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Members to decide pay priorities

25 June 2009

This summer we are launching a wide ranging consultation with members to agree the future of our national pay campaign, as decided at our annual conference in May.

We are particularly keen to consider how we respond to the government’s failure to honour the agreement we reached last year, which allowed for efficiency savings to be used to improve members’ wages.

Running alongside the consultation, our negotiators are working hard to improve members’ pay in this year’s pay round.

Over the past three years, our wages have failed to keep pace with the rising cost of living, leading to a rising number of disputes, strikes and other industrial action as members attempt to protect their living standards.

This year we are submitting pay claims that address these problems by advising our negotiators to push for a 6% basic pay rise or £1,000, whichever is larger.

We are also bidding for standard pay rates across the civil service to eradicate the huge pay differences and inequalities that exist between PCS members who do similar jobs in different government departments and agencies.

Why do we want a 6% pay rise?

When inflation is at an all-time low and there are serious economic problems, members may be asking why we are claiming 6%.

The reasons are simple. Between 2006 and 2008 inflation totaled more than 12%, but the Treasury capped our pay rises at a maximum of 2% a year. This means that:

  • An administrative assistant earning £13,000 is now nearly £800 a year worse off than she or he would have been had their wages kept pace with inflation
  • An executive officer earning £23,000 is £1,413 worse off
  • A manager on £38,000 is £2,335 a year worse off.

This equals a loss to our pay packets of at least 6%.
Civil service wages are also not keeping pace with other areas of the public sector; while we are expecting wage rises of 1.5%, on average, this year, NHS workers have received 2.4%; teachers 2.3% and police officers 2.6%.

Lower paid PCS members are also experiencing higher rises in the cost of living than the average, which is why we want everyone to receive a minimum of £1,000.

Why do we want standard pay rates?

Agreeing pay deals in more than 200 organisations, rather than standard pay rates across the civil service, has distorted pay and resulted in widely different wages between people doing similar jobs in different areas.

The average difference is over 20% but can be as high as 32% which works out at £3,800 for low paid workers, and over £8,000 for higher paid grades.

National pay co-ordinator Geoff Lewtas said: “We believe these gaps are unacceptable, especially as over 90% of civil service jobs are linked to the same job evaluation system. Introducing standard

pay rates will deal with widespread inequalities and address the chaotic mess that separate bargaining has created.”

For more on our pay campaign visit www.pcs.org.uk/pay

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