Dear Colleagues,Independent review of civilian staff - Beware the Grimstone Reaper
On 11th December 2009 our union issued a members briefing (MoD/MB/95/09) on the review of MoD civil servants announced in a letter to staff from the permanent under secretary, Bill Jeffrey.
Our union has long called for a sensible review of the work of civilian staff. We hoped that this review could help to put an end to the recent disgusting attacks on our members by discredited politicians in the media and elsewhere. We also hoped it would properly capture the value that every civil servant provides and take a strategic and coherent look at the work that our members do in support of defence.
At the meeting with the MoD finance director which took place shortly before Christmas we were dismayed to learn that Gerry Grimstone had been appointed to lead the review. Mr Grimstone was the Head of Margaret Thatcher’s privatisation unit and is currently the chairman of Standard Life Insurance and Candover Investments, the listed private equity house. Last year Gordon Brown appointed him to look at asset management under the Operational Efficiency Programme (OEP). The decision to privatise the Defence Storage and Distribution Agency (DSDA) was taken after it was ‘reviewed’ by the OEP team.
MoD is now inviting Mr Grimstone to examine the scope for ‘sourcing functions from other providers (such as the private and voluntary sector)’ where that provides ‘better value for money’ and to contractorise work currently done in house.
The Grimstone Reaper will be looking for a minimum of £180 Million of savings through cutting yet more civil service posts, but he is encouraged by MoD to look for additional reductions on top of this. This could equate to as many as 10,000 jobs being cut or privatised.
Whilst the review is also going to look at the distribution of tasks between military and civilian task the department has stated that manpower requirements for the military will be out of scope for the review. We presume this includes the thousands of non-deployable military staff doing jobs that should be done by civilian staff.
Our union therefore believes that this review lacks any credibility because it is starting from the point of seeking to cut our members’ jobs rather than to actually review the contribution and importance of the work that our members do. We believe that the department urgently needs to increase the number of civil servants and that a further significant round of cuts will be a disastrous mistake.
In addition to this we cannot have any confidence in those appointed to carry out the work – including those within MoD. These are the same people who disgracefully leaked the closure of RAF Cottismore to the media, meaning the first that staff knew about the closure announcement was from the radio and TV.
At the same time as MoD yet again seek to make savings by axing the jobs of the lowest paid the Guardian revealed that the Department’s equipment programme is forecast to waste £35 Billion. This is more than the entire annual budget of the department! The entire civil service costs just 9% of the MoD budget.
MoD still cannot tell us how many non-deployable military staff is employs. These employees cost many millions more to employ than civil servants and are doing work that in every other government department in Britain is done by civil servants, such as HR, admin, finance, commercial and clerical.
Our members in the last five years, when we have been fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, have continued to serve and to give of their best – despite MoD civilian numbers falling every single quarter from 109,050 in April 2004 to 80,000 by 2011.
We are dismayed and deeply angry at the plans being drawn up to cut yet more jobs. In a department already cut to the bone, further cuts will very quickly ensure the Ministry of Defence is not fit for purpose. Instead of supporting the front line as our members do so loyally and efficiently on a daily basis, we will no longer be able to give this support.
Our union is meeting the defence teams of both Labour and the Tories this month. We will seek to explain the work that our members do and appeal for a halt to the latest insane plan to cut civilian jobs. MoD could save £180 Million easily through reform of the equipment programme, through replacing military staff with civil servants or from coherent changes to acquisition plans. Instead it plans to throw more loyal staff onto the scrapheap.
Our union will fight to defend every job and respond to every attack on the work our members. We will ask members to consider all forms of action to defend jobs and we will stand up and fight for civilians in MoD and promote the work that they do. We appeal to MoD staff to join with us; help us fight the job slaughter and defend the vital role of MOD civilian staff.
The next period will be difficult and challenging, but standing together we can protect our jobs, our livelihoods and our communities.
Yours sincerely
Paul Barnsley Group Secretary
Chris Dando Group President
KC Jones Vice President
