MoD confirms bonus robbery

The Ministry of Defence has today imposed the theft of bonus payments for the vast majority of the civilians working in our department. Last year saw approximately 98% of members getting a bonus; this year it has been slashed to up to 25% - and our union is aware that in many TLB’s and business units nowhere near that percentage of staff which achieve this arbitrary figure.

Whilst our union has and always will be opposed to the use of bonuses as we believe the money would be better spent giving loyal staff consolidated and pensionable pay increases, we have, in previous years worked with the department to ensure what money was available was shared out as equitably as possible. This has not happened this year; the department have simply followed the wishes of the Secretary of State and forced these detrimental changes through.

You can see the impact of these changes in the following table:

Reporting period	2009/10 and 2010/11			2011/12		2012/13
	Standard	Higher	Top	Standard	Enhanced	Bonus
B1	1085	2820	5635	870	1740	4550
B2	850	2255	4510	730	1460	3800
C1	655	1690	3385	610	1220	2750
C2	535	1410	2820	500	1000	2250
D	430	1130	2255	410	820	1800
E1	390	780	1025	350	700	1600
E2	360	720	925	310	620	1300
Average distribution	74%	18%	6%	84%	13.5%	25%

Misinformation

The changes to the bonus system are bad enough and pile more financial pressure on already overworked members, but the department’s official Defence Internal Brief issued today misses out several key points.

It doesn’t state that the ‘bonus pot’ has been raided to the tune of £10 million; handed back to the Treasury in the name of deficit reduction. This is our member’s money and has been effectively stolen out of members’ pockets.

It’s also silent about the inherent discriminatory nature of the awards. Figures seen by our union demonstrate that in some areas, staff at B1 are four times as likely to receive a bonus than staff at E2. We are awaiting a breakdown of the awards to identify whether there are similar differences to award rates by protected groups.

Conclusion

Although the coalition government actually go out of their way to incentivise the casino bankers who caused the financial collapse by cutting the top rate of tax and sanctioning mega bonuses for banks rescued by the state, they once again have hammered their own staff in the pocket by stealing money from the monies set aside for MoD civilian pay.

With less money in our pockets and worse, but more expensive pensions to look forward to at an older age, we now have performance management system that will sack the bottom 5% of members on a yearly basis.

We have made it clear that we believe the current bonus scheme to be both divisive and discriminatory and will be seeking ways to challenge the current outcomes where they are proven to have discriminated against members. Anyone who believes that they have been unfairly treated this year should seek assistance from their branch representative.

Our union has put out numerous briefings on the new performance management arrangements including a PCS Defence Sector toolkit that will advise and help members in ensuring they are not in the arbitrary bottom 5% of staff who will face the sack.

Our union’s campaign asks for a Fair Deal in Defence. We ask members to now fully support that campaign and fight for a fair and decent living wage that we deserve for giving the best possible support to our armed forces.