Public and Commercial Services Union

VOA members have been balloted over our final pay offer for 2008, and the bulletin VOAC/MB/025/08 gave full details of the PCS pay claim and the VOA final offer prior to the start of the ballot. The ballot result was announced on Tuesday 7 October as follows;

• To reject the 2008 pay offer:   967
• To accept the 2008 pay offer:  535
• Spoiled ballot papers: 4
• Percentage of valid votes to reject: 64.4%

VOA Pay Negotiations

The VOAC will now need to tell VOA management the ballot result and seek a meeting to discuss the VOA pay position. A discussion with Prospect will also be helpful to consider how the two unions can take this issue forward together. All of this will need to be considered in the light of PCS's national pay ballot.

Thank you to all local offices for organising the ballot in their workplaces.

Government Pay Policy

The inadequacy of the VOA pay offer, and indeed all civil service pay offers this year, flows from the government’s policy of limiting public sector pay increases to well below the rate of inflation – with an absolute limit of 2% on basic pay increases in 2008. By any measure the pay increases on offer do not meet even the basic requirement of cost of living increases for all:

• Inflation as measured by the Retail Price Index (RPI) continues to rise and currently stands at 5%
• The Consumer Prices Index (CPI), the government’s preferred inflation measure, is running at 4.4%
• Retail costs, including basics such as food, gas, electricity, travel and fuel, continue to spiral upwards
• PCS members are in effect being asked to take in real terms a pay cut and inflation may increase further.

PCS rejects the government’s claim that public sector wage restraint is essential to control inflation – PCS members are the victims of high inflation, they do not cause it.

PCS National Pay Campaign

Pay is now the primary focus of the union’s national campaign, which has the following aims:

• To secure changes to the Treasury's remit guidance, to allow consolidated increases to basic pay that at least match RPI
• Civil service pay coherence
• The decoupling of progression costs from general pay increases
• Scrapping any link between pay and performance.

We must build on this to take forward the pay aspirations of all our members. VOA members should support and join the PCS national pay campaign.

Next Steps

As soon as the VOAC has considered the Prospect position, had their meetings with VOA management, and considered the outcome of the national PCS pay ballot, we will be in contact with members again with details of our next steps in the campaign.

Thank you for your participation and support.