Sunday 31 October 2010

Coverage of Leicester march and rally on October 30th.

There's some excellent coverage on our Facebook site 'Leicestershire Against the Cuts' of yesterday's march and rally in Leicester, which was sponsored by PCS, Unison, National Union of Teachers and the Leicester and District Trades Union Council. I know its been said many times before but Leicestershire Against the Cuts was the initiative of this branch, so you should all be very proud of how the local movement against the cuts is building.

Please do not try to access the Facebook site with DWP IT.

Wednesday 27 October 2010

LATEST NEWS FROM OUR NEC ON THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE CUTS

At its special meeting on 26 October, the NEC agreed, given the speed with which the Government’s cuts will impact and the success of the 23 October marches and protests, that a national demonstration should be held this year in late November or early December, in addition to the demo next March. We will be discussing this with other unions and will propose at the TUC Public Sector Liaison Group meeting on 8 November that the TUC call such a demonstration.

Monday 25 October 2010

Leicestershire Against the Cuts rally

This coming Saturday (October 30th) join the march and rally in Leicester against public sector cuts in jobs and services. Meet at Victoria Park from 11 am onwards for the march at 12 midday and the rally in the city centre around 1pm.

Thursday 21 October 2010

From today's Guardian. The article speaks for itself. We have the mother of all trade union fights now on our hands:

Spending review: civil service cuts worse than fearedMore redundancies expected after Osborne doubles Whitehall cost savings to £6bn

Polly Curtis, Whitehall correspondent guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 20 October 2010 21.13

Thousands more civil servants are to lose their jobs than expected after the chancellor today announced that he had doubled his target for cutting the cost of Whitehall from £3bn to £6bn. The Department for Work and Pensions told staff they would be making up to 15,000 job cuts and the HMRC said they would be losing 13,000 posts.

The worst fears of civil servants were exceeded when the plans to reduce administrative costs rose from 30% to an average of 34% across Whitehall departments. This puts ministers under pressure to clear out their departments as soon as possible to start making savings by the end of the spending review.

Generous civil service redundancy payouts mean it could be up to two years before any savings are made.

Whitehall sources claimed there was no "masterplan" about where to cut jobs, and that departments were being left to make the reductions themselves. But one union claimed to have seen documents calculating 80,000 job losses over the next two years. Many will come through "natural wastage" – people not being replaced when they leave – but more will face either compulsory or voluntary redundancies.

Tax collectors were today told that 13,000 of the 69,000 posts at Revenue and Customs will disappear by 2014-15, with further details expected next month about how they will be achieved, including through redundancy packages.

Lesley Strathie, the chief executive of HMRC who has been forced to defend the organisation in recent months after widespread mistakes in the PAYE system emerged, informed staff in a letter, seen by the Guardian. She said: "I know how tough this autumn has been for all of us; not least because of the enormous scrutiny we've been under recently in relation to PAYE. We now have a lot more clarity about what the future holds for us and I want to put on record how much I, and all my ExCom colleagues, appreciate your dedication and hard work."

Cabinet Office sources insisted that much of the extra savings would come from other efficiencies. A freeze in spending on consultancy, advertising and marketing and a moratorium on big new IT contracts is in place until further notice.

Resources will be pooled across Whitehall, with centralised marketing, finance and property management pooled between departments and their quangos. Francis Maude, the cabinet office minister, has said there will be a centralisation of procurement processes.

But further job losses are expected to make up the bulk of the savings. The Commons will also cut its budget by 17% and MPs were told by George Osborne that they would lose their generous final-salary pensions.

Further details began to emerge of where the axe would fall across Whitehall, though many of the 500,000 civil servants will have to wait months to find out if their job is in the firing line. Leigh Lewis, the permanent secretary of the DWP, wrote to all staff members following the chancellor's announcement, informing them that up to 15,000 redundancies will be sought over the next two years. This is 15% of the 100,000 workforce at a time when the welfare system faces profound reforms.

The Ministry of Defence announced 42,000 civilian job cuts this week and there were reports of 15,000 more cuts at the Ministry of Justice.

The Foreign Office unexpectedly suffered one of the biggest immediate cuts and will have to save 20% this year, giving them few options other than to lay off staff. Sources in the department said they could be looking at as many as 25% job cuts. The chancellor said reductions in staffing would include London-based diplomats.

The union Prospect claimed to have seen government evidence that 40,000 civil service jobs a year would be lost for the next two financial years, 2011-12 and 2012-13. Dai Hudd, Prospect deputy general secretary, said: "The financial cost of redundancies on this scale is shocking, but the human cost will be terrible.

"Scapegoating public servants who have done nothing to bring about the financial deficit shows that the government is tackling the symptoms of the deficit but not its cause."

Today, the former minister and head of the Institute for Government Lord Adonis said cutting Whitehall at the same time as making significant reforms risked "plummeting morale" and a "slash and burn" approach to government. He cited the case of Sweden, which has been held up by members of the coalition as a model for cuts, where they protected civil servants in order to properly manage the reforms of wider spending reductions. "The downsizing unveiled this week represents one of the biggest challenges faced by British government since the second world war. Without fundamental changes on these lines, it will simply be about cuts not improvement," he wrote in the FT.



Jonathan Baume, general secretary of the FDA, which represents senior civil servants, said: "The government has announced potentially significant reductions in the number of civil servants employed across all government departments.

"However, it will not be clear how many jobs will go, or at what levels the cuts will bite – nor the potential for compulsory redundancies – until the departmental business plans are published over the next month."

"Morale will suffer at all levels of the civil service whilst individuals wait to learn about the impact on their future employment and the services they provide. Senior managers have a particularly difficult task in seeking to maintain the morale and motivation of the teams they manage, and in ensuring that services continue to be delivered to support ministers and the wider public, at a time when their own posts are also under threat."

Brendan Barber, the general secretary of the TUC, said: "Public servants did nothing to cause the recession, but will pay a heavy price today. Their pay has already been frozen, now they face half a million job losses and increased pension contributions that will add up to a reduction in take home pay. It is fantasy to say that these are 'backroom' job cuts that will not affect service delivery and quality."

Wednesday 20 October 2010

CSR PROTEST 17:00 AT LEICESTER CLOCK TOWER

The chancellor has announced half a million public sector job cuts and swingeing cuts to benefits.

Join other public sector unions at the clock tower today to discuss the fight back.

It is nonsense to claim we are all in this together - the low paid public sector workers and benefit recipients will pay the highest price.

We cannot abandon our members or our customers.

Join the fight back.

Friday 8 October 2010

PCS continues the fight to stop mass sackings through changes to the Civil Service Compensation Scheme (CSCS)

The message below is taken from the PCS website. It is important and every member should read it.

I was always taught that unity is strength and what some other unions who represent a small proportion of civil servants have done in going behind the back of PCS is little more than treachery and betrayal; strong words but in my view completely justified in this instance. PCS is still calling for unity with these other unions, but I believe that this should be unity with their members to fight for jobs and services, rather than unity with their leaders who to be blunt are an utter disgrace.



Union opposes Government's divide and rule tactics

The national executive committee met on 7 October to consider an offer from the Cabinet Office on changes to the Civil Service Compensation Scheme (CSCS).

The NEC decided that, in its present form, the offer does not protect the accrued rights of sufficient numbers of our members and is not acceptable. We have called on the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude MP, to enter into further talks in order to find an agreement with the Council of Civil Service Unions (CCSU). We believe an agreement is possible.

Disgracefully, some other unions representing a minority of staff have collaborated with the Government in attempting to divide the CCSU at a time when we are faced with the prospect of massive job cuts. These unions have entered into a separate agreement with the Government, even whilst CCSU discussions were taking place. The government’s planned cuts make this a vital issue concerning members’ livelihoods, and the minority unions’ actions are a matter of the utmost seriousness. We have demanded that the Minister returns to talks to find an agreement with the CCSU.

The other unions have, very regrettably, lent the government a veneer of respectability in its attempts to make it easier and cheaper to sack tens of thousands of civil and public servants.

PCS will continue to carry out a parliamentary campaign to stop the Government’s legislation on the CSCS, and will take further legal action at the appropriate time.

Ballot

The NEC has agreed that, in the event that any further negotiations prove to be unsuccessful, or the Cabinet Office refuse further talks, a membership ballot will be conducted to seek members’ approval for rejection of the offer based on the union’s policy, the judicial review and the potential for further legal action.

The root cause of the problem is government’s determination to both save money by cutting accrued CSCS rights and move ahead with large scale redundancies within a tight cost framework imposed by the Treasury. The NEC decided that the policy ballot on the CSCS will also be an opportunity to seek members support for our national campaign to defend jobs, pensions, pay and public services.

Background: negotiations

Following the union’s legal victory in the High Court earlier this year, talks have been taking place between the Cabinet Office and the Council of Civil Service Unions (CCSU) to see if agreement could be reached on a new compensation scheme.

The PCS position has been clear: that we wish to negotiate to reach agreement, but any agreement should be fair to all parties, recognise the accrued rights held by many civil service staff and be fair to new entrants to the civil service.

However, whilst claiming they wanted to proceed by agreement with all unions, the government stated their clear view that the scheme quashed by the High Court was ‘over generous’ and that they intended to introduce a Bill into Parliament to cap CSCS payments.

This Bill would slash members’ existing entitlements and accrued rights. It would include capping all compulsory redundancies at a maximum of 12 months pay and limiting payments for voluntary exits to 15 months salary. In addition, they have said they would seek to make changes to the 1972 Superannuation Act to remove the basis on which we were able to win the judicial review on the compensation scheme.

The talks with the Cabinet Office have therefore been conducted under the threat of legislation: the government has attempted to use the Superannuation Bill as a blunt bargaining tool to influence the negotiating process.

The offer

The offer contains only marginal improvements on the proposed legislation and drastically cuts members’ existing entitlements. The cap on voluntary severance has been increased to 21 months, and the underpin for the lowest paid to 90% of average pay. There is no protection, transitional or otherwise for accrued rights. In addition, the proposal go beyond the Superannuation Bill or indeed the 1972 Act in proposing changes to notice periods, the Protocol and the scope for redeployment across departmental boundaries.

In considering the offer, the test PCS has used has been a practical one – how many of our members, particularly the lower-paid – are protected by the proposals. The last scheme, with an underpin of £60,000 and a cap of two years, was rejected as our estimate was that it only protected 50% of our members.

The new offer is worse. The absence of any form of underpin to allow people to earn more than 21 months, or transitional provisions or reserved rights to protect accrued rights, means that the proposals will be detrimental to the majority of our existing members earning more than £20,000 with accrued rights to 2 years or more service. This will particularly affect a large number of our E.O. or equivalent grades.

Moreover, the offer seeks to change the period of notice of those in a compulsory redundancy situation from six months to three, and to reduce the timescales for efforts at avoiding redundancy set out in the agreed Protocols.

The new offer does incorporate a different way of protecting the lowest paid by providing for a notional salary for those below 90% of the median (as defined) or £23,000 – whichever is the greater. This is an improvement for many of the lowest paid. PCS has welcomed this as part of the package – whilst arguing for a higher median figure.

The areas of concern lie particularly in relation to the cap and the protection of accrued rights. The absence of an underpin at previously discussed levels, or any reserved rights or transitional protections, leaves many worse off than their accrued rights. This is significant not only because of the Judicial Review ruling but also in relation to any potential legal case. In reaching agreement we would forgo our right to take legal action.

The NEC decided that, in its present form, the offer does not protect the accrued rights of sufficient numbers of our members and is not acceptable, and to call on the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude MP, to enter into further talks in order to find an agreement.

Minority unions allow Tories to divide CCSU

On 24 September all the unions that make up the CCSU formally agreed that an offer made at that time by the government was not acceptable and informed the Minister of that position in a meeting on 28 September. However, it transpired that five other unions - Prospect, FDA, POA, Unite and GMB, representing a minority of civil servants - had already written to the Minister offering to come to an agreement on terms based on the Cabinet Office offer. PCS represents more than double the civil and public servants than the other five minority unions combined, and represents the people who would be affected by job cuts and redundancy. Nevertheless, at the meeting with the CCSU on 28 September, the Minister declared that he would seek an agreement with the five minority unions and break off talks with the CCSU.

A final offer was made on 5 October with a deadline of noon on 7 October for acceptance. PCS argued that the CCSU should respond and meet to discuss the offer. The Cabinet Office informed PCS that the five minority unions had already agreed the offer.

Earlier, the Treasury had intervened to impose a cost envelope – a total amount of money that would set the parameters of any agreement. The details have not been explained. We believe, however, that the costs have been calculated on the basis of the large numbers of jobs the government plans to cut.

Nevertheless, PCS was prepared to find an agreement and wrote to the Minister to inform him of this. However, a parallel process involving the five minority unions had clearly been taking place, including secret meetings with Cabinet Office officials. The Minister replied to PCS on 6 October to say that the government had concluded negotiations with the five unions.

The POA has now issued a statement denying that it has been party to any agreement. The Government has therefore misled staff and the unions in claiming such an agreement.

It is very regrettable that PCS finds it necessary to issue such a condemnation of other unions. But in order to build the unity we need to defend members from attacks, such as these cuts in redundancy pay, and the massive job cuts planned by the government, we must make clear to members and reps the way in which the minority unions have allowed the Tories to divide the CCSU and to readily agree a scheme which is only marginally different from the Government’s Bill yet gives up members’ rights.

Unity needed

The central element of our national campaign to defend jobs, pensions and public services is the building of unity with other unions, and community groups, across the public and private sectors. To date, PCS has played a leading role in bringing unions together to campaign against the Coalition’s cuts. We will continue to do so.


Mark Serwotka
General secretary

Friday 1 October 2010

Treasury intervenes to scupper agreement on CSCS

The below has appeared today on the PCS website signed by Mark Serwotka, General Secretary, and Janice Godrich, President. It is important information that all members need to read.

Background

In May the union won a legal victory in the campaign to defend the CSCS. The High Court ruled that the previous government had acted unlawfully when it introduced, without PCS’s agreement, a new scheme which cut members’ accrued rights based in the 1972 Superannuation Act.

Following the High Court ruling we wrote to the Cabinet Office offering further negotiations to agree a fair and legal deal. Talks have been taking place between the Council of Civil Service Unions (CCSU) and the Cabinet Office to see if agreement could be reached on a new scheme.

However, Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude MP declared that the scheme quashed by the High Court was ‘over generous’. The government has introduced legislation in Parliament which would make far more draconian cuts to the CSCS than anything previously proposed. This Bill will include capping all compulsory redundancies at a maximum of 12 months pay and limiting payments for voluntary exits to 15 months salary. In addition, they have said they would seek to make changes to the 1972 Superannuation Act to remove the basis on which we were able to win the judicial review on the compensation scheme.

In effect, simply because it failed to get its way, the government appears to be prepared to change the law to make it easier and cheaper to sack tens of thousands of civil and public servants.

The talks with the Cabinet Office have therefore been conducted under the threat of legislation: the government has attempted to use the Superannuation Bill as a blunt bargaining tool to influence the negotiating process.

The PCS position is very clear: that we are always prepared to negotiate to reach agreement, but any agreement should be fair to all parties, recognise the accrued rights held by many civil service staff and be fair to new entrants to the civil service.

Treasury scuppers talks

On 24 September the Cabinet Office issued a letter to the CCSU containing what it called a final offer with marginal improvements on the proposed legislation.

All the unions that make up the CCSU formally agreed that the offer was not acceptable and informed the Minister of that position in a meeting on 28 September.

In the event, it transpired that five other unions - Prospect, FDA, POA, Unite and GMB, representing a minority of civil servants - had written to the Minister offering to come to an agreement on terms based on the Cabinet Office letter.

At the meeting with the CCSU on 28 September, the Minister declared that he would seek an agreement with those five unions and break off talks with the CCSU.

He also stated that the Treasury had intervened to impose a cost envelope – a total amount of money that would set the parameters of any agreement. The details have not been explained. We believe, however, that the costs have been calculated on the basis of the large numbers of jobs the government plans to cut.

There would be no plan to save money on redundancy pay without a plan - the detail of which has not been revealed to the public or the unions - to make job cuts on an unprecedented scale.

In the process, the government hopes to scapegoat PCS as refusing to come to an agreement. Our clear position is that we remain committed to finding a fair agreement. But the terms on offer are so significantly detrimental to members, both new and longstanding, at a time of imminent attacks on our jobs, that the union could not agree to the government’s proposals.

By trying to scapegoat one union the government is clearly attempting undermine the unity we will need to defend our jobs, pensions and public services.

Very regrettably, five other unions have failed to defend that unity once again and made it even more difficult to reach a fair agreement on the CSCS which protects members’ accrued rights and protects new members and the lowest paid. PCS represents more than double the civil and public servants covered by the CSCS than the other five unions combined. But no union’s members’ interests are served by breaking the unity of the CCSU and allowing the employer to force through a scheme that is so detrimental to civil and public servants. We have demanded that the Minister returns to talks to find an agreement with the CCSU.

These disgraceful actions will not prevent us from continuing to campaign hard to ensure that PCS members rights are protected. We urge all branches and members to maximise their efforts in support of this aim.

Way forward

The National Executive Committee will meet soon to review the situation. We are prepared to take further legal action. We will continue to seek support from opposition MPs and also Welsh Assembly Members and Scottish MSPs. We remain committed to talks on a fair compensation scheme.

A separate Branch Briefing urges branches to hold members meetings to discuss our National Campaign to defend jobs and public services. These meetings, and the organisation of a strong, determined campaign, are now more important than ever.