Socialist Party members on the PCS NEC
The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union met on 7 November. PCS is the union for civil servants and workers on privatised government contracts.
The majority of NEC members were elected on a platform of building a serious national campaign and democratising PCS. Socialist Party members play a role in the Broad Left Network, which forms part of the left majority. But the national president and general secretary positions are still held by the ‘Left Unity’ grouping which was voted out of its leading role on the NEC.
Presidential veto of call for SDC
The left majority on the NEC proposed a motion to demand steps be taken to rebuild the union’s national campaign on pay, pensions, jobs and rights, urging the calling of a Special Delegate Conference (SDC). Scores of branches, representing tens of thousands of PCS members, have written to the general secretary, Fran Heathcote, demanding an SDC be called. Branches are seeking to break the deadlock created by president Martin Cavanagh’s repeated vetoes of NEC majority motions. But even this motion was immediately vetoed by Cavanagh.
Magnificent strike action in the private sector part of the union, against employers such as G4S, OCS and ISS, who hold facilities and security contracts with the government, has not been matched by strike action in civil service departments. This is despite the rejection of pay awards of around 5% across civil service areas. It was revealed that the general secretary has stated that the NEC had decided not to permit action to take place using the strike mandate won by 20,000 members in a ballot in May 2024. The NEC took no such decision – in fact, quite the opposite.
Heathcote and Cavanagh have already stated that they are unwilling to call an SDC because they fear it will be used to “attack” them. What they actually fear is exposure of their unwillingness to fight and the undemocratic techniques they have used to reduce the NEC to virtual paralysis.
Distortions on the levy
Before they lost their majority on the NEC, Left Unity supporters pushed through the relaunch of a strike levy on PCS members, an additional amount of money paid each month to create a pot of money to support members taking strike action.
The current majority of NEC members has called for a review of the levy, aiming to reduce the burden on the lowest paid while looking at what money would be needed to support effective strike action in the near future. This was voted on at the NEC in early July, but was then deliberately ignored in the Record of Decisions (minutes). Every other time it has been raised, the call to review has been met with a veto.
But then Left Unity supporters began clamouring for total cancellation of the levy, arguing that members cannot afford it. In fact, each time the question of national strike action comes up, they argue that members cannot afford it. In reality they are arguing that members cannot afford a serious campaign.
There is a discussion to be had about the levy. But blanket cancellation without any serious industrial strategy would send a powerful signal to the government, at a time when it is determining how it wants cuts to fall in the civil service, and when the current pay campaign hasn’t been resolved yet. Groups that are rejecting the pay offers include DWP, which is led by Left Unity!
Accountability on finance
Another issue at the NEC was a finance paper from the general secretary that binned the recommendations of the union’s elected Finance Committee (FC) regarding the PCS budget for 2025.
The FC recommended a starting assumption of 0% increase in members’ subs, the staffing budget, and all other costs. All variations to this should be scrutinised by the elected FC, before a final picture is presented to the NEC.
Instead, Heathcote proposed assumptions of a 5% increase to members’ subs and staff budgets, and an assumption of 2.5% increases on all general expenditure. In a caricature of a debate, Left Unity supporters argued that the majority is calling for “austerity” in PCS, and does not want to pay staff fairly. Not true! But in a context where the general secretary has created new highly paid posts and appointed her supporters to them, the elected majority wants to be able to scrutinise decisions.
The campaign for an SDC goes on. A renewal of democracy in PCS is vital if we are going to successfully fight our battles with the new Labour government, which has already turned towards cuts.
