‘The one-off payment is not what the dispute was about’
Dave Warren, Secretary of the PCS Associate and Retired Members Section in Wales, personal capacity
PCS union pickets at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) were in determined mood when Socialist Party members visited their picket line on 16 June.
Workers engaged in despatching driving licences and vehicle registration documents to the public have been on strike since 11 June as part of the PCS strategy of targeted industrial action to defend pay, jobs, pensions and the compensation scheme (redundancy entitlement).
The strike was due to continue until 25 June, but they had just learned that the national leadership of the union had called off the second week of industrial action to enable departmental talks around a one-off payment of £1,500 (see ‘Oppose suspension of PCS national campaign’ at socialistparty.org.uk).
The Cabinet Office has given all government departments discretion to make this payment in a transparent attempt to bring the national dispute to a close, but pickets at DVLA were adamant that this was nowhere near enough and that the dispute should continue.
The payment would be for this year only, non-consolidated and taxable. It would most likely be pro-rata for part-time staff and there is not even any guarantee that it will be paid.
To cap it all, there is no new money on the table, so the money would have to be found from the existing budget, raising the threat of further cuts to jobs or terms and conditions.
After an imposed pay settlement of just 2-3% last year, the current offer of 4.5-5% for this year plus the one-off payment does little to address the cost-of-living crisis. As one picket put it: “This one-off payment is not what the dispute was about.”
Some of the DVLA pickets were keen to stress that the mood of members remains determined and angry. They had only recently voted by a whopping 97% in the national reballot to renew the strike mandate. One picket told me that he thought the mood of members was harder now than at the start of the campaign.
Members of the Socialist Party and the Broad Left Network in PCS stand firmly with these workers and others throughout the country in their fight for a just settlement.
