Applying pressure on pensions
For her latest column in PCS People, Fran writes about our campaign on pensions, amid Labour's promises and failures on outsourcing, and the implications of the Employment Rights Act.
This Labour government came to power promising “the biggest wave of insourcing in a generation”.
I bet the thousands of civil servants facing delays, anguish and hardship over their pensions wish Labour had stuck to this pledge.
The current chaos is being overseen by the outsourced provider Capita. It is affecting recently retired members as well as those considering voluntary exits – and PCS has been working hard to get a solution for everyone in our negotiations with the Cabinet Office.
Thanks to PCS pressure, the Cabinet Office has agreed to pay interest on late lump sum and pension payments, at Bank of England base rate plus 1%, and has instructed employers to offer £5,000 hardship loans to scheme members who have not received their pensions.
As PCS People goes to press, we have also secured a compensation scheme for those who have experienced unacceptable delays.
A ‘surge team’ of around 150 civil servants from HMRC has also been deployed – yet another example of dedicated public servants bailing out privatised failure.
Our negotiators were therefore gobsmacked when it was revealed to us that Capita has been awarded the shared services contract which processes payroll for civil servants across the DWP, Home Office, Defra and MoJ.
These are rewards for failure – and will also create anxiety for members that their payroll could suffer the same maladministration as the pension.
We are asking members to use the e-actions on the PCS website to protest
against this outsourcing.
More still needed on workers’ rights
Where the Labour government has done better in delivering its manifesto pledges is over the Employment Rights Act (ERA).
Too many provisions were watered down and have yet to come into force, but that should not blind us to the fact that this is the biggest improvement in protections for workers and trade union rights in at least 50 years.
In February, a number of changes came in that make it easier and less burdensome for the union and reps to organise a ballot and a strike.
As members at the Met Police, British Library and Tate Galleries have shown, taking strike action gets results in better pay, terms and conditions.
From April 2026, the ERA will mean parental leave and paternity leave become day one rights; and whistleblowing protections will be extended to cover sexual harassment.
But despite that progress, it still leaves workers in Britain with fewer rights and protections at work than people in many European countries.
That cannot be right.
So, with our allies in sister unions and in parliament, PCS will be campaigning for a second bill that goes further and levels up.
Trade unions have delivered improvements, but now we have to go further. Our members deserve nothing less.