At this year’s PCS Annual Delegate Conference, delegates voted to carry Motion A383 which called on the NEC to “proceed to a ballot by no later than mid-September 2025 if there is not satisfactory progress made to meeting our demands”.
The Left Unity controlled NEC has deliberately undermined the demands of motion A383 – instead of delivering a campaign, the NEC has caused even more damage to members’ hopes of a genuine campaign on pay.
There is action taking place in every part of PCS for campaigns related to the national campaign – including the Left Unity controlled DWP – and yet Left Unity have been very clear that the NEC does not consider this action to be evidence that members will support a national campaign. Members are actively campaigning and winning on pay and yet the NEC is using the fact that not enough members turned up to hastily arranged activist forums during a peak leave period as justification to once again effectively cancel any effort to build a national campaign.
The Broad Left Network has said throughout this period that Left Unity never intended to fight a campaign on pay and while they are in control of the NEC, the campaign will remain “paused” as it has for the entire duration of Fran Heathcote’s tenure as General Secretary.
Left Unity-controlled NEC capitulates to the employer
An article published on 01 August 2025 on the PCS website states the following:
“The union is not balloting members on offers within the limits of the remit, as the NEC has already determined that offers at this level will not be sufficient to protect members’ living standards, provide restoration for the erosion of pay levels in recent years and address the structural problems associated with low pay.”
In the September pay meetings arranged by branches, NEC speakers advised members that despite their awareness that the pay remit was not satisfactory, they instructed talks at delegate level knowing that negotiators could not accept the offer. Pay negotiators instead worked to achieve the best deal with the little they had to work with. This was an unnecessary capitulation to the Labour government by the Left Unity-led NEC. PCS could win much more in national talks and through direct action, yet the Left Unity-led NEC does not show a willingness to fight a Labour government for better pay.
A return to national bargaining is necessary and the pay remit should have been formally rejected – in action, not just words, and the leadership should have prepared for a serious dispute. Talks at delegated level result in vast inequalities across the civil service, where each department negotiates its own pay and terms of conditions. This has been in effect for more than three decades since Thatcher’s Conservative government waged its war on the civil service unions.
If the timeline of A383 was followed, PCS branches nationally should now have already balloted for strike action but the message coming from the leadership of the union is one of defeat. It is the same old tired excuses that members aren’t up for the fight, that they can’t afford to strike and aren’t willing to ballot. We heard the same in 2023 when again the Left Unity-led NEC capitulated and accepted a pay award with a one-off pro-rata payment of £1,500. This effectively ended the hard-won gains by reps and members on the ground to achieve a strike ballot in their workplaces. It did not provide a significant increase in pay, nor did it achieve pay restoration for the sharp drop in wages since 2010.
An end to the national campaign could be the start of action for HMRC.
HMRC Group conference Motion A45 states the following:
“Develop a campaign utilising bargaining, political leverage and industrial leverage to achieve our pay demands. Hopefully this will be as part of a reinvigorated civil service wide national campaign, but our Group must be prepared to ‘go it alone’ on pay if the National Campaign remains “paused” as it has been throughout the tenure of the current General Secretary”
It is clear from the decision in October that the NEC has no intention to win the desperately needed increase to the 2025/26 pay remit. In both the October and November NEC, Left Unity majority voted not to reopen the debate on the national campaign, preventing the BLN motion to build for a ballot in 2026 being heard. In both the October and November papers, the General Secretary provided no plan or comment whatsoever on how to prepare members for a ballot – it seems the leadership are content to pronounce members unready and leave things as they are. HMRC GEC, and our members, are not.
At the December GEC meeting, the Broad Left Network took the position that the GEC must agree to carry out the demands of A45 and conduct its own ballot on 2025 pay. This included the GEC to urgently submit a claim to the National Disputes Committee (NDC) to engage in a ballot of its members on 2025 pay. This position was agreed as part of the campaign and communications paper, setting the stage for a renewed battle on pay in 2026.
The Broad Left Network continues to demand:
Pay
- A fully consolidated pay rise of at least 10%
- £18 per hour minimum wage
- Pay restoration for money lost since 2010
- London pay entitlement of at least £5,000
- All fully funded centrally and not at the expense of jobs or conditions.
- Oppose privatisation – End the planned pilot of the Managed Service Provider;
- End the use of Brook Street labour and give permanent posts to all those that want one.
- Insourcing of Facilities Management and Security staff;
- No cuts to the CSG headcount.
- Implement a four day working week with no loss of pay;
- End mandatory office attendance expectations;
- Ensure correct grading – we should all receive the proper remuneration for the work we do;
- End the long hours culture – ensure all workloads are manageable;
- Introduce a collective agreement to protect members from micromanagement;
- Introduce a collective agreement for ethical use of Artificial Intelligence in HMRC, ensuring any benefits will advantage members such as through reduced workloads and a shorter working week;
- Rebuild Employee Relations in HMRC – ensure meaningful consultation with PCS at all levels.
PCS Broad Left Network 