Last year, following a national campaign and ballot on action, PCS reached an agreement with the government on pay. The agreement meant that extra money from efficiency savings could be used to improve pay in civil service departments and other public bodies.
The government also said that there would not now be a 2% cap. This represented an important change in policy.
The national executive committee (NEC) decided that the agreement would need to be tested in pay bargaining in individual departments and linked bodies, to see if this resulted in more money in members pockets, which remains the key test of any agreement.
To take this forward, at the end of January, PCS and other unions met ministers to discuss the new Treasury remit guidance, which are the rules on pay that every department and other public bodies have to follow.
Serious delays from the government ensued and we exerted maximum pressure during this period on politicians by lobbying hard and by making direct representations to ministers. As a result the guidance was finally published 31 March.
The guidance as it stands is unacceptable as it assumes that the average base pay rise would be 1.5%. This takes no account of cuts in living standards that members experienced last year. It is less than the 2.33% pay settlement MPs have awarded themselves and also less than most other parts of the public sector.
The remit does however conform to the agreement reached with ministers last December in that it includes the possibility of using efficiency savings to improve pay awards, on top of the basic pay rise. The union’s position is that these savings can be made from cutting the use of consultants and other sources, not job cuts or office closures.
In past weeks there had been speculation that the government was considering reneging on all existing multi-year pay deals in the public sector and imposing a pay freeze.
The government’s actual position suggests that it is still seeking to proceed by negotiation. This will now be tested in practice to see whether use of efficiency savings will mean improved pay in reality.
PCS pay negotiators will now approach management as a matter of urgency in every department and employing organisation to open talks on the terms of the detailed pay remits that will be submitted to the Treasury.
These talks will clarify details of any efficiency savings that can be recycled into pay on top of basic pay awards. This will allow us to decide by the time of our annual delegate conference in May or possibly earlier, whether the government is fully honouring our agreement or whether we will need to consult you on measures which would continue our campaign.
We thank members for their support for the campaign to date. The NEC will continue to work to ensure members do not pay the price of an economic crisis not of their making.
Mark Serwotka, General Secretary
Janice Godrich, President
Inflation
The gap between the headline inflation figures and what our members experience is highly significant. Whichever measure of inflation you look at the reality is that food prices are soaring – milk is up 12%, fruit up 14%, and vegetables up 22%. Such increases hit the poorest hardest. An independent analysis shows that inflation for the poorest 20% of households is 5.3%. Many people have not benefited from interest rate changes as they are either on fixed rate terms or don’t have a mortgage. Council house rents are up 6%.
Pay
Wages have fallen behind prices in recent years. In the three years up to June 2008, prices went up by 12.8%, but basic pay for PCS members went up by only 6% on average.
Civil Service Compensation Scheme
As has been reported to members in past months, talks are under way between the civil service unions and the Cabinet Office on "reform" of the Civil Service Compensation Scheme which includes funding for redundancy payments and early retirement. These talks are still continuing so it was surprising that the Prime Minister has decided to state, in his pay review bodies announcement, that the CSCS is inflexible and expensive. He claims that changes to the scheme could save £500m over the next 3 years! PCS disagrees with his analysis and is determined to protect terms for members facing compulsory redundancy. If the government want to save money there are simple way to do this which PCS would fully support: stop the job cuts programme, stop paying billions to consultants, and lift the threat of redundancy from civil and public services workers. There will be a full discussion on where we are with the CSCS talks at the union’s annual delegate conference in May.
The economy
There is no doubt that the economy is in trouble but decent pay could be afforded.
Billions were found to prop up the banking system. There is a tax gap of £25 billion owed in unpaid taxes, while tax avoidance is estimated at £100 billion by experts. Closing the loopholes and collecting what’s owed could fund decent public services and public sector pay.
Public and private sector pay
The press emphasise differences between average pay in the public and private sectors. But for many years, private sector pay was, on average, higher than that in the public sector. According to independent research, in 2008 public sector pay increased by 2.7% and private sector pay by 3.8%.The union opposes false divisions between public and private sector workers. The real issue is the injustice of making the low paid, wherever they work, pay for a crisis not of their making.
