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Pay update No 4

Our union has attended informal discussions with the department on the 2008 MOD pay deal. However, MOD is still awaiting Treasury instructions on its pay business case and until this is given the department will not negotiate with our union over pay.

We have continued to make clear the anger and frustration of members at the ongoing delay which is being caused by departmental and Treasury incompetence.

Fair pay in 2008?

Members will be aware of our attempts to negotiate away the scourge of low pay in MOD. We have highlighted the disgraceful situation where 20,000 civil servants in our department earn less than £8 per hour. We have also sought to impress upon ministers and senior management the disastrous impact on our members lives directly caused by the department and the government doing nothing to address endemic low pay across MOD.

However we are also seeking fair pay for all members in 2008. They key demands on MOD are:

1. Fair progression

It is a scandal that many of our members can dedicate their entire working lives to MOD and yet never reach the rate for the job (the pay band maxima).

Our union wants to end this disgrace in 2008 and force MOD to guarantee progression to the rate for the job within a maximum of five years for every member.

2. Fair ‘cost of living’ award

Civil servants are the only workers in the entire public sector whose progression arrangements are taken out of the pay settlement. Elsewhere this is funded separately meaning any new money can go to meet the cost of living.

Our union wants to end this disgrace in 2008 and force MOD to guarantee a cost of living award for every member.

3. Fair pay for women

The gender pay gap in MOD is 18.8%. This means that on average women earn almost one fifth less than men for doing the same work.

Our union wants to end this disgrace in 2008 and force MOD to guarantee equal pay for men and women in MOD.

4. Fair recognition of our commitment to MOD

MOD offers nothing for long serving and loyal staff. In fact the current pay award penalises long serving staff and rewards those who have shorter length of service.

Our union wants to end this disgrace in 2008 by explicitly recognising commitment and rewarding length of service.

5. Prioritisation of basic pay over performance pay

Our union is looking for prioritisation of basic pay over performance pay. All of the available evidence indicates that performance pay is still fraught with issues concerning discrimination.

Basic pay increases are necessary and the fairest way of rewarding staff for their hard work.

6. Fair pay arrangements

Large elements of the MoD pay system are backward, incoherent and demoralising.

It is impossible to list everything that is awful with MOD pay as there is so much (some examples include grade overlap where members at the top of one pay scale earn more than staff at the bottom of a higher grade, LTTP arrangements where the pay of staff is frozen at the bottom of pay spines, the arbitrary and often unfair decisions on higher starting pay/recruitment and retention allowances and the leapfrogging it causes)

Our union wants to rectify the mess of MOD pay in 2008 and win fair pay for every member of our union.

2008 – Time to support your union

We are asking every member to actively support the union and our campaign for fair pay in 2008.

If the government can find £500 billion to bail out the bankers and the fat cats then they can afford to pay us fairly - it would cost less than £300 million to fund fair pay for every PCS member in the civil service.