Dave Semple, PCS vice president, personal capacity
Business as usual has quickly been restored for the UK civil service under Labour prime minister Keir Starmer.
Civil servants witnessed the Labour chancellor announce a 5% pay remit for 2024 in July, meaning average pay across Westminster departments could rise by that amount. This was coupled with a demand for 2% savings from all departments.
Over the last few weeks, the picture has darkened, as repeatedly warned would be the case by Socialist Party members in the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), the largest civil service union in the UK.
First came early warnings of attacks on staffing, with the Department for Transport already moving towards redundancies, even as Labour scrapped the official Tory aim of 60,000-plus job cuts.
Then came an announcement that 5,600 jobs are at risk at the Ministry of Defence. This was quickly followed by an announcement of 5% further cuts to departmental budgets.
Further attacks on staffing have followed, with a new target of 10,000 job cuts set! Smaller departments, such as the Cabinet Office, look set to suffer, with 400 redundancies proposed in a department of only 6,000 staff.
For months, Socialist Party members in PCS, and our allies in the Broad Left Network, have argued that while a 5% pay rise was better than previously, it hasn’t repaired the damage done by 24% inflation since 2020. Moreover, we warned that simply accepting this would invite an attack on jobs.
It is crucial now that the PCS union – allying with other public sector unions where possible – sets down a very clear marker against further cuts and attacks, no matter who is in government, by renewing our union’s national campaign on pay, pensions, jobs, rights and more.
This is the urgent task for socialists in PCS and the wider civil service in 2025 – we hope you will join the fight!
