21 January 2022

PCS 2022 pay claim in DfT and national ballot

Low pay is increasingly an issue for members across the Department for Transport and to start to address this we have submitted our 2022 pay claim to the DWP which seeks to address levels of disparity and inequality that urgently need addressing.

We lodged our claim with permanent secretary Bernadette Kelly on 23 December and made the case that following decades of pay restraint, pay rises are needed for all staff. Low pay is increasingly an issue but more so in some areas. For example, low pay for EO grades in the DVSA means the agency is struggling to recruit the numbers of temp examiners needed.

We recognise that there are a range of different arrangements in place in respect of terms and conditions and our longer-term objective is to bring as great a degree of coherence to these arrangements as is possible. However, in order that we may make quick progress on issues which do not carry any complexity, we have submitted the following pay claim for 2022 covering all workers in the Department for Transport (DfT), DVLA, DVSA, and MCA, National Highways and Vehicle Certification Agency.

If the government is not prepared to act to tackle the cost-of-living crisis for its own workers, then we must look at what action members are prepared to take. We are therefore running a national ballot for all our public sector members from 14 February to 21 March.

This is not a strike ballot. It will ask members what action they would be prepared to take. A statutory industrial action ballot might follow later.

Our pay claim in the DfT calls for:

1) Cost of living rises

For 2022, in addition to progress on coherence of pay scales, we are also seeking a cost of living rise of 10%.

We are seeking a single rate for the job for each grade set at the following level:

Grade      Annual salary £

AA           18916

AO           22121

EO           27617

HEO        37338

SEO         46278

Grade 7   61502

Grade 6   76889

2) London weighting

On top of the national salary points that we are seeking to negotiate, we are seeking a London weighting payment, incorporated into consolidated pay, of at least £5,000 per annum, with no detriment to any worker currently entitled to more than that.

3) A Living Wage

Underpinning all elements of our claim for 2022, we are seeking a living wage of £15 an hour.

4) Annual leave

We are seeking improvements in annual leave provision to at least 35 days a year on entry; with no detriment to any worker currently entitled to more than that.

5) Working week

We believe that the time is right to consider what the future world of work might look like and how workers might benefit from new technology and from more flexible ways of working.

We are therefore seeking a significant reduction in the working week with no loss of pay.

6) Pay coherence

PCS has a long-standing objective of securing a return to national bargaining on pay (https://www.pcs.org.uk/news-events/news/crisis-facing-pcs-members) and terms and conditions covering all workers in the civil service and its related areas.

In preparation for the ballot, we need you to:


Source URL: https://www.pcs.org.uk/news-events/news/pcs-2022-pay-claim-dft-national-ballot