Conference agrees plan to broaden the union’s national campaign

Motion A315, which was moved by Craig Worswick on behalf of Home Office Yorkshire and North East branch, called on the NEC to implement a major campaign, with all forms of action considered, and a strategy determined by serious analysis of our available leverage.

“We need to rebuild a campaign that members need to believe in and A315 sets out a very clear set of steps that we need to take,” Craig said. He said that if a Labour government comes to power and we have live mandates across the union based on demands set out in the motion the new government are “going to want to make a deal.”

James Cox, who spoke to oppose the motion on behalf of the NEC, said: “Let’s recognise what we have achieved and the challenges that lie ahead.”

A315, which was seconded by DfE North West and Wales, was carried by conference and set out the following demands:

•  A 10% pay rise and pay restoration, as demanded by ADC 2023, with minimum pay of £15 an hour with additional money to sustain London weightings above this.
• Meaningful national pay bargaining, a sliding scale wage structure that protects civil service wages from falling below inflation and stops AO and AA-equivalent grades falling below the National Minimum Wage by 1 April each year.
• 100,000 new civil service jobs and genuinely flexible hybrid working; halt the planned 72,000 job cuts and fight for effective staffing levels and the creation of a new national climate service.
• Reversal of the attack on the Civil Service Job Protocols, maintenance of the pre-2016 Civil Service Compensation Scheme and reversal of the anti-union attacks since 2010.
• An end to the office closures programme: no office should be closed except with the agreement of the trade unions. This must be coupled to investment in local civil service offices fit for purpose.
• Pensions justice: reimbursement for our 2% over-contribution, retention of access to legacy schemes and reversal of all Con-Dem attacks.

The motion also instructed the NEC to consider how to coordinate efforts in any re-ballots and consider how the national campaign feeds into devolved and privatised areas, and coordinate work so that members in the private sector and devolved sector can be involved to the greatest extent feasible. It also instructed the NEC to open a dispute with the government as part of the national campaign to “resist the assault on equality, diversity and inclusion in the civil service, begun on 13 May.”

Be prepared to work together

PCS General Secretary Fran Heathcote told conference that supporting A315 would take our national campaign “back to square one.”

“Were we to introduce new demands at this stage our previous demands would become null and void,” she said.

Motion A314, moved by Fran Heathcote on behalf of the NEC, was heard at the start of the national campaign debate yesterday afternoon (21). It called for the continuation of national talks to positively influence the content of the Treasury pay remit guidance for this year and the development of a plan for sustained, targeted industrial action funded by the levy aimed at securing our aspirations on pay. The motion was defeated. And following the subsequent passing of A315, motion A316, which called for an urgent review of how the union’s time and resources are currently used to rebuild members’ confidence and ensure we can re-ballot and win in the areas that didn’t meet the 50% legal threshold, also fell.

Fran had stressed in moving A314 that reps and branches “must be prepared to work together on the national campaign,” and ensure that we are in “the best place with the plan we have to deliver for our members.”

“We can’t sit back and wait for Labour or kneejerk into an immediate re-ballot. We need to maximise pressure on the government,” she said.

Find essential information about our conference on the ADC 2024 web page and follow our website for further updates throughout the week. Use the hashtag #PCSADC