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Government risks damaging dispute over civil service redundancy pay

4 December 2009

The announcement of changes to civil service redundancy payments made today by the Cabinet Office is an outrageous breach of faith with the unions, the Public and Commercial Services union says.

Following proposals announced in July to cut the terms of the compensation scheme, ministers had promised to instruct officials to meet PCS and other civil service unions to discuss our concerns.

But that ministerial commitment appears to have been undermined by senior officials, as over the past two months four scheduled meetings were cancelled. The government now risks squandering the opportunity to prevent what could be a damaging national dispute.

A limited improvement to the original plans – to cap payments at three years or £50,000, instead of two years – was only made after pressure by the union and because of the thousands of responses from PCS members to the government’s consultation.

Also, 35,000 PCS members have attended workplace meetings organised by the union to express their opposition to the government’s proposals.

The changes will still rob low paid staff of their entitlements if they are forced to leave their jobs.

PCS’s ruling national executive committee is due to meet next Tuesday (8 December) to consider possible legal and industrial action.

The changes are due to be implemented in April 2010, one month before a likely general election.

PCS is particularly concerned that the proposals pave the way for a massive job cuts programme as the government can only save its intended £500m by making thousands of members of its own workforce compulsorily redundant.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “For the Cabinet Office to announce these changes as a fait accompli, without informing us or seeking to reach an agreement, shows an outrageous lack of respect for hard-working civil servants.

“After ministers had shown a willingness to talk, it is appalling that they appear to have allowed senior officials to lead them into a damaging dispute with hundreds of thousands of their own staff months before a general election, when an agreement was in fact possible.

"We sincerely hope ministers will meet us urgently to discuss ways of avoiding that dispute.”

 

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