Eilonwy Awen, PCS Proud committee, personal capacity
PCS should campaign to defend the approach of our union, democratically agreed at previous conferences, to defend the rights of Trans+ workers as part of a campaign to unite civil service workers against attacks from the bosses and the Labour government.
The Supreme Court’s ruling on ‘For Women Scotland v Scottish Ministers’ has created significant legal uncertainty which employers are already exploiting. The outgoing PCS leadership has used it as a cover to retreat from positions members have democratically agreed.
Following the judgement in April 2025, the Left Unity-controlled National Standing Orders Committee (NSOC) has attempted to unilaterally impose a new approach on our union. This is despite the fact that, as yet, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has not finalised its guidance!
Imagine if a union leadership responded so obediently to all attempts by governments to introduce repressive measures! We would give away all our strength to fight for members. It was intransigent resistance that saw the Minimum Service Levels legislation removed from the statutes, for example.
The trade unions remain the most important defenders of all workers’ rights through their ability to unite workers against all attempts to divide us.
Division is the employers’ strategy, not ours. Our union leadership needs to prepare training, resources and guidance for PCS organisers so they can defend trans+ members’ rights of access to workplace facilities, alongside the rights of all members, and from discrimination and harassment.
Motions ruled out
Instead, Left Unity has ruled out ten motions related to Trans+ liberation from the conference agenda.
What remains on the conference agenda is a set of trojan horse motions cloaked in language apparently supporting the Trans+ community but which are intended to alter the union’s policy in line with the ruling.
Among others, motion A85, submitted by the outgoing Left Unity-controlled NEC, accepts the ruling as ‘clarifying’ and seeks to give the NEC carte blanche to review and update current policy and guidance. The ruling was far from clarifying, as we have spent the last year working through what it means for our community and the impact it has on all of us, including cisgender women. The NEC did not consult PCS Proud, the LGBT+ advisory committee to the NEC.
Despite the efforts of two Broad Left Network members on the NSOC, the Left Unity majority on the committee voted to send these motions for legal advice, on the basis that the union might face some risk. No legal advice was provided to say that these motions amounted to defamation or libel.
The outgoing Left Unity-led leadership oversaw the suspension of a longstanding Trans Awareness training, and the equality and legal department’s refusal to publish Trans+ inclusive articles, including an article for International Women’s Day written by Proud’s women’s representative.
Unions that stand for women and trans+ rights are stronger. Unions that carve out exceptions teach employers exactly which members they can target.
Employers will look to the civil service as a baseline for how organisations should treat staff. We must now build a campaign to fight for all our members as we struggle against the exploitative capitalist system where only the rich benefit.
The incoming NEC, now led by a left ‘Coalition for Change’ majority, has the opportunity to do this.
An emergency motion has now been put forward by branches calling on PCS to seek urgent legal advice, lobby parliament and write to ministers in support of the Trans+ community.
