Socialist Party members in PCS

The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the PCS civil service union met on 7 July to ensure that the National Disputes Committee (NDC) could deal with urgent business.

This has broken the deadlock at the top of the union since the general secretary, Fran Heathcote, walked out of the NEC meeting on 11 June, cutting off the Zoom to prevent the NEC taking key decisions. She then shut down all the national democratic bodies of PCS, including the NEC and NDC.

Against objections from the elected senior lay officers of PCS – including president Bev Laidlaw, deputy president Dave Semple, and vice presidents Rachel Heemskerk and Hector Wesley – the general secretary instructed the union’s full-time officers not to permit the NDC to clear any business, meaning decisions on strikes and on support for victimised reps were delayed.

To enable the NEC and NDC to function, the NEC majority agreed to adopt the standing orders (rules for debate), the dispute around which had been used by Heathcote as her reason to shut everything down.

NEC majority prioritises members’ interests

Dave Semple, deputy president, on behalf of the NEC majority, made the following statement to make it clear that we prioritise members’ interests, and particularly those members fighting for their jobs – like those in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Sodexo in Belfast, who have now been given authority to take strike action:

“The elected NEC majority is enabling the adoption of these standing orders, under protest, in order to progress business and protect members’ interests, not because we agree with the content. We wish to have this reproduced in the record of this meeting.”

Heathcote has also abused her powers by publishing two one-sided videos on the union’s website and by sending out a biased all-members’ email. This material put employers across the country on notice about what was going on and will have damaged the credibility of the union as we try to prepare for a major national campaign on the cost of living, jobs, office closures and much else.

NEC majority members – including Socialist Party members and supporters of the Broad Left Network (BLN), alongside others who want a more fighting, democratic union –  convened a well-attended ‘Coalition for Change’ meeting for PCS members on 18 June, to ensure that reps and members were kept informed of events. A leaflet was produced by the NEC majority to take out to members.

Since then, a wide swathe of members and reps have been writing to the general secretary, copying in the president and deputy president, to demand that she gets round the table with the leaders of the NEC. Further pressure has been mounting on the general secretary due to strike submissions, delayed on her orders.

It was made clear by Heathcote that unless we adopt the previous standing orders, the NEC would not re-open and the NDC would not meet.

Why was there a dispute about the standing orders?

Heathcote wanted the previous standing orders to stay in place. She and former president Martin Cavanagh had often hidden behind them to rule out any proposals from NEC members that disagreed with Heathcote’s recommendations. Routinely they were used to delay and block a national campaign on pay, jobs, cuts etc.

But the new left majority on the NEC includes a new president, who issued a ruling that the NEC could agree new standing orders by majority vote. Heathcote’s allies challenged the chair’s ruling and lost – and it was at this point that Heathcote walked out and shut down the NEC.

Heathcote’s position has been that lay reps in PCS don’t run the union. A small example of this was when the president, deputy president and two vice presidents proposed text for a briefing for the union’s negotiators, Heathcote simply refused to publish it, arguing that lay reps writing briefings was a breach of her contract!

In reality, she is using any tool she can to block those who have been elected on the basis of wanting a national fightback. It is the fightback she is blocking.

The NEC majority unanimously agreed that, while Heathcote’s obstruction is undemocratic, we cannot allow a continued stalemate that halts industrial action and prevents us doing what members voted for: building towards a national fightback on pay, jobs, office closures and more.

  • On 7 July, PCS organised a lobby of parliament over the civil service pensions crisis. In December, private company Capita took over the pension scheme, on a seven-year contract worth £239 million. The company has left thousands in limbo, missing payments, receiving nothing at all, facing hardship, and some postponing retirement. This scandal is a direct result of privatisation. The Socialist Party says the unions should demand the work is immediately taken into the civil service, with all those affected given hardship payments and compensation. See ‘Civil service pensions crisis a result of privatisation and neglect’ at socialistparty.org.uk