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Union's dismay at Companies House cuts announcement

11 June 2010

The Public & Commercial Services union (PCS) has reacted with dismay to an announcement from management at Companies House in Cardiff that would involve job cuts, a pay freeze and the closure of an office.

Ordered by the government to make an immediate 11 per cent budget cut, management has told staff that it plans to freeze all pay – including progression up the scales – close the satellite office in Nantgarw, near Caerphilly, relocating staff back to the principal office in central Cardiff, and cut all ‘non-essential’ functions.

All this will still leave a further £1.3 million savings to be found and management is seeking ministerial permission to use its reserves to fund a voluntary early severance scheme.

Mike Crimmins, chair of the PCS Companies House branch, said:

"We are deeply concerned about the proposals unveiled by management. Not only are staff facing a pay cut in real terms, but the freezing of progression will widen pay inequalities between people doing the same work.

The closure of the Nantgarw office will mean the valleys losing another major employer. And we don’t yet know how many job cuts we’re facing but any significant number will put intolerable pressure on staff, especially if this is just the first cut of many."

PCS Wales Secretary, Peter Harris, added:

"This is the first tangible consequence of the government’s cuts programme in the civil service – and it is an ominous forewarning of what we can expect over the next couple of years. Companies House staff are already thinly stretched; even if management succeeds in minimising the job cuts expected on this occasion, they will have cut everything else that can be cut in the process and we will be looking at further, deeper cuts when the Comprehensive Spending Review is announced in the autumn. That will simply not be sustainable with current service levels.

This is particularly bad news for the Welsh economy. Half of Companies House staff live in the South Wales valleys and the Nantgarw office is located in what used to be known as an ‘Objective 1’ area. Cuts like this will have a damaging impact on already-struggling local economies and could risk a double-dip recession.

Instead of making public services and public employees bear the burden of the financial sector’s irresponsibility, the government should be investing in collecting the £123 billion of tax revenue that is currently avoided, evaded or uncollected."
 

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