To: All Members (1:10) MoD/MB/18/10
Dear Colleagues,
It is regrettable that our Permanent under Secretary, Bill Jeffrey, has chosen to intervene in the ongoing Civil Service Compensation Scheme dispute and sought to undermine our union’s campaign to defend members’ terms and conditions.
At a time when confidence and belief in the leadership of the department is at an all time low, as demonstrated by the recent Your Say survey results, it is even more unfortunate that he chooses to do so using spin and propaganda rather than a genuine attempt to debate the issues and negotiate a settlement to the dispute.
Our union must respond to this blatant attempt to undermine our industrial action, properly called after a democratic ballot, but also firmly rebut the myths and half-truths he uses to defend the indefensible.
Myth 1 - “Someone aged 46, on a salary of £25,000 a year and with 25 years service, being made redundant would have entitlement to a statutory redundancy payment of £8,550 in many private sector organisations. In the Civil Service, under the new terms, it would be £60,000.”
Fact 1 – Leaving aside the fact that MOD’s Permanent under Secretary seems happy that his department should now aspire to treat his staff like the worst private sector employers (which may go some way to explain the Your Say survey results!) the fact remains that at the moment, that same individual would receive a payment of £75,000, therefore they stand to lose £15,000 under the new proposals. Also, all staff currently aged under 50 will lose the entitlement to enhanced pension under FER/CER terms once they reach the age of 50. So under this scheme, future long-serving civil servants will be worse off than now.
Myth 2 – “For nearly 50% of civil servants earning £20,000 or less there will be little difference between the current and the new terms; indeed some people will be better off under the new terms.”
Fact 2 - Almost every member will be potentially worse off in the event of voluntary redundancy because management will have almost complete discretion. PCS campaigning so far has forced the Cabinet Office to improve their offer six times, but there is still further room for improvement so that all civil servants, even Permanent under Secretaries, suffer no detriment.
Myth 3 – “Anyone being made compulsorily redundant under the new terms with more than 14½ years of service will get, as a minimum, compensation of two years’ pay.”
Fact 3 – But only if your compensation payment for two year’s salary is less than £60,000. If it is more than £60,000, you will be capped at this figure. Members with pre-1987 reserved rights, the majority of whom this will affect stand to lose tens if not hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Myth 4 – “There is special protection for those close to retirement; specifically anyone over 50 (and with at least 5 years’ service) on 31 March 2010 who is made compulsorily redundant in the future will continue to benefit from the current terms by reference to their service as at March 2010.”
Fact 4 – Any service that is accrued from April 2010 will be on the new, much weaker terms. With all mainstream political parties promising pay freezes or pay curbs, the likelihood is that the majority of civil servants will now have to work till late in their 60’s to make ends meet, therefore on many occasions, members will have to work ten, fifteen, sometimes more years on the much inferior terms. It is also worth noting that under the current proposals, the entitlement to enhance pension will be abolished for staff who become 50 in the future (approx 70% of PCS members).
Myth 5 – “It is also very important to say that all of the other unions involved in the CSCS negotiations – the FDA, Prospect, Prison Officers’ Association, the GMB and Unite – have agreed the new terms as being fair and balanced.”
Fact 5 – PCS is the largest civil service union, with three times as many civil service members as the others unions combined. It is PCS members who would be most at risk from cuts in the future. In their latest bulletin, Prospect have grudgingly had to admit this – “On a straightforward count of members this is true.” What other basis is there?
However, what other unions may have agreed to is between their leadership and their members, many of whom seem distinctly underwhelmed by the ‘deal’ struck on their behalf without consultation.
Myth 6 – “Such action will be neither understood nor supported by people employed elsewhere in the economy where redundancy terms remain much less generous than those in the Civil Service.”
Fact 6 – Most people employed elsewhere will understand that having detrimental changes to their terms and conditions imposed on them is the act of a bad employer and would seek to oppose them. Until now, any changes to the civil service compensation scheme have always been in agreement with the trade unions. The last changes were made during the Thatcher Conservative government in the late 80’s; a government that can hardly be viewed historically as worker friendly! Our compensation entitlements are on a par with those across the public sector, but the civil service has been targeted as the pilot area to get rid of these entitlements.
We know that further attacks on our terms and conditions are likely whoever wins the general election, with ill health benefits, travel and subsistence and pay all in the firing line. Standing up for our rights now is the right thing to do, as if we give way without a fight we can ensure further attacks will swiftly follow and our ability to resist will be weakened.
Summary
Bill Jeffrey finishes his letter by stating our action will be “against a package which is fundamentally fair and reasonable.” Well, that may be his opinion but it is hardly shared by anyone else.
Over 150 MPs have publicly stated their opposition by signing early day motion 251 ‘Civil Service Compensation Scheme’ that describes changes to the scheme as “disappointing and unfair proposals”.
63.4% of PCS members voted for strike action over the proposals with 81.4% voted in favour of industrial action short of a strike. This is a clear mandate from a democratic ballot of the union’s members.
The Cabinet Office has described these changes as bringing the civil service into line with the rest of the public sector. Yet according to the government’s own figures, civil servants earn nearly £5,000 less per year than the public sector average. If the government were serious about bringing the civil service into line with the rest of the public sector then it would address the issue of chronic low pay in the civil service.
In reality these cuts are an attack on low paid civil servants to make it easier for the next government to make job cuts on the cheap. It has nothing to do with fairness or parity, and instead is a crude cost-cutting exercise.
If these proposals go through, it will leave all PCS members in the Ministry of Defence in a much weaker position. After a democratic ballot, our union has now called national industrial action to save your entitlements. It has never been more important to support our union and to fight for our entitlements.
If the above information does not convince you that this is probably the most important dispute that PCS members will ever face, ask yourselves what term or condition of employment any future Government will need to arbitrarily cut before you join together with colleagues to protect what you currently have.
ALL OUT ON 8TH AND 9TH MARCH – NO JOB CUTS ON THE CHEAP
Bob Rollings Chris Dando KC Jones
