Now launch the national campaign!

Socialist Party members in DWP

The PCS union consultative ballot result in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is a clear warning shot to Keir Starmer’s government, indicating that workers are ready to fight on pay. Over 80.5% of PCS members who voted said they are prepared to take industrial action, on a 52.3% turnout – a strong mandate showing the members’ willingness to fight.

The union’s National Executive Committee (NEC) must now move swiftly to launch the national campaign.

The misnamed ‘Left Unity’ leadership in the DWP group have indicated they will now demand that the DWP reopens pay talks, and submit a serious case for increased pay to use the unused £6.6 million in the bonus pot. But this will not address the rising cost of living or the decades of pay erosion – it equates to £73 per member.

Nor is pay the only issue facing members. The Labour government is making hundreds of job cuts and threatening thousands more. The motion on the national campaign (motion A383) passed at the PCS Annual Delegate Conference in May laid out a clear list of demands for a campaign: pay restoration, pensions justice, and job security. We should now ballot the whole PCS membership on those demands.

The Socialist Party calls for a serious, fighting strategy. That means developing a timeline for a ballot in consultation with reps, and giving them the tools they need to breach the Tory anti-trade union 50% turnout threshold – scandalously still in place 15 months into a Labour government.

Civil service-wide national action can force the employer – the Labour government – to retreat on its attacks on staff, to increase the pitiful 3.25% pay remit, reduce the working week and return pension overpayments.

The DWP result shows the mood is there. Now let’s organise to turn it into victory.