Dear Colleagues,Pay Update No 15: MoD Pay – Update on Negotiations/Important Action for PCS members
PCS pay negotiators (from the MoD Group and the national union) have met twice this week with MoD management, including the director of MoD civilian personnel, Susan Scholefield and the Permanent under Secretary PUS Bill Jeffery.
The meetings were held as part off the MoD Dispute Resolution Process which has been triggered by PCS following our members overwhelmingly rejecting the management offer on pay (see PCS Pay Update Number 13).
At both meetings PCS has put forward a number of suggestions that could have helped to end our dispute. We have formally proposed involving the Cabinet Office and Treasury in the talks on MoD pay. We have set out the ways in which MoD could achieve its pay priorities without penalising our members in the E1 and E2 pay bands and also those working overseas.
In short PCS has entered the meetings in good faith and with a view to reaching agreement.
Disgracefully, it is evident very quickly that MoD management have in fact no intention of trying to resolve our dispute.
At both meetings management could offer us no good reason for rejecting our proposals. Instead they have chosen to hide behind flimsy excuses as to why they are attacking the lowest paid staff in MoD.
Management have refused to talk meaningfully about resolving PCS members concerns because they claim that the deal they have with the Treasury on pay is dependent on pay and pension cuts at E1 and E2.
Management has also refused to defer the imposition of the cuts until July or August because they claim it would be ‘too difficult’ to delay cuts any further.
Next Steps
Under the Dispute Resolution Procedure PCS is now seeking independent 3rd party involvement – via ACAS. We are committed to exploring every avenue to attempt to resolve our member’s concerns. However, we also want to be totally honest with members and make clear that we have little confidence in the dispute process and whilst we will attend the meetings we have do so under no illusions about management willingness to resolve the dispute.
Important Actions for PCS members
1. As members are aware PCS has taken very detailed legal advice on MoD proposals. In view of the employers abysmal attitude to the views of its staff on pay we now intend to proceed to test the legality of MoD pay proposals.
In the next few weeks every member will receive a letter from our union drafted by our lawyers. It is essential that every PCS member at E1 and E2 completes the letter and sends it to MoD. A copy must also be sent to PCS. To potentially protect your legal position you are urged to send the letter to the employer.
The letter is also available to download from our website (www.pcs.org.uk/ministryofdefence and available from PCS HQ.
Further action by all members at E1 and E2 will also be likely and you will be advised as and when this needs to be completed.
2. Sign the petition protesting about the pay cuts http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/MoDpaycuts/
3. Protest to the Secretary of State - download this letter at http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/ministry_of_defence_group/news/mod-pay-update-number-10.cfm
4. There will be an important discussion on MoD Pay at our Group Conference in Brighton next week. As part of this discussion our union will be debating an emergency motion on pay and will be deciding what steps our union needs to now take in our pay campaign and also what specific actions we should ask members to take on pay.
Please make sure your local PCS representative is aware of your views on the next steps our union needs to take to defend our pay and pensions.
5. Ensure that your friends and colleagues are members of our union.
A further pay update will be issued after conference.
Yours sincerely
Paul Barnsley Group Secretary
Chris Dando Group President
K C Jones Vice President
