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The 'have's' and the 'have not's'

11 January 2010

On 5 January 2010, there were two sets of parliamentary questions raised in the House of Commons, which gave interesting answers for our campaign on defence jobs.

The first asked for the number of Commodores, Brigadiers and Air Commodore’s in post since 1997. Surprisingly, given the overall fall in service numbers (and fighting units to command) over that period, the number of Naval Commodores have increased from 82 to 84; Brigadiers from 170 to 190 with only Air Commodores falling from 95 to 90. In total, the number in employment has risen from 347 to 364, a 4.7% rise. (For information, the basic starting salary for Commodores, Brigadiers and Air Commodore’s is £98,984).

During the same period the number of MoD civilian employees has fallen from 133,300 to 86,600, a 35% fall.

The second question asked how many civilian employees have 25 years or more service and how many of those earn less than £15,000 per annum. There are 9,971 with 25 years or more service, of whom incredibly 144 earn less than £15,000. The total number of full-time employees in the department who earn £15,000 or less is 5,185, despite successive pay offers which have sought to address the issue of low pay within the MoD.

As we have said many times, our union wants to work with the department to ensure that we have a properly resourced, properly funded department that gives the optimum support to the front line.

However at a time, when the government is preparing a green paper that promises to cut more civilian jobs and all three mainstream parties are advocating slashing the public sector as part of their election manifestos, our union will be challenging at every opportunity the number of non-deployable military personnel within our department.

We all work for the Ministry of Defence and our members, more than most appreciate the sacrifices our military personnel, particularly on the front line make. We are aware that many of our colleagues serving in the military are paid a pittance for the work that they do and the potential risks that they face.

To ensure our department is fit for purpose, we need to put it on a better financial footing. We need to understand why the numbers of those earning £100,000 is increasing, when only seven of them are currently deployed to the department’s main effort Afghanistan, and why the jobs of the lowest paid are being slashed in the most arbitrary manner possible. We need to understand why more military pen pushers are being employed when the frontline needs more resources.

We need to understand why the department is allegedly wasting £35 billion through the equipment programme and we need to ask why costly and unnecessary equipment is being purchased at the cost of jobs of those either on the frontline or directly supporting it.

2010 will see our union launching a major campaign for the civilianisation of non-deployable military posts. If you know of posts in your area that are currently done by more expensive military personnel, which could be done by civilian employees, please get in touch with a PCS rep or email us at paulba@pcs.org.uk.

 


 

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