Union's fury at 7,000 more MoD job cuts

PCS, the trade union representing the majority of civilian staff in the Ministry of Defence, has denounced the announcement of an extra 7,000 job cuts as "shameful".

The strategic defence and security review, which was announced in October, proposed axing 25,000 civilian and 17,000 military jobs.

Since then PCS has met several times with secretary of state Liam Fox and with junior defence ministers and had come to an agreement that the job cut targets were not set in stone and could be reduced if savings could be made elsewhere.

The civil service trade unions met with Dr Fox last week (19 July) and he reiterated this point.

For some months now, the trade unions have been working on alternatives that will help bring the department in on budget.

It is totally unreasonable for the Ministry of Defence to announce another 7,000 job cuts when we are supposed to be working jointly on avoiding the first tranche of 25,000 job cuts.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said:

“This is a shameful way to treat anybody, far less the people who serve on the front line, and those who support them. Cutting 32,000 civilians and 24,000 military personnel in the MoD could put lives at risk. Since the defence review announcement in October, PCS has been thwarted at every turn in our attempts to find out where these cuts will be made and what impact it will have on the front line. How can the MoD announce more job cuts when they have no idea how they will run the department just now?
 
PCS has been working on a coherent programme for defence that identifies and reduces waste; frees up service personnel to serve in the front line by civilianising non essential military posts and eliminating unnecessary external expenditure. According the MoD’s own records, they spend approximately £6bn per annum on external expenditure such as consultants.”

This government is destroying defence capability, a capability that civilian employees underpin, offering Value for Money.

The ConDem government is wedded to privatisation and the destruction of the public services.

This government is inept and not fit to be custodians of this countries defence capability.

Cuts must stop after MPs savage tax service

PCS wants the government to immediately halt the axing of thousands of jobs in Revenue and Customs after a committee of MPs branded the department's service to the public "unacceptable".

The treasury committee report into the 'Administration and effectiveness of HMRC' is published tomorrow (Saturday 30 July).

The 13 MPs on the committee conclude that further cuts to staffing and resources make little sense.
HMRC has axed 30,000 jobs since 2005 and another 10,000 posts are earmarked to go.

The department has been employing thousands of people on short term contracts and paying staff to work overtime in an attempt to mask the impact of job cuts.

In call centres, where HMRC has invested in 1,000 additional staff, the numbers of calls answered has increased from 44% to 71%.

Staff morale in the department has been damaged over a number of years by poor management and a pervading culture of 'command and control'.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said:

"Once again we see the evidence laid bare before us that staff cuts damage services. The unanimity of evidence in the report confirms that the cuts program is destroying HMRC's effectiveness to deliver even the basic services required to support tax payers and revenues in the UK. PCS calls on the department and government to immediately halt any further cuts in HMRC. Reducing the workforce in a department which is already unable to cope with its workload is folly, not only for the services to the ordinary tax payer, but also in preventing the department from collecting the billions of pounds in tax due to the treasury. Money that could fund an alternative economic strategy."

The TaxPayers Alliance  said "This is another example of HRMC's ineptitude and again raises questions over whether it is fit for purpose".

The ineptitude belongs to the government which is systematically destroying public services and jobs, and it is the government that is not fit for purpose.

PCS statement to members on Pensions

The government has (Thursday 28 July) made further announcements regarding their attacks on public sector pensions confirming what we have said all along: they want you to pay more and work longer for a smaller pension.

 

All of this despite the evidence clearly demonstrating that changes are not required.

They argue that there is protection for low paid workers. But this only applies to those earning less than £15,000 (only 4% of PCS members). Those who earn between £15,000 and £21,000 will pay 1.5% more and those above £21,000 will pay anything between 3% and 6%.

All of this at a time of a pay freeze, rising prices and no certainty about the future pension. Nearly all members will have to pay more, to work longer, and get a pension not as good as their current scheme.

The talks to date have been about public sector pensions in general. Now the government wants to move to talks about individual schemes. We are considering our approach to these talks and are discussing this with the other civil service unions. We need to be sure that these talks are real negotiations not just about implementing predetermined plans.

On 30 June members took strike action alongside members of three education unions. Other unions have already indicated that they are looking to join us in any further action. Unless the government engages in serious and honest negotiations, more public sector workers will be striking in the autumn. This will be critical to ensure the so-called consultation is taken seriously by government.

We know that our pensions are affordable and sustainable – indeed earlier in the week a senior cabinet minister, Andrew Lansley, said that the government’s proposals were wrong.

The government says this is about paying to tackle the deficit, but there is an alternative way that would prevent the need for the government to impose what is effectively an extra tax on working in the public sector.

Instead of targeting public servants, pensioners, students, disabled people and those entitled to welfare payments, the government should invest in jobs and public services to help our economy to grow and tackle seriously the £120 billion in taxes lost each year through tax evasion, avoidance and a lack of resources in Revenue and Customs.

Mark Serwotka          Janice Godrich
General secretary      President

Stop the privatisation of criminal enforcement

Support the campaign, email your local MP today.

 

PCS is campaigning against the government's plans to privatise criminal enforcement.

Presently court enforcement officers work hard to ensure that sentences are relevant and effective. They protect the public by collecting fines from those who commit crimes and openly ignore the courts; they ensure justice is done, with the vital support of court administration staff.

We are concerned that private companies will only target soft options for easy money as they put profit before justice and employ unacceptable debt collecting tactics.

The plans to privatise are even more questionable following the release of figures showing that over £600m of court fines for the last twelve months have been left unpaid, while the number of enforcement officers employed to collect them was slashed by 12%.

We have begun lobbying MPs and those who support us have laid down an early day motion 2034.

Please email your local MP today and ask them to sign the motion by completing our easy to use e-action. It only takes a moment and your support can make the difference.

• Email your local MP
• View the EDM
• Anger over £600m in unpaid court fines - Law Society Gazette 
• More on the anti-privatisation campaign  
• Stop the privatisation of criminal enforcement

High court challenge over cuts to redundancy pay

The government's cuts to redundancy terms for civil and public servants will tomorrow face a legal challenge in the high court from the two largest civil service unions.

PCS and the Prison Officers' Association are challenging by way of a judicial review cuts to redundancy pay imposed through legislation passed last year.

The unions - which together represent almost two-thirds of the total civil service workforce - argue that, because rights to certain redundancy terms have accrued through length of service, they are classed as a "possession" in human rights law and should not be "interfered with" unless there is an over-riding public interest.

In November, MPs and Lords on the human rights joint committee criticised the government's plans as they were going through parliament, saying ministers had not made the case for capping payouts.

During the bill's progress, PCS accused Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude of misleading MPs when he claimed in parliament the union had declined invitations to negotiate.

The previous government's attempt to impose a civil service compensation scheme, which governs redundancy terms, was struck down by the high court shortly before the general election last year following a successful judicial review taken by PCS.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said:

"Ministers simply want to make it easier and cheaper to throw 100,000 of their own staff out of work in the deluded belief this will help our economy get back on track.

We are determined to fight this, not just to protect our members' jobs but to defend the communities they serve from the ideological vandals in this Tory-led cabinet. Instead of cutting jobs, the government should be creating them and investing in our public services to help our economy to grow."

Comments from the Strike

Why are you out on strike today?

I'm near pension age. The pension cuts will actually devastate my future. I'll be working six to eight years longer and I'll get less pension. I'm 57. I should be retiring at 60. I'll now be 66, 68?

We are being told to contribute more for less pension and made to work longer. On top of the pay freeze it's a triple whammy.

The government imposed a two year pay freeze, the cost of living keeps increasing - I now put £250.00 a month in petrol in the car to get to work - without a pay increase that keeps pace with inflation I have had to cut things like food. My kids don't understand why they cannot have the things they would like. It is simple, this government is destroying my standard of living and now they are coming for my pension. Enough is enough.

I am a teacher and feel my vocation to the job I love is being undermined by a government that has decided to attack its own employees.

In the MOD there are to be 25,000 job losses, the government ripped up the Civil Service Compensation Scheme, now its our Pension. Whats next?

The Government has been shown to have spun the issue of affordability over public sector pensions. I have contributed to my pension for ten years - now its value will be halved. It is unacceptable. Prehaps all those millionaire MP's in the Cabinet should have their pension and benefits taken off them.

My pension is being halved because the government says it is not affordable. The only gold plated pension scheme that I see is theirs. The MP's pension scheme is still RPI index linked; they can recieve a pension that we can only dream of. Talk about a bunch of hypocrits.

Public sector strike has huge impact

30 June 2011

The biggest co-ordinated public sector strike for a generation has been well supported across the UK with many courts, airports, jobcentres and tax offices closed or severely disrupted.

PCS members have joined three other unions holding national strikes over pensions – the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, the National Union of Teachers and the University and College Union. In some parts of the country council workers are also on strike over cuts.

Early indications show that 90% of PCS members in the Department for Work pensions are out on strike with many jobcentres severely disrupted and Sunderland jobcentre closed. Revenue and Customs workers have been out in force, with initial feedback suggesting 85% of HMRC staff across the UK have stayed away from work. Home Office reps indicate it is the best supported strike they have known, with many buildings in Liverpool closed or services severely affected. All national museums have been closed to the public in Wales. Crown, county and magistrates' courts across the UK are being disrupted.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: 

"This is the best supported strike we’ve ever had. The government made a lot of the fact that after the strike ballot it was clear civil servants didn’t support strike action, but today we can see that they have voted with their feet and sent a clear message to the government that they will not tolerate these attacks on their hard-earned pensions rights and will fight the cuts that threaten to devastate our communities and jobs.

It’s time for the government to engage properly; it has shown it is unwilling to move on any of the central issues that public sector workers will have to work up to eight years longer, thousands of jobs are at stake, lower pensions are set to cost three times as much, and pay is frozen while inflation soars. The change to pensions indexation to CPI will have a huge impact for many on post-retirement pension increases.

A DWP worker on £16,000 will lose about £150,000 over 20 years of retirement.

There should not be an equality of misery when it comes to pensions, the government is involved in a race to the bottom.

Pensions are affordable and the cost is falling. This government is forcing some of the most vulnerable people in our society to pay for a crisis that was not of their making.

There is an alternative to the government’s cuts to invest in public services, grow the economy and close the £120 billion tax gap."