- President rules motion with fighting strategy out of order, leaving PCS without a position on pay
- General Secretary’s strategy to end pay campaign voted down by NEC
- Join our fight for a union that supports members including lay-led democracy
- The views of the democratically elected Left Coalition NEC majority will not be silenced by presidential decree
- Support our demand for a Special Delegate Conference, where members can democratically discuss and decide our union’s strategy on pay, jobs and conditions
- The NEC majority must be allowed to present their vetoed strategy to the Senior Lay Reps’ Forum.
On 29 July, the Cabinet Office published the civil service pay remit. This allowed departments to increase pay budgets by an average of 5%. This figure, still not enough, is the concrete result of brave workers, including PCS members, taking determined and sustained industrial action.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has made the Government’s position very clear when she said: “There is a cost to not settling, a cost of further industrial action”. This statement alone signals what the government is about – buying us off and preparing the ground to impose ruthless austerity. The maintenance of the 2-child benefit cap and the removal of the winter fuel payment for pensioners – which will impact on at least 10 million people – is just the beginning. Labour has come to power during a severe economic crisis – unlike the 1997 Blair government – and they are already making cuts.
Further evidence of this is in the detail of the pay remit. No additional money is provided for departmental budgets to cover the pay increase – budgets which were set in 2021 before the massive spike in prices (inflation) of 2022 and 2023. Separately 2% savings in admin budgets have been announced (job cuts) along with £3bn off departmental budgets to pay for public sector pay. We must be alive to all this and prepare accordingly.
Union President vetoes PCS national campaign and welcomes job cuts
A special NEC was called for Monday 12 August to discuss the union’s response to the pay remit announcement. But no decision was reached due to yet another undemocratic ruling from the National President not to allow any motions or discussion that are at odds with proposals put by the General Secretary.
The Left Coalition majority motion set out in detail a response to the pay remit guidance – imposed with no consultation with PCS – together with a clear strategy to put to members and reps. This strategy included:
• A firm rejection of the 5% and an instruction that our national negotiators go back into talks for more: we should not accept the first offer.
• That demands are placed on pay, but also on issues such as jobs, working environment, pensions and a claim for those members who come under the DDAT pay framework,
• A major programme to re-engage members and reps across the whole union, rebuild the confidence to fight and win, including discussions with those in Scotland and Wales to determine their involvement in a fresh campaign on pay, jobs and conditions. It is crucial we rebuild the confidence lost by the actions of the outgoing leadership that we can fight, and we can win.
• That the levy continues in the immediate, but at a very reduced rate for our lowest paid members whilst a more thorough review (already agreed but not yet actioned by the management structure of the union) is undertaken to replenish our campaign funds
• That strike mandates should not be triggered but left on the table to review as the picture unfolds.
• That reps are urgently consulted about the remit, the levy and whether we engage in delegated talks
• A further NEC is called following that to review if/how we need to adapt our tactics and if/when a Special Delegate Conference is called to discuss this issue, but also our anti-racism and anti-fascism strategy together with the whole issue of democracy and who is running the union – the elected NEC or the machine.
All this taken together, means that we send a clear signal to the government that we are not fooled by their attempts to buy us off. It means further talks to try and force better and fully funded pay rises. It means we raise demands on other issues such as jobs, conditions and working environment. It means turning outwards to re-engage and properly discuss with reps and members and effectively prepare the ground and build support for the struggle that will come and is inevitable.
The meeting had barely started when the National President, ruled out of order this motion therefore vetoing – yet again – any discussion which disagreed with a paper from the General Secretary.
This paper, published barely hours before the deadline for amendments, amounted to total surrender of the union’s national campaign and pushed any serious challenge to government into the long grass. This is in blatant defiance of the policy set by Conference in May 2024.
The General Secretary sought to “welcome the concessions won during the campaign so far on pay, jobs and the civil service compensation scheme”, to “pause any plans for industrial action” and then to “seek membership endorsement of our strategy in a consultative ballot”. The only strategy put forward was one of immediate surrender, euphemistically encouraging members to “bank” the 5% and then seeing if we could get more. Members and activists will know from previous years that asking for more after accepting a deal is, in reality, giving up.
This replicates exactly events in 2023. The NEC received the government’s offer of a £1,500 non-consolidated, one-time, pro-rata payment on June 2nd. On June 5th they called off the national campaign and moved to ballot members to “agree the strategy” – whilst admitting that if members voted yes, the campaign would stop. Lies about “continuing the campaign” and then silence followed, for ten months.
Welcoming the Pay Remit is welcoming job cuts – fight back!
The majority left view is straightforward as set out in the motion – the 5% is not enough, we should fight for more and for our other demands on pay, jobs and pensions. This does mean a lot of work, but victories are not just handed to us on a plate – we must fight for them.
The Cabinet Office-imposed civil service pay remit of 5%, was not subject to genuine negotiation. Most importantly, it is not enough. While 5% is currently above inflation, our consolidated pay rises over the last two years have averaged about 7% in total, at a time of prices rising by around 20% over two years.
The 5% pay remit is also unfunded. This means it is almost inevitable that departments will face job cuts. To agree an unfunded mandate would mean welcoming job cuts. In some departments – such as Transport and Education – those job cuts are already being put into motion. We will need a major campaign to save jobs.
We believe the national pay team should go back into discussion with the Cabinet Office to argue for more, to argue that it should be funded and to insist that pay not be contingent upon job cuts. This is a bare minimum.
This has some immediate consequences. We should not agree to delegated pay talks going ahead at Departmental level at this stage. We should seek further movement at Cabinet Office level and make it clear we will not tolerate job cuts to fund pay rises.
The left sought to turn the NEC outwards towards branches and groups, calling for mass members’ meetings to be organised, at which NEC members would lay out the situation and argue for a robust campaign to defeat the government. Other meetings to discuss strategy – such as a Senior Lay Reps Forum – were also called for.
We understand that some members will, at least initially, think that 5% is passable. But once this results in job cuts and workload increases this view is likely to dissipate. And particularly when it is already clear that 5% won’t go very far when – inflation, already rising, begins to bite, winter hits and energy prices soar. So, to “welcome” 5% is extremely dangerous.
The key thing, however, is whether members believe their union can fight and win more. We have argued consistently that we need to win the activist layer, win the members and pivot to a re-ballot, taking action in those areas with a mandate (with full discussion with reps and members in those areas) to create momentum and pressure on the government. We argued this should take place to maximise leverage during the General election period itself. But that was another discussion vetoed by the National President.
Left Unity attacks member-led democracy of PCS
BLN supporters on the National Executive have reported back after every meeting that the president is routinely vetoing motions being proposed by the majority. This is his only strategy, as the Left Unity minority (of which he is part) are unable to win a vote, so they just refuse to have a vote by eliminating motions that disagree with them.
The majority left coalition motion to the National Executive on 12th August allowed for consideration of a Special Delegate Conference this year, to reconvene Conference, given the change in situation since our pre-General Election May 2024 annual conference.
The decision by the president to veto the entire alternative strategy makes a Special Delegate Conference now imperative. PCS is rapidly losing our once proud claim to be a member-led union, with decisions taken outside the NEC and not even reported back to the elected leaders of the union.
General Secretary blocks discussion of PCS finances
In the short period since taking up her post in February as General Secretary, Fran Heathcote has begun to make a lot of far-reaching changes to PCS, not even one involving a discussion with the elected committees that are officially in charge of the union.
Heathcote has promoted two staff by creating a brand-new higher grade in the PCS staffing structure. Both those were decisively defeated and rejected by members in national elections and are key Heathcote supporters.
Heathcote has also radically expanded the number of senior managers in PCS, from 6 to 12. BLN supporters have warned since the final term of Mark Serwotka about the increased centralisation within the union, blocking out the voices of the elected committees of PCS and playing favourites amongst the employed staff.
On top of these moves, there have been an unknown number of promotions and new appointments within PCS. Again, the NEC has not been consulted, despite the constitutional requirement that any hiring is undertaken based on procedures agreed by the NEC.
Leaving aside what we see as a sinister attempt to create a base of personal loyalty to the General Secretary inside the structures of PCS, there is an even more serious implication of all these moves – the cost.
The General Secretary has blatantly broken PCS Conference policy, which set out what proportion of the union’s revenue should be available for hiring – so that enough money would be available for campaigns. A spike in costs will also result in a spike in pension contributions – and this is an area of serious vulnerability for PCS.
It was for this reason that the National Treasurer, John Moloney, who is the union’s Assistant General Secretary, agreed with Dave Semple, chair of the finance committee, to put a paper outlining these concerns to the NEC, so they could be discussed. The General Secretary not only had the paper withheld from the NEC, but also had the item removed from the NEC agenda.
The blatant refusal to give the full NEC of 17/18 July any information, much less to allow it to have a say, is a clear and present danger to the democratic functioning of the union, and quite possibly a threat to the union’s financial security and existence.
Call a Special Delegate Conference: Pay, Jobs and Services not Racism!
A special delegate conference can break the impasse created by the constant vetoes of the national president and can halt the wrecking tactics of Left Unity.
It will hear activists from across PCS putting forward clear demands on pay, jobs and services – in opposition to the divisive racism of the far right. It can act to defend union democracy and can discuss how we win the mass of union members to an active, anti-austerity, anti-racist campaign.
We call on every branch committee to meet and to vote to call a Special Delegate Conference. A draft motion is included at the bottom.
Events have moved rapidly since Annual Delegate Conference in May, and the vaulting ambition of the General Secretary and President, to essentially run the union by decree regardless of what they can or can’t get passed by the elected National Executive Committee, is a massive danger to the union itself.
Broad Left Network stands for a fighting, democratic union, with socialist policies. Every word – fighting, democratic, socialist – has meaning stretching back to the origins of the modern trade union movement. We must have a union that is a vehicle for class struggle, to win for our members.
Bureaucratic obstruction is the polar opposite of class struggle. We urge all reps to defeat the bureaucratic obstructions of Heathcote and Cavanagh, and to join the Broad Left Network, to help us build a union that can fight and win a serious campaign on pay, jobs and services and can unite workers against racism.
Letter to the General Secretary convoking a Special Delegate Conference
“This branch notes with concern:
• The decision by the President to veto, at every NEC – on June 4, on July 10, on July 17-18 and on 12 August, detailed and serious motions put forward by the NEC majority on many issues including the national campaign, thereby delaying and damaging the prospects for a serious campaign covering the demands of motion A315.
• The decision by the General Secretary to block papers put to the NEC by the elected Assistant General Secretary, and her assertion that AGS papers must be cleared by the General Secretary. The AGS is elected independently of the GS and is accountable to the NEC, not to the General Secretary.
• The decisions by the General Secretary to make major financial changes in the union, without discussion with or approval by any elected body in PCS, in such a way as threatens the financial security of the union.
• The need for a more robust anti-racist, anti-austerity strategy: not merely to put safety demands on the Cabinet Office, or to encourage participation in the demonstrations against the race riots, but to link our opposition to racism to our class demands, to mobilise the entire labour movement and to more robustly demonstrate to civil service employers and the Cabinet Office,
This branch therefore invokes Supplementary Rule 6.6 of the PCS Union Rule Book. This states as follows:
“6.6. A Special Delegate Conference may be called by the NEC, or, on receipt by the General Secretary of a written application by Branches together representing one quarter or more of the membership”
This branch agrees that there should be a Special Delegate Conference and instructs the Secretary to write to the General Secretary, to demand a Special Delegate Conference, by forwarding this motion.”
PCS Broad Left Network 