disgust that members have expressed at the lies and misinterpretations that the media and the Conservative party gave the issue.

Whilst we are still in dispute with the department over the issue of the cutting of the E1 and E2 max’s, we are now being publicly being attacked for picking up ‘mega bonuses’ at the expense of the front line.

We know this is not the case, and we have been working hard to put our message across to the media and general public. Mark Serwotka, PCS General Secretary was on Radio 5, Sky News, Channel 5 News, Radio 4 and also on a number of regional radio stations putting the case for civil servants in MoD:

  1. Most PCS members receive a bonus of between £300 - £1,000 before tax and insurance. This is hardly similar to the bonuses handed out to bankers etc, although you wouldn’t have believed it from the coverage in some of the papers. Only senior civil servants in the MoD, earning in excess of £100,000 a year get bonuses in the region of £8,000.
  2. The money used to pay bonus payments has been stolen from our pay packets in the first place. It was this government who demanded that department’s introduce performance pay arrangements. Money (that was previously pensionable) was diverted from our pay award to create the bonus scheme and civil servants forced to compete for their own pay.
  3. The truth for low paid workers in the MoD is that with a starting salary of £14,500, many members cannot make ends meet and are having to take second and third jobs simply to survive. Even the £300 bonus is a godsend to them.
  4. However any bonus in the MoD whether it be £300 or whether it rises to sums such as £8,000 are unconsolidated and unpensionable. Our union has been campaigning for many years to have the bonus scrapped and this money put into the monthly pay packets of our members.
  5. We reject the attempts by the Tories and the media to create a divide between the military and the civil service. Those on the frontline are aware of our commitment and support and we will continue to provide this in spite of the constant criticisms from discredited politicians and their cronies in the media.
  6. We will continue to call for proper value for money measures to be adopted by MoD. This should include:
  • Employing more and not fewer civil servants through a programme of civilianising work currently done by the military that could be done equally effectively but more cheaply by civil servants.
  • For a review of the numbers of non-deployable military personnel employed by MoD
  • To look closely at the money spent via the equipment programme with a view to cutting waste
  • To end costly and disastrous privatisations such as DII, DTR and many others
  • To seek a joint review of how MoD money is spent – it’s time for MoD to open the books!

Finally, we are clear that our members are sick   and tired of being attacked and undermined by the political class and their friends in the media. We will be making sure that PCS responds to each and every attack – whether it is on pay or calls for job cuts. We will be meeting Liam Fox on 14 January 2010 and we are seeking meetings with the defence teams of the other two parties. Our message at these meetings is that the uneducated and misleading attacks on our members should cease.

We are calling on Bill Jeffrey, the MoD permanent under secretary (PUS) to issue a joint statement with the trade unions on civilian staff and we will be seeking to understand why the department consistently fails to stand up for its own staff when they are facing a sustained and unfair attack.

Finally, we ask all members to remember who published these disgusting stories and to remember this each and ever time that you buy a newspaper.

Next steps

Our union knows many of our members work on a daily basis with our military colleagues, and because of this close bond, our members all want a properly resourced and properly funded department. Our union believes this is achievable and should not come at the expense of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Every time there is death on the front line, our members feel it acutely as we work with military colleagues all the time and we would dearly love it if there were no more casualties; however at a time when we are still deeply involved in Iraq and Afghanistan, it has never been more important that the Ministry of Defence is properly funded across the whole department.

Part of this proper funding means a proper, living wage for MoD civilian workers. Shortly, all MoD PCS members will receive a PCS mailing which will ask them to get further involved in our pay campaign. Please get involved; this is your pay, your campaign and your department.

 

 

 

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