Public and Commercial Services Union

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September 08 news

National pay campaign - MOD group support

Our NEC has agreed to run a national membership ballot in the civil service and related public sector bodies between 24 September and 17 October 2008 over pay .

The ballot will be for discontinuous strike action and discontinuous action short of a strike. We served the MOD with a notice of our intention to ballot on Wednesday 17 September 2008.

The ballot and the national pay campaign were agreed at our national conference this year.

In terms of our pay, the MOD has not yet formally submitted its business case to the Treasury. Until it has done so, and until the business case has been approved or otherwise, the MOD will not be in a position to begin formal negotiations with us.

This makes a mockery of the August settlement date and the overwhelming likelihood is that when the MOD has its remit, we will be offered a pay rise that is well below inflation and one which the department will seek to impose for three years.

The stark reality is that more and more of our members face real financial hardship. In fact, while our pay stagnates, prices are rising. In the last year the cost of everyday essentials such as food, fuel and travel has rocketed. A further imposed pay cut of any length would be the final straw for many members in the MOD.

The PCS national pay campaign is therefore critical. We are calling for:

· A cost of living award in line with inflation
· Reform of the Treasury remit guidance so that progression is funded in the same way as the rest of the public sector i.e. outside of the pay cap.

This is because the inadequacy of MOD pay directly arises from government policy of limiting public sector pay increases to well below the rate of inflation. This pay restraint policy also applies for 2009 and 2010. The Treasury is strictly monitoring all pay offers, agreeing the award with departments in advance of any meetings with the unions, and are insisting that they cannot be altered without their permission.

The Treasury requires any pay offer to be worth less than the rate of inflation, making nonsense of the concept of genuine negotiations between management and unions.

This approach punishes all of the public sector, but in fact is particularly bad for the civil service and related bodies. In our case the overall increase allowed by the Treasury includes the cost of funding pay progression, whilst for the rest of the public sector pay progression is resourced from outside the pay cap. This is inherently unfair and reform of the Treasury remit guidance is at the heart of the national campaign.

Sectoral action

If members vote in favour of action PCS will organise a national one day strike (possibly in November). In addition to this every group and section of the union is being asked to consider sectoral action in support of the campaign. We are asked to consider further strike action and action short of a strike such as an overtime ban. This action will be on a rolling basis and will commence after the November strike day into the new year. There may be a further one day national strike at the end of the sectoral action. All members are being asked therefore to take a minimum of 3 days strike action over the period.

For the purposes of sectoral action we have been placed in the ‘Defence and Trade Group’ along with FCO, DFID, British Council, BERR and other regulatory bodies.

In addition to still being in dispute with the department over the 2006 imposed pay offer, it is clear that members are both demoralised and angry at the latest round of job cuts and reorganisations. The imposed two year pay cut and the delay to the 2008 award are also causing unrest.

From the anecdotal evidence of the national protocol meetings held in MOD, members are willing to take national action and also further, sectoral, action on pay. The key issues as ever will be building for the action in workplaces and the timing of any action.

Action co-ordinated with other unions

While our dispute is not in any way dependent on industrial developments in other unions, we have put a great deal of effort into securing co-ordination through the TUC, and we are confident that this will strengthen our position.

There is an unanswerable case for public sector unity and our union has consistently taken a lead in supporting it. The NUT is planning further action during November and we will want to co-ordinate the timing of action with them where possible. Industrial action during this period is also being considered by Unite, UCU, Unison, NAPO and others. Discussions with them continue.

Building the yes vote

Our GEC met last week to discuss how we can help to ensure a ‘YES’ vote in the ballot. As part of this each branch will soon be contacted by the GEC regional liaison officer and/or the appointed GEC co-ordinator for your area. The list of co-ordinators and their contact details are below.

The GEC has agreed that it is essential that our branches take the following action:

1. Arrange a branch meeting in all large workplaces.
2. Confirm a GEC speaker for each meeting (the speaker will be provided by your RLO once you have agreed the date).
3. The meeting must be held by 10 October as the ballot closes on 17 October.
4. The meeting should have been advertised to members via personal contact and through the use of workplace notice boards.

Please make sure you work with us to ensure that these meetings are arranged and that as many members as possible attend to hear about the national pay campaign.

Materials

In addition to the material that our national union will issue and information in the ballot pack, we will be issuing specific leaflets aimed at maximising the ‘YES' vote across the MOD.

Please note there is a campaign video and briefings on the campaign already available on the front page of this website. Further material is also being placed onto this MOD section of the PCS website.

Your help is critical

Our members face a further three year pay cut and poverty pay stretching into the future. The national pay campaign is crucial and represents the biggest campaign in our union’s history to challenge pay cuts and unfair pay practises.

Please treat the campaign as your top priority and play your part in helping us arrange meetings, ensure all of our members have the opportunity to discuss the campaign and most importantly of all help our union win the ballot for fair pay in 2008.