Public and Commercial Services Union

Many members will have been sickened - but unfortunately not surprised - to have received letters from our permanent under secretary, Sir Bill Jeffrey and the Cabinet Office secretary, Sir Gus O’Donnell regarding the current PCS national pay ballot. Although they fall short of asking members not to support our union’s call for action, they also fall short of offering any solution to the problems we face.

Sir Bill and Sir Gus both have warm words about the value and contribution civil servants make to defence. Unfortunately, though no doubt genuinely meant, these offer little comfort to members struggling to make ends meet often with two or three jobs just to provide for their family.

In their letters, both asked that you email them with your thoughts on MOD or civil service pay, you can email Sir Bill at Bill.Jeffrey480@mod.uk and Sir Gus at gus.odonnell@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk

Our leaders fail to understand that pay offers which fail to keep pace with inflation, let alone basic food and utility bills, do not make staff feel valued. And our pay claim is hardly demanding film star wages, or even film extra wages!

Sir Bill knows our pay implementation date is now long gone, but fails to recognise that delaying any award until 2009 will have serious consequences for staff who face rising bills and hard choices now.

Sir Gus believes that civil servants continue to enjoy terms and conditions which provide a substantial level of security, both in work and retirement. He forgets to add that these were only secured and defended by concerted action from trade unions and that further threats to both job security and pensions are on the horizon.

The streamlining and PACE proposals will see a further 10,000 jobs lost within the MOD over the next three years (on top of 13,000 lost in the last three years). The public value programme, to be announced in November, threatens thousands more. Meanwhile, Sir Gus’s own Cabinet Office proposes ending the current civil service redundancy scheme to save money!

Both Sir Bill and Sir Gus believe that with negotiations about to commence now is not the right time to take industrial action. However, both know that the hands of their negotiators are tied by the Treasury, who will not allow the MOD to offer any pay increase that exceeds their 2% pay cap.

We recognise that calling for industrial action is a last resort. We have been campaigning and lobbying for fair pay. We understand the consequences of taking action on front line support and want a negotiated settlement. But talks, which have been ongoing since February, have so far not produced a positive response.

In his speech to the Labour party conference, Gordon Brown said his job would be worthwhile if it helped one person, one family or one community. He now has an opportunity to put those fine words into practice.

The government must recognise the damage that their unfair pay cap is causing to millions of hard working public servants, their families and their communities. Having found the money to bail out reckless financial institutions and city speculators, he must now relax his unfair rules on civil service pay to avoid an industrial dispute that no one wants.

Unlike Sir Bill and Sir Gus, we believe that members understand that by negotiating, campaigning and taking action only where necessary we have defended our pensions, our sick pay arrangements and our job security. Now we need to do the same on pay, by voting YES in the ballot.