As there are such longstanding and ongoing staffing issues in DWP with clear policy carried at our Group Conference in 2022 covering the need to launch a serious campaign to address this, shockingly 18 months on we are still at the very early stages of the GEC even considering doing anything to address the immense pressure on our members.
This pressure has only increased since 2022. Despite continual recruitment the DWP struggles to even maintain staffing at a steady level and this actually went down by 4000 full time equivalents between April 2022 and October 2023. It is not surprising that AO staff in particular have left in droves with pay so low that the minimum wage overtook the derisory pay for this grade earlier this year and is set to do the same next year. Overall we have lost 20,000 AOs since 2014 and this is causing phenomenal pressure in key jobs delivering the complex benefit system. The GEC has also not reported any attempts to implement the Group policies on addressing the grading of certain AO work. Even a slight increase in the overall numbers of EO grade staff in the same period has not relieved any pressure as many “new recruits” are existing members going for promotion. And there has also been a huge increase in work created for EOs, so any extra staff in this grade make no dent in the immense workload pressures.
Our BLN members elected onto the GEC will keep pressing the GEC leadership to build a serious campaign on staffing. There can be no doubt about the ever-worsening workload pressures on our members, we have clear policy demanding 30,000 extra staff carried in 2022 and even management actions show they recognise it is impossible to deliver services with the staffing levels we currently have, judging by the constant application of mitigations in how we deliver work and movement of staff and work around the DWP.
On top of this we face a Tory onslaught demanding further cuts to civil service staffing and no relief from opposition parties who are committing to remain within Tory spending limits which we must challenge as a union.
What is needed is a clear lead being given by the group leadership with a plan for action in how we translate the pressure on our members into a concrete dispute we can win.
We submitted a motion to help aid this debate at the emergency GEC called on 21/12/23. Although the meeting did discuss the staffing campaign, the group leadership refused to take the motion at this meeting or address the key tasks that need to be urgently done to build a strong campaign on staffing.
This is the text of the motion we submitted which you can discuss in branches and work with us to build the fight back on staffing along with all the attacks on our members.
Contact the BLN if you want a speaker at your AGM on how we can build a fighting union with a fighting DWP Group leadership to tackle all the challenges ahead.
Motion on Group “Protect DWP staff and claimants” campaign
The Group Executive Committee (GEC) notes the dossier submitted to DWP, outlining the concerns expressed by PCS members in DWP group about the impact of inadequate staffing to the health and wellbeing of DWP staff, as well as to the quality of the service provided, and to the health of those relying upon DWP services.
While the response in the press and in Parliament has been favourable, if muted, comments by Stephen Timms, MP and chair of the Work and Pensions Select Committee, and by other MPs indicate that they are sufficiently concerned to ask questions of ministers in Parliamentary committee meetings, not sufficiently to urgently call for major new recruitment to DWP.
In fact, the GEC notes, the government’s official plan is to reduce the headcount of the UK civil service by 66,000 by 2030. National negotiators at Cabinet Office level are far too complacent, believing that the impending 2024 General Election means these plans will never see the light of day. This is delusional, given Rachel Reeves’ plans to limit tax and spending if Labour take power.
The GEC further notes that the most recent publicly available figures suggest that Departmental staffing has fallen by more than 4,000 full time equivalents in the 18 months from April 2022 (81,228) to October 2023 (77,163). There has been no corresponding fall in workloads, and DWP senior leaders argument that they are recruiting is simply insufficient to fill the gaps.
The GEC therefore instructs group officers as follows:
- That agitational material be prepared for and distributed to all DWP offices, targeted to the key work areas in each office, and using where appropriate anonymised material gathered for the dossier, to emphasise the need for staff, the impact to claimants of too few staff and the need for a serious campaign on staffing and workloads.
- That this material links recruitment issues to low pay, especially AOs who will once again be earning minimum wage this April.
- That dedicated material also be produced addressing the concerns of all managerial grades – especially EO and HEO Team Leaders – who are also being failed by the current staffing problems, including extensive open-ended use of TDA instead of opportunities for substantive internal promotion, urging them to join the union and to join the PCS staffing campaign.
- That group officers draw up and present for scrutiny and review by a GEC in January 2024 a detailed campaign plan that moves the group towards opening a legitimate trade dispute with DWP over staffing, and which takes account any information we have about the timescales of the pending national re-ballot on pay, pensions, redundancy rights and a compulsory redundancy guarantee.
- This strategy should also include avenues to build further media pressure and clear political demands to be placed on the Labour Party, in line with PCS group and annual delegate conferences, to eliminate sanctions, to improve frontline services to all claimants and to eliminate discrimination against and improve support for disabled claimants.
- That any Group Officer who addresses the rearranged all-members on 10th January focuses upon the slowness of DWP’s response to our legitimate concerns, the need for a vigorous campaign, and the reality that forcing such a change will likely require strike action, that our leverage in such action is greater in a General Election year, and lays out the steps the Group Officers are taking to prepare sufficient resources to mount and win such a campaign.
- That contact with organisations representing DWP claimants is made in advance of any ballot on staffing, to discuss how claimants’ organisations might support such a ballot, and how we might coordinate messaging, public activity such as media work, political pressure, protests and other methods to maximise the profile of the campaign.
PCS Broad Left Network 