Month: Apr 2023

Back the People’s Pickets: fight for socialist change, against climate change

From 21st to 24th April, Extinction Rebellion, as part of a coalition of many organisations, including PCS, is organising “the Big One”, an attempt to involve 100,000 people in a continuous protest outside Parliament. Broad Left Network supports this and urges all PCS members in the vicinity to attend before work, during their lunch time or after work, to give support to the demands of the protest.

Extinction Rebellion (XR) demands that the government “Tell the Truth”, “Acts Now” and that we “Decide Together” on our post-fossil fuel future, where economic activity does not damage the environment and threaten the lives of billions of people around the planet. Immediately this would mean ceasing to extract fossil fuels from the ground, while transitioning to different energy sources.

Broad Left Network supporters in PCS have played an extremely important role in devising the union’s approach to this issue. The idea of a “Just Transition”, where workers are not made to suffer or pay the cost of a move away from an economy that depends on fossil fuels, whilst the owners of that economy continue to rake in billions of pounds in profit, is crucial to PCS policies, set by Conference.

PCS Conference has rejected the argument, put forward by some trade unions, that we cannot support concrete steps to end dependency on fossil fuels because this will put jobs at risk. Every single job can be and should be protected; every worker and every skill involved in the extraction of fossil fuels can be put to work building tomorrow’s carbon-free economy, with no loss of wages.

Different parts of the UK civil service will be on strike on days between 21st and 24th April. Student Loans Company, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority and Ofgem will all be taking action. Shortly afterwards, on 28th April, the entire UK civil service will have a further day of national strike action over pay, pensions, rights and jobs.

Our battle is linked to the battle being fought by climate change protesters outside Parliament. Our pay, our pensions, our redundancy rights and our jobs are under threat precisely so the government can avoid taxing or even moving to nationalise the energy behemoths and other corporations for whom profit depends on the continuation of pollutive practices and fossil fuels.

We are prohibited by law from striking over social and political issues – but our fight to force the government to pay up, to avoid us getting poorer, is a fight to be listened to, as working-class people. It is the same battle waged by climate change activists who want civil and public institutions that respond to popular pressure, not just to corporate lobbyists and the needs of the super-rich.

PCS policy is to demand the creation of a National Climate Service, as well as the nationalisation of the sectors involved in energy. Energy prices – and the profiteering of corporations involved at every level of energy production from extracting fossil fuels to the companies selling energy to homes – have been a crucial part of why inflation is so high, and why our wages should rise to match rising prices.

Joining the XR People’s Pickets, and other actions such as the trade union hub and bloc on the Saturday march, is an opportunity to build support for our demands as civil and public service workers.  Trade unionism is built on participatory democracy and linking with XRs citizens assemblies can help to shape the discussions for the fairer future we all want.

PCS members have a proud history of leading in the trade union movement on climate change and the environment. We’ve recognised that this is fundamentally a working-class issue as the action needed to address it, will not only impact many workers jobs, but is the same action needed to end poverty pay, poor working conditions, job insecurity and inequality which is inherent to the current fossil fuel economy. To get there, we need fighting, democratic trade unions banded together and willing to act decisively and in concert, to force the government to act – even when it doesn’t want to.

Government stays silent on 2022 pay and offers a derisory 4.5-5.0% for 2023

On Friday 14th April the Cabinet Office published it’s pay remit for 2023/4. The remit is the government’s way of telling departments what they can spend on pay each year. This year they have set a limit of 4.5% for pay increases plus a further discretionary 0.5%. Not only is this nowhere near last year’s claim – it does little to help hard working members meet the ever-increasing cost of living crisis.

PCS were informed of this limit by government officials who said the limit of 4.5%-5.0% was not negotiable and there would be no improvement on the 2022 pay rise of 2.0%.

What does this mean? Well, after nearly 6 months of a badly led pay campaign:-

  • No negotiations on our 2022 pay claim of 10.0% – no improvement on the 2022 pay limit of 2.0% which was massively below inflation
  • No negotiations on 2023 pay – imposition of 4.5-5.0% increase for 2023 which is less than half the rate of inflation.

The six-month strike mandate we secured on 7 November 2022 has nearly run out. We need to renew it. We need a massive Yes vote in the re-ballot currently taking place.

But renewing the mandate will not be enough to make the government take us seriously. We need a change of approach and a change of leadership.

Other unions launched their campaigns with programmes of national action. This paid off with the government forced to negotiate and make offers for 2023 and proposals for 2022 pay.

We don’t say the offers to these unions are good enough. In fact, they are likely to be rejected-as is the case with the nurses, where following a rank-and-file campaign the membership has said a resounding “no”! But the contrast is stark. These unions have put enough pressure on the government to make them negotiate. PCS hasn’t!

The current PCS leadership by adopting the approach put forward by the BLN secured a statutory strike mandate but waited six weeks before taking any action – and then only small-scale targeted strikes. They waited three months before the first day of national strike action. They have called only three one-day national strikes in six months.

From the start BLN supporters argued a clear strategy of immediate and escalating national strike action, supported by targeted selective strikes and a ballot for action short of strikes. We highlighted the need to coordinate action with other unions also fighting the cost-of-living crisis.

It is essential that this strategy is now implemented if we are to secure our 10% claim for 2022 and at least a cost-of-living proof increase for 2023.

Broad Left Network supporters reject the opportunistic rhetoric of Mark Serwotka and his Left Unity supporters on the PCS National Executive Committee. Serwotka has suggested that it is only as the result of our national campaign that the government entered into discussions. This is dishonest in three ways.

First – the discussions are the regular annually-scheduled discussions about the Treasury Pay Remit. They are not dispute resolution talks conceded in order to discuss terms for ending PCS strike action.

Second – the pay remit discussions do not touch on three of the four major issues raised – pensions, civil service compensation scheme or jobs.

Third – the talks are not intended to address an additional payment to cover our dispute over 2022-23 pay, but instead are designed to meet the government’s obligations for consultation on 2023-24 pay.

The General Secretary’s attempt to claim progress is to say the least premature.

Also erroneous are the claims being made in PCS propaganda, issued under the auspices of the National Executive, that there has been progress in Scotland.

Unelected negotiators have attempted to railroad through a deal with the Scottish Government for our devolved area members that falls shy of the 10% pay claim, without adequately explaining what it means for members’ pay packets. Further the proposed deal does not deal with our claim for adequate staffing in the Scottish civil service, nor with longstanding demands amongst Scottish members for a shorter contractual working week with no loss of pay.

Crucially, members in Scotland are currently being balloted on this deal, so claiming it as a union victory is as premature as it is dishonest. The Broad Left Network as well as SG West and Central Scotland branch are officially recommending rejection, against the cowardly official position to accept this wholly inadequate offer.

This Tory government is extremely weak and crisis-ridden – with serious and coordinated action we can defeat them!

On 20 April the union’s elections start. Ballot papers will be sent out by post. Use your vote to support Marion Lloyd for President and the Broad Left Network/Independent Left list of candidates.

Vote for a leadership that can win on pay and the other issues facing members.

Vote NO to Scottish Government Supplementary Pay offer, vote YES to PCS strike re-ballot

Today, 6th April 2023, the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union is launching a ballot to accept or reject proposals by the Scottish Government, to bring to an end the union’s dispute in the Scottish Sector on 2022-23 pay. This makes it one of two live ballots currently running; the other is the PCS re-ballot to extend the union’s current strike mandate, launched on 20th March 2023.

The Scottish Government’s pay offer is being recommended by the union’s pay negotiators and by the Scottish Sector Committee, a body that brings together the union branches covering the affected Scottish civil servants – but it does not meet the vast majority of the demands PCS members voted for, when they voted for strike action in November 2022.

Lots of questions, very few answers

Key details of the offer have not been published to all union members or even to all union reps, but the information available confirms that the offer does not meet the most basic item of the union’s demands on pay for 2022-23 of a 10% pay rise for all members. Such a pay rise is needed to prevent civil servants getting poorer as prices rise in the wider economy. The SG Supplementary Pay Offer falls short of this.

Pay negotiators from the union have been urging support for the deal, saying that the total pay increase for all Scottish civil servants will fall between 6 and 17%. This sounds good on paper, but negotiators have not explained how many people will fall towards the 17% and how many will fall towards the 6%. Without being able to answer this basic question when asked by reps, the deal was nonetheless rushed through key union committees.

This range of pay awards, between 6 and 17%, takes into account money already awarded as part of the pay settlement imposed in November 2022. No figures have been provided to show what additional money has actually been won as part of the union’s campaign on pay. In fact the union’s campaign in Scotland has been held back by the union’s National Executive, by their refusal of all-member Scottish Government action, proposed by the Scottish Government Group Executive Committee. The only all-member action taken in Scotland so far has been on 1st Feb and 15th March, with further cross-UK action planned for 28th April.

In this context, it is simple not credible for the union’s negotiators to argue, as they have done, that further movement on pay is not possible.

The percentage figures extolled by negotiators also take into account natural pay progression, not just a cost of living pay increase. They are misleading. A more accurate impression of what has been won by the campaign thus far can be gained from looking at the difference in the pay underpin, the absolute minimum each civil servant will receive, between the November pay offer – underpin of £1800 – and the March 2023 pay offer – underpin of £2200.

As welcome as an additional £400 no doubt is, it covers wages lost to all-out strikes and not much else. Since negotiators have not provided a detailed breakdown showing how much extra is being awarded by grade and work area, it’s impossible to know how many people will get more than this, and how much more. Yet even those receiving a total increase of 17% (minus whatever proportion of that has already been paid) will find that 14% inflation (RPI) has eaten into the biggest chunk of that money. It is also relevant that some of the pay increase imposed in November is non-consolidated, i.e. not pensionable pay. This has not been fixed.

What about 2023-24 pay?

Our other key concern is that this supplementary offer deals with 2022-23, but what about 2023-24?

Across the entire Scottish Sector, not just Scottish Government Main but in the vast majority of branches and areas, turnout in the union’s strike ballot of September-November 2022 was massive. Members demonstrated clearly that they were prepared to fight and fight hard on the question of pay. Despite no all-out strike action being called for nearly three months, between 7th November 2022 and 1st February 2023, hundreds turned out to picket lines when all-out action finally was called. Members are decisively behind the campaign.

Despite this solid mandate from members, negotiators have not sought or have not achieved any guarantees whatsoever on 2023-24 pay. Negotiators clearly have leverage – the massive support members have shown, as well as a desire by the Scottish Government to settle. So why have no guarantees been sought or achieved on 2023-24 pay?

It appears that negotiators intend that they’ll go straight back into negotiations on 2023-24 pay once the ballot on 2022-23 pay is concluded. This squanders the momentum already built up through months of campaigning and puts at risk the leverage which negotiators can bring to bear. If the Scottish Government want to settle, why not settle the whole lot, with at least a cost-of-living increase guaranteed for 2023/24? Anything shy of this makes the “back to how it was” rhetoric from the Scottish Government an insult to union members.

Everything about this supplementary pay offer highlights the weakness of pay negotiations conducted behind closed doors, with scarce details provided to reps and no serious use of industrial action to exert pressure during negotiations.

No serious movement on jobs, not enough on the 35-hour working week

The deal being put forward to union members explains that the Scottish Government’s “No Compulsory Redundancy” guarantee will be extended to the end of 2025. This was already in place until the end of 2024, as per the announcement of the Scottish Government’s 2023-24 pay strategy on 22nd March 2023.

It would be churlish not to welcome this guarantee, when the UK Civil Service is facing compulsory redundancies and when the Tory Westminster government had announced 91,000 job cuts. Yet it would be naïve to believe that this guarantee – which has been in place in Scottish Government-administered areas for years – is not also simply recognition that in Scotland, PCS is strong enough to protect its members’ jobs.

It does not represent a substantial advance for PCS members in Scottish Government areas.

When PCS went into dispute with the Scottish Government, our dispute specifically cited:

“…the failure to agree with PCS a job security agreement for the civil service and its related areas; founded on an evidence-based assessment of resourcing needs; resulting in an appropriate staffing complement…”

Despite this, the proposed agreement does not mention anything about “appropriate staffing complements” despite members in many areas consistently highlighting the pressure they are under due to rampant restricting, and the need for additional staff. Union negotiators, when reporting back to the PCS Scottish Sector Committee and to constituent Group or National Branch Executives, have not explained if this was even raised.

Equally churlish would be to reject out of hand the proposal to reduce full time contracts from 37 to 35 hours per week in National Museums (NMS) and National Galleries Scotland (NGS), or the trials of 35 hours per week in linked areas like Historical Environment Scotland. Yet more could have been done across the board than a tokenistic weekly “wellbeing hour” that leaves a lot of latitude for individual areas to decide what this will entail. This “wellbeing hour” is also a non-contractual pilot, in place for one year.

There are good elements to the offer, but all that and more could have been achieved by this stage if PCS members had been allowed to take all-member action across Scottish Sector areas, and if the national union had a coherent strategy for all-member action across the UK. More can still be achieved, if we don’t shy away from the mandate members have given us.

Vote NO in the Scottish Government’s Supplementary Pay Offer

Devolved areas are in a somewhat unique situation, where pay and jobs are controlled by the Scottish and Welsh Governments, but pensions and the civil service compensation scheme are controlled by Westminster.

The agreement being recommended to members in Scottish Government would settle the pay and jobs dispute without achieving either an inflation-proof pay rise for all members and without any substantial movement on jobs. We feel this is premature.

We urge all members covered by the proposed offer to vote NO on the pay offer, and to join with Scottish Local Government workers in rejecting a deal that will mean a less than cost of living increase that is in effect a pay cut. More can be achieved by a vigorous campaign that utilise the vast number of members who turned out to vote for action.

  • We want a 10% cost of living pay rise for members, minimum, for 2022-23.
  • We want firm guarantees on 2023-24 pay; no member to be worse off in real terms.
  • We want all of the pay rise to be consolidated and thus to feed into our pensions.
  • We want workload and staffing agreements across the whole Scottish Sector.
  • We want a 35-hour working week.

We do not believe negotiations with the Scottish Government have been exhausted yet. We are also deeply concerned that any part of our union is recommending a yes vote when plenty of information is unavailable, such as the increased pay broken down by grade and work area, the percentage of the money which is new money and will not need to be found within existing budgets – which would put pressure on staffing or services – and so on.

By voting NO on the Scottish pay offer, members send negotiators back in to demand further concessions, with a very clear mandate that we don’t accept half measures. This is not pie-in-the-sky; civil servants in Scotland, organised in their union, have enormous power – we simply have to choose to bring it to bear. So vote NO.

Vote YES in the PCS strike re-ballot

On March 20th, PCS launched its re-ballot of members in the UK and Scottish civil services, as under the 2016 Trade Union Act, a ballot only provides a strike mandate for 6 months. A massive YES vote in the re-ballot secures our right to strike and continues our campaign.

Our re-ballot is disaggregated as well, which means that even if UK civil service areas don’t get through the 50% participation threshold, it will not hold back Scottish civil servants taking strike action. A massive YES vote secures the future of the campaign, enabling action on 2023-24 pay. It also delivers a stern instruction to our pay negotiators and to the Scottish Government to get pay and jobs sorted.