Across UK civil service departments, agencies and arm’s length bodies, pay negotiations are mostly now under way between the employer and PCS. Early news indicates a mixed picture. Most areas do seem to be achieving something close to the 5% set out by the Cabinet Office’s Civil Service Pay remit. But the complete picture is far from clear, neither is there much clarity about how offers are being paid for given pay increases above 2% are not funded.
In some areas, such as the Department for Education, negotiators have secured a 5% pay increase consolidated across all grades and a £15 per hour wage for all grades bar one. In other areas, particularly major operational departments like DWP and HMRC, we expect that a trade-off will be forced by the employer, sacrificing some pay for more senior grades – HEO, SEO, Grade 7 and Grade 6 in particular – in order to raise pay by 5% for the key operational grades, AO, EO and in some cases HEO. This is a trade-off forced by the Civil Service Pay remit, which limits the rise in pay bill to 5%. In at least some departments, higher nominal figures will be achieved than 5%, but this will often be achieved by non-consolidated awards that do not contribute to pensionable salary or for some, no pay rise at all.
It is a trade-off that PCS must oppose.
The union president’s veto undermines PCS pay campaign at a crucial point. When the 5% pay remit was published on 29 July of this year, Broad Left Network (BLN) supporters across PCS called for further talks with the Cabinet Office. The permission for Departments and other bodies to raise pay by 5% is not funded; Departments could raise pay but would have to make cuts elsewhere to fund it. Just as importantly, the 5% Civil Service Pay Remit for 2023-24, announced by the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, in Parliament, openly called for “administrative savings” (i.e. cuts) of 2% and did not mention, let alone address, the pay lost by civil servants due to high inflation over the last two years. BLN supporters sought to delay the commencement of delegated pay talks, i.e. talks with the different employers covered by the pay remit, in order to put pressure on the new government.
Motions to this effect were placed before the union’s National Executive Committee on 12 August, but were vetoed by the national President, blocking debate. Forced to either go into delegated pay talks or risk PCS being “empty chaired”, while negotiations continued between employers and the other two civil service unions, Prospect and the FDA (representing specialists and senior civil service), BLN supporters in PCS decided that we must commence delegated pay talks.
What does BLN say about pay?
Broad Left Network supporters elected to the union’s National Executive Committee have been blocked from attending any discussions with the Cabinet Office by the union’s President and General Secretary. NEC members from the PCS Independent Left (IL) and non-factional members have likewise been blocked. BLN supporters have been elected to pay teams in different departments, however.
We have put forward a 10% pay-rise for all grades; a clear roadmap to pay restitution, undoing the devaluing effect of prolonged price rises on civil service pay; pay progression to be restored across all grades and a minimum of £15 per hour for all staff, to tackle low pay and ensure civil servants are paid above the minimum wage. BLN supporters across the union have also not limited their demands to pay. We have sought guarantees against compulsory redundancy or compulsory moves, improvements to flexible and hybrid working, ending the 60% office attendance requirement, permanency for temporary staff, improved parental leave and much else.
Skilled negotiators can make the most of the pay remit as it exists – but for major gains for members, every rep across the union knows we need a serious campaign.
The NEC majority have also consistently argued for an immediate reduction of the levy to our lowest paid members coupled with a full review to develop a longer-term strategy. This includes explaining to members and reps the vital role this levy will play in supporting a strategy including paid action as part of a serious campaign capable of winning. This key change was agreed at the July NEC but disgracefully absolutely no action has been taken on this.
BLN calls on Group and national Branch Executives to REJECT pay offers Each time BLN supporters, and allies across the majority left coalition, have attempted to bring proposals for a serious campaign to the National Executive Committee, these proposals have been unilaterally vetoed by the President. The tone was set at the first NEC meeting of the electoral year, on June 4th. In June, the BLN-IL-independent coalition – the NEC majority – sought strike action during the General Election, alongside the junior doctors, to force the parties to comment on civil service pay. This was vetoed, and every NEC since has seen this veto repeated – for motions, for amendments to papers, for proposals of any kind, causing chaos across PCS.
Ideally, every single department and agency in the civil service will reject the pay offer from their employer. If the General Secretary and President did not dictate the communications from the national union to negotiators – comms that are not even discussed with the elected NEC – we would have forcefully put the case for this. We already know that the pay offers will fall well short of our national demands, as agreed by PCS Annual Delegate Conference in May of this year. While some members might be grudgingly content with 5% just now (and plenty won’t even get this much!), as the year wears on and heating bills begin to come in, the status quo will resume: too much month left at the end of the money. Members will want to know what the union is doing about it.
Preparation for this is crucial.
The threat to jobs and the likelihood of cuts through the Comprehensive Spending Review process (by which civil service departments are funded across multiple years) cannot be dismissed and should be stressed to members. An improvement to pay is worth little if it comes with major job cuts and drastic hikes to workloads. Programmes like Places for Growth can also represent a threat to jobs in London, as work is moved out to other areas. Investment in civil service jobs outside of London is extremely important; public sector jobs can make a major difference to deprived areas. These jobs should be additional to, not replacements for, civil service jobs in London.
Where, despite the sabotaging of the national campaign by the President and General Secretary, Group and National Branch Executives are prepared to organise action to force better offers they should be supported. Even if action is not possible at this stage, we believe offers within the limit of the 5/% should be rejected. This will make clear to the government that 5% is not enough to satisfy our demands.
Rejection of offers of approx. 5% – which the employers will undoubtedly impose– would also set the stage for reps across PCS to come together to regroup and rebuild the campaign on pay, jobs, pensions and other major issues after delegated talks conclude. The obstructive attitude of the President and General Secretary are a barrier to this, which is why we are calling for a Special Delegate Conference.
Rejection of offers of approx. 5% – which the employers will undoubtedly impose– would also set the stage for reps across PCS to come together to regroup and rebuild the campaign on pay, jobs, pensions and other major issues after delegated talks conclude. The obstructive attitude of the President and General Secretary are a barrier to this, which is why we are calling for a Special Delegate Conference.
Call a Special Delegate Conference (SDC)
Under Supplementary Rule 6.6, a Special Delegate Conference may be by the NEC or on the receipt by the General Secretary of a written application by branches representing 25% of the union’s membership. Moves to consider an SDC by the NEC have been vetoed – so we must do this the hard way, branch by branch. An SDC would bring together all of the branches from across PCS. It would not be subject to a veto by the president of the union. The elected Standing Orders Committee, rather than the President, would ensure motions could be debated – and if they failed to do this, for factional reasons, an SDC could overturn them, as happened at May’s Annual Delegate Conference. BLN supporters have been hard at work over the last month, to call Extraordinary General Meetings, to involve members in the process of calling an SDC. Where possible, we are connecting this to meetings organised for the purposes of discussing pay. Members need to be left in no doubt that their union has not given up the fight. An SDC can be pitched to members as the springboard to a campaign that learns the lessons of 2022 to 2024 and which will not repeat the mistakes of Heathcote and Cavanagh of waiting six weeks to call any action in 2022, of waiting three months to call national action, and of calling off the entire campaign as soon as they could.
The continuing inaction in the union’s national campaign since May is being used by the Heathcote, by Cavanagh and by their faction, PCS Left Unity (LU), to argue that the majority left coalition does not have an alternative to LU’s decision to collapse the campaign in June 2023 and their failure to rebuild it from March to May 2024. The obviousness of this lie is exposed by the sheer number of vetoed proposals put by the left coalition to the NEC, to remedy the many mistakes made by the President, by the General Secretary and by their minority faction on the NEC. The lies emanating from the very top of the union can be exposed best by an urgent SDC. Download
Abuses by the General Secretary
An SDC will also call to account the actions of the General Secretary. Heathcote has implemented a new staffing structure in PCS with no reference to the NEC, promoting her two key lieutenants to be the most senior managers in the union, with pay increases to match. Both of these individuals were decisively rejected by PCS members in elections for Assistant General Secretary in 2019 and 2023. Other promotions and pay rises for key Heathcote allies have also occurred without any scrutiny by any elected body of the union. A majority of NEC members expressly objected to this before it occurred, and the union’s Policy and Resources Committee rejected a paper moved by the General Secretary to try and justify it after the fact. The General Secretary claims virtually unlimited powers over the union’s staff, despite the absence of any such powers under the union’s rules. The union’s rules are very clear. Principle Rule 8 expressly declares that “the management and control of the union, and the handling of its whole affairs, shall be vested in the NEC”. Re-build a fighting, democratic PCS The events of the last four months are unprecedented in the history of PCS or of any of its predecessor unions. Even under Barry Reamsbottom and Marion Chambers, right-wing General Secretary and President of PCS in the late 1990s, proposals from the left were never simply vetoed and thrown off the agenda without debate. We urge all branches to immediately call an Extraordinary General Meeting, giving 14 days’ notice to all members. On the agenda should be two items: pay and a Special Delegate Conference. Speakers can be provided from the NEC who will explain the rejection strategy we advocate on pay. We can also explain the importance of a Special Delegate Conference to rebuilding our campaign from the ruin left by a Left Unity President determined to burn the union’s campaigns and credibility down in order to blame the wreckage on others. The SDC is our springboard back into a serious national campaign that will unite members.
We also call on all activists in PCS to join the Broad Left Network; a fighting, democratic union with socialist policies is not a luxury. In the age of renewed Labour-led austerity that is dawning, it is a necessity to safeguard and even advance the living standards of every worker.
PCS Broad Left Network 