Public and Commercial Services Union

Opening the first day of PCS’s 2008 national conference, president Janice Godrich told delegates that the union’s achievements over our first ten years were a cause for celebration.

With a roll call of our successes, Janice talked of our:

• national agreement to protect PCS members’ jobs against compulsory redundancy;
• increasing our membership density from 56% to over 62%;
• a raft of new recognition deals and
• a vibrant, growing network for young members.

We have come a long way,” said Janice. "When Gordon Brown started attacking our members he underestimated our dedication to protecting them and our will to win.”

Condemning the growing gap between rich and poor and the financial suffering of working families, Janice described Gordon Brown as “a Robin Hood in reverse”.

“But there is still time to address the needs of ordinary people,” said Janice. “This should be their focus rather than those of the super rich.”

Success in difficult circumstances

Mark thanked our workplace reps for their fantastic hard work without whom we wouldn’t be able to achieve anything.

"We are at the forefront of the trade union movement. Our strengths are solidarity, unity and independence from the political establishment.

“We learnt from the joint resistance over public sector pensions that we are strongest when we act together. Our 24 April action on pay gave us a taste of what joint resistance over pay would be like. We must continue to work for that unity.

“Our Make Your Vote Count campaign had identified hundreds of local councillors and candidates who have given us their backing,” said Mark, “and countered the poisonous growth of the British National Party.”

Our loyalty is to our members

Mark went on to talk about some of the improvements we have secured in members’ services including: improved access to legal support and winning over £1.2 million in compensation for members.

“This union has a clear and unequivocal answer to those who say that if we criticise the government we are letting in the Tories,” said Mark.

“Our loyalty - first, second and third - is to our members, not a political party and we have the right to defend ourselves from Tory policies whoever is implementing them.”

Protecting our jobs and protecting public services

Mark Serwotka kicked off a general debate on the way ahead for our national pay and jobs campaign by moving emergency national executive motion EM1.

Condemning the government’s pay cap Mark said: “At a time when the Labour government is at its least popular it is further alienating its own workforce with a policy of pay freezes and pay cuts in real terms.

"Pay in the civil service is among the lowest in the public sector with a quarter earning less £16,000 and thousands on the minimum wage. The resolve of our members is clear as is our commitment to work with other public sector unions who are facing the same attacks on pay.”

The motion was seconded by Jane Aitchison, Department for Work and Pensions Leeds who said she had been “tremendously proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with other public service workers on 24 April. It gave our pay campaign a massive boost.”

Michael Kavanagh, Land Registry Stevenage also spoke in support, citing the problems of members in his branch including: non-consolidated bonuses; performance pay; pay linked to qualifications and local pay differentials. Supporting the motion was a “no brainer” argued Michael.

Fighting for national pay

Moving A13, DWP northeast London speaker George Thompson spoke passionately against multi-year pay deals which “make it harder for our members to fight for national pay.”

This view was disputed by Anthony Turnham, Alliance and Leicester who argued that it was difficult to argue against multi-year deals when they were financially advantageous for our members.

In a debate on the merits of selective strike action (EM6), Charlie MacDonald, DWP east London, spoke in favour of the motion.

Strike pay

Another emergency motion, EM8, which included rejecting the strategy of paying 85% strike pay to specific groups of members, was moved by Tony Thorpe, Prison Service HQ branch. DWP Manchester opposed the motion.

A further emergency motion, EM12, moved by DWP Sheffield’s Lee Rock was less complimentary about our national agreement on protecting jobs, arguing that the guidance offered “little protection to members facing transfer and … the threats facing members remain largely unchanged.”

For the national executive, deputy general secretary Hugh Lanning spoke against EM12 arguing in favour of EM8 instead.

Conference agreed EM1 – the other motions were lost or fell – and gave the green light to a strike ballot of PCS members working across the civil service over the government's policy of capping public sector pay to below inflation.

Standing together with other unions 

Delegates also reaffirmed a commitment to co-ordinate industrial action with other public sector unions over pay following our 24 April one day stoppage, which saw 100,000 PCS members across ten government departments and agencies join teachers and lecturers in walkout over pay.

Turning to the particular pay problems experienced by our Scottish members (A14), Sean Fegan, Registers of Scotland branch told delegates that his members were completely behind our national pay campaign.

Different agenda in Scotland

However, the election of the Scottish National Party meant there was a different agenda in the country compared with New Labour.

Conference agreed the motion and agreed that the national executive should closely monitor developments towards pay coherence in Scotland and engage in full consultation with Scottish members.

Speaking in defence of members affected by the draft Marine Bill, the Marine and Fisheries Agency argued (EM21) that their civil service status was under threat and staff could be compulsorily relocated away from London.

Conference showed its support for affected members and agreed a robust campaign strategy for defending members’ jobs and conditions, including parliamentary and joint union work.

Chris Hurley, Health and Safety Executive national branch moved a motion (EM24) about cuts in the agency.

Quoting the select committee report into the issue Chris said it had not been satisfied the HSE had explained how the close of its HQ would not cause it to lose expertise.

Members had also been threatened with disciplinary action if they refused to cooperate with the move.

Delegates supported the motion and agreed that the national executive should be asked to campaign alongside the wider union movement to ensure the select committee’s findings were not ignored, for greater resources and provide reps with guidance to help protect members from compulsory relocation.

Opposing strategies of job reduction

The increased workloads caused by losing jobs through ‘natural wastage’ were the subject of motion A5.

Conference agreed the union should campaign for posts which fall vacant to be filled and oppose strategies of job reduction through unfilled vacancies where there is an adverse impact on services and workloads.

The threat of privatisation in VOSA was the subject of motion EM31. Mover Louise Sanders spoke passionately against the plans saying they could have hugely negative effects on road safety.

The agency would be spending 15% more money for a worse service argued Louise. “It is a waste of tax payers’ money.”

The motion received unanimous support with conference agreeing to support the campaign, including writing to the secretary of state for transport and urging members to send in campaign postcards.