Public and Commercial Services Union

Fair pay in the VOA

Our efforts to secure a fair pay settlement for all PCS members in the VOA continues. We remain in dispute over the imposition of a below inflation offer for 2007 pay which represented a pay cut in real terms for the vast majority of our members. Members across the VOA took part in well-supported industrial action in February and April in support of the PCS campaign for fair pay in the VOA. We have now lodged our pay claim for 2008 and expect formal pay talks to begin shortly. We will be making further representations to the Minister, as well as seeking to go to arbitration over the matter of VO pay, and we continue to press the case directly with HMRC on pay parity with the main Department.

Fair pay is a national issue

Delegates to the PCS National Conference this year determined that an industrial action ballot of all civil service members will take place if the Treasury fail to make key changes to the handling of pay. The key elements of the national campaign include:

• Inflation proofed basic pay awards (as measured by the retail price index)
• An end to the unfair handling of civil servants’ pay compared to the rest of the public sector, including separate funding for pay progression to help achieve a level playing field
• Actively encouraging pay reform in the Treasury’s pay guidance, especially pay progression systems, and help with the implementation of common conditions of employment across the civil service and related areas
• A calculation of the ‘efficiency savings’ achieved through cutting jobs and returning some of it to hard working staff
• A reduction in the number of separate civil service bargaining units
• An end to the pressure on civil service organisations to adopt local or regional pay arrangements
• An end to the practice of linking pay to performance appraisal systems

These are all issues which directly impact on pay issues in the VOA. In conjunction with the national campaign we are now preparing to take our campaign forward.

Action: 16 &17 July

The problems over pay and related terms and conditions are not unique to members in the VOA and we must take every opportunity to seek to join forces with colleagues elsewhere in the civil service and across the public sector unions in defence of decent pay for all public sector workers.

On Wednesday and Thursday, 16 & 17 July, 600,000 local government workers - care assistants, refuse collectors, cleaners, teaching assistants, social workers - will be taking action because employers are asking them to take a pay cut. In addition PCS members in departments and agencies who are currently in dispute with their employer over pay will be taking action.

We have advised VOA management of our intention to take industrial action on 16 and 17 July, under the legal auspices of the membership ballot that confirmed members’ overwhelming willingness to take part in action short of strike action.

All VO Branches and members are therefore urged to make preparations in readiness for action on Wednesday, 16th and Thursday, 17th July.

Members are urged to:

• Walk out of your office from 1pm on both 16 and 17 July
• Attend local public rallies where they are taking place (your Branch Secretary will be sent details of all rallies and marches that are taking place on the day and details will be on the PCS website
• Support PCS members from other departments and agencies who are also in dispute over pay
• Support members in other unions who will be on strike on 16 & 17 July by visiting picket lines and leafleting the public

Thanks for your support.