Left Unity motion to end pay campaign voted down by NEC
President rules out motion with fighting strategy, leaving PCS without a position on pay
Socialist Party members in PCS
On 29 July, the Cabinet Office published the civil service pay remit. This allowed departments to increase pay budgets by an average of 5%. This figure, still not enough, is the concrete result of brave workers, including PCS union members, taking determined and sustained industrial action. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has made the government’s position very clear: “There is a cost to not settling, a cost of further industrial action”.
There is no additional money in departmental budgets to cover the pay increase. Budgets were set in 2021, before the spike in inflation; there has been no movement on pay progression; and thousands of members remain in a continuous cycle of low pay, many on the minimum wage. Separately, 2% savings in admin budgets have been announced (job cuts) as has the government’s intent to shave £3 billion off departmental budgets.
A special National Executive Committee (NEC) was called for 12 August to discuss the union’s strategy.
The Left coalition majority submitted a motion which set out in detail a response to the pay remit guidance, together with a clear strategy to put to members and reps. This strategy included:
- A firm rejection of the 5% and an instruction that our national negotiators go back into talks for more: we should not accept the first offer
- That demands are placed on pay, but also on issues such as jobs, working environment, pensions and a claim for those members who come under the DDAT pay framework
- A major programme to re-engage members and reps across the whole union, rebuild the confidence to fight and win, including discussions with members and reps in the devolved areas to determine their involvement in a fresh campaign on pay, jobs and conditions. It is crucial we rebuild the confidence lost by the actions of the outgoing leadership that we can fight, and we can win
- That the levy continues in the immediate, but at a very reduced rate for our lowest-paid members, whilst a more thorough review (already agreed but not yet actioned by the machine) is undertaken to replenish our campaign funds
- That strike mandates should not be triggered but left on the table to review as the picture unfolds
- That reps are urgently consulted about the remit, the levy and whether we engage in delegated talks
- A further NEC is called following that to review if/how we need to adapt our tactics and if/when a Special Delegate Conference is called to discuss this issue, but also our anti-racism and anti-fascism strategy together with the whole issue of democracy and who is running the union – the elected NEC or the machine
What happened at the NEC?
The NEC had barely started when the national president ruled this motion out of order, therefore vetoing – yet again – any discussion voicing disagreement with a paper from the general secretary (GS).
The GS paper, published hours before the deadline for amendments, amounted to total surrender of the union’s national campaign and pushed any serious challenge to government into the long grass. This is in blatant defiance of the policy set by PCS conference in May 2024, and replicates events in 2023 when they called off the national campaign.
The 5% pay remit is unfunded. To agree an unfunded mandate would mean welcoming job cuts. In some departments, such as Transport and Education, those job cuts are already being put into motion. We will need a major campaign to save jobs.
Our national pay team should go back into discussion with the Cabinet Office to argue for more, to argue that it should be funded, and to insist that pay not be contingent upon job cuts.
We should not agree to delegated pay talks going ahead at departmental level at this stage. We should delay these while we seek further movement at Cabinet Office level. Meanwhile, we should be using this threat to jobs, and the impact of pay cuts, to mobilise members for a strike ballot.
We understand that some members will, at least initially, think that 5% is passable. But once this results in job cuts and workload increases, this view is likely to dissipate.
We can win more
The key thing, however, is whether members believe their union can fight and win more. We have argued consistently that we need to win the activist layer, win the members and pivot to a re-ballot, taking action in those areas with a mandate (with full discussion with reps and members in those areas) to create momentum and pressure on the government.
The majority left coalition motion to the NEC allowed for consideration of a Special Delegate Conference this year, to reconvene Conference, given the change in situation since our pre-general election May 2024 annual conference.
The president’s decision to veto the entire alternative strategy makes a Special Delegate Conference absolutely imperative because, with the GS motion defeated, PCS has effectively no position on pay.
PCS is rapidly losing our once-proud claim to be a member-led union. Decisions are increasingly being taken outside the NEC, and not even reported back to the elected leaders of the union.
We believe members should decide our strategy. Along with a Special Delegate Conference, the Senior Lay Reps Forum should be a real council of war, with a full exchange of views. Therefore, the left coalition NEC majority should have the right to a speaker in a debate with the GS and president on the way forward.
We appeal to PCS members, reps and activists to join our fight for a union that fights for members and full lay-member democracy.
Socialist Party members in PCS are part of the Broad Left Network. Read more at bln.org.uk
