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.