At Tory conference, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced that the size of the civil service will be cut by one fifth. He said he will ban government departments from increasing their workforce and order them to ‘shrink’ to pre-pandemic levels within five years.
Marion Lloyd, Broad Left Network candidate for PCS general secretary, responded:
We all know what that means. That means job cuts and privatisation. It means increased stress levels. It means increased workloads, and worse quality services.
They’ve also announced a ‘value for money’ survey on equality and diversity. This ‘anti-woke’ agenda across the civil service is a further crude attempt to divide workers, ironically during Black History Month.
They are using civil service workers, hardworking people delivering crucial services, day-in day-out, as political footballs.
They are more intent on attacking us than ensuring properly trained, properly paid civil service workers who can deliver crucial, quality public services.
It is absolutely vital that PCS responds immediately.
We must relaunch the national campaign. The national leadership has had its ‘pause’. That pause has invited aggression from the employer.
It is urgent that the PCS leadership sets out what is required to win. We need to rebuild the national campaign, including action, to ensure that we protect our jobs, protect our conditions, and protect the crucial services that we provide.
That task is urgent and immediate.
