Management attack civil service pay

End Low Pay

Return to national pay bargaining

THOUSANDS OF angry civil servants are preparing for strike action over pay and facing the imposition of derisory pay deals. 86,000 PCS members working for the Department for Work and Pensions will be balloting from 5-19 January.

A 1% cost of living increase has just been imposed on the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) (the old Lord Chancellor's Department). The DCA group executive is meeting on 10 December. Home Office and Immigration Service staff have just voted to reject a 1.3% offer. The PCS group executive is meeting on 16 December to decide further action. 1,000 GMB members in the Prison Service are also balloting over a 1% pay offer.

This is against the background of the PCS national executive's campaign and membership ballot, for a return to national pay bargaining and an end to low pay.

PCS members spoke to the socialist about how the workforce was reacting to this management provocation:

"People are incensed. They think the management is totally arrogant and they don't give a damn about us. They don't care what we think or say. It's as if they're a bunch of bullies.

"This is the last straw. There's also a perception that because there's been so many attacks over the last 1-2 years and the way management have been behaving towards staff, they thought they might get a better pay offer. So people are furious to actually see the worst offer in ten years, then have it imposed before the ballot has even finished.

"I recruited two people to the union today. I was just walking around and somebody said something about what's going on and I just said: 'Why don't you rejoin the union?' And they said: 'Yeah, OK'. All in the space of about two minutes.

"In Birmingham we can't recruit staff as it is, so this isn't going to help.

"I work in a social security office with about 200 people and I think there's pretty solid support for taking strike action."

Sian Ruddick, chair West Midlands region, PCS

"I met somebody recently who had been a PCS member in the past. She'd noticed she wasn't getting her union subs deducted from her pay. She rushed up to me and said: 'You must send me a union application form. If we're going to go on strike I need to be a member.' And she's a middle manager.

"People are particularly angry about the way the performance related pay can be stopped. It means taking maternity leave or any special leave will mean your performance pay gets docked. Whether people agree with performance pay in the first place, which by and large they don't, it is going to be a major part of your pay. And to lose it due to things you maybe have no control over - that has caused an awful lot of anger."

Alexis, a London PCS member

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