PCS ballot: Tories renew assault on public sector redundancy protection
David Semple, PCS rep, Greater Glasgow branch
“Fair, affordable and sustainable”. The words used by the Con-Dem government in 2010, the last time the Tories drove through cuts to the redundancy terms and protections of low paid civil servants, making it easier to sack workers and privatise services. Despite three days of strike action and a successful high court challenge led by PCS, civil servants’ union, the Tories succeeded in their plans due to a lack of willingness on the part of other affected unions to fight against the attacks.
Consultation on the latest plans – which would slash redundancy payments by 25% and which remove the requirement to make an offer of voluntary redundancy before moving to compulsory job losses – has just closed. Socialist-led PCS, whose members have faced 86,000 job losses, a pay rise capped at 1% and huge pension cuts in the last five years, has responded with clear opposition to the proposals.
Since 7th November and finishing next week, a ballot of union members has been taking place, with clear advice from the union’s National Executive Committee to reject the changes proposed by the government. Faced with hundreds of office closures in the two biggest areas, HM Revenue and Customs and the Department for Work and Pensions, with the potential for job losses, members have been participating in workplace meetings up and down the country and are clearly opposed to the plans.
The government has attempted to put a gun to the head of civil service unions, announcing that if they do not accept the initial proposals, then more draconian plans will be put in place. Scandalously Prospect and FDA, two civil service unions, without any discussion of coordinated opposition, have acquiesced to the attack and are recommending their members accept the change. Disappointingly, Unite have not put up a recommendation in their ballot on acceptance or rejection. Only the POA has joined PCS with a clear rejection.
A united campaign of industrial action, allied to sustained opposition using Parliament as a platform to denounce the attack and bolster support for workers taking on the government, could stop the attack. PCS Left Unity, the broad left faction in which Socialist Party Scotland plays a key role, has sought to use the all-members ballot to build opposition to this latest round of cuts, with members’ meetings organised at workplaces throughout the UK and public campaigning events planned.
Mood hitherto, on the shop floor, has been muted. In some ways this reflects the huge success of PCS as a campaigning union, in avoiding compulsory redundancies in the past. It also reflects the massive numbers who have left the civil service voluntarily over the last few years; lots of those who wanted to go have gone. There is uncertainty around the potential impact of the Trade Union Act and the undemocratic threshold it imposes on strike ballots, which means 50% of union members need to vote in an all-members’ strike ballot, something that has never happened before.
Tactical questions have not stopped Socialist Party Scotland members in PCS from arguing clearly for opposition to this new Tory attack, convening members’ meetings across Scotland and ensuring union members are involved in showing publicly our opposition, through lobbies, workplace protests and ultimately through the ballot to reject the proposed cuts.
