Public and Commercial Services Union

VOA members were balloted between 4 and 30 September over the final VOA pay offer for 2008, and the VOA Pay Bulletin VOAC/MB/025/08 gave full details of the PCS pay claim and the VOA final offer prior to the ballot taking place. The result of the ballot was declared on Tuesday 7 October, and the ballot results were 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 convey this ballot result to VOA management and will be seeking a meeting with them to discuss the VOA pay position. A discussion with Prospect will also be helpful to consider how the two unions can take the issue forward together. All of this will need to be considered in the light of the National Pay Ballot and its outcome.

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

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 fundamental objectives:

• To secure changes to the Treasury 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
• Preservation of the Civil Service Compensation Scheme

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. The ballot of PCS members nationally is currently taking place (24 September to 17 October) for discontinuous strike action and discontinuous action short of a strike over national pay, and VOA members are urged to vote ‘yes’ to both ballot questions.

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.