האגודה הישראלית לחקר יחסי עבודה

In February, the government opened a consultation on the Civil Service Compensation Scheme (CSCS) which proposed massive cuts to redundancy terms.

The government has announced it is pressing ahead with plans to slash civil service redundancy terms by at least 25%, and for many people by considerably more.

The exchange of letters between the Cabinet Office and the National Trade Union Committee, the single body which undertakes consultation and engagement with it, over the past 2 months reveals that only unions accepting the planned cuts have been invited to further talks and that there has been little attention paid to trade unions' responses to the consultation. In addition, the Cabinet Office has refused to share information on equality impact assessments of the proposals. These help analyse policies and practices to make sure they do not discriminate or disadvantage people and can also improve or promote equality.

The letters also show the frustration and anger of the 3 unions - PCS, the POA and Unite - who have refused to accept the cuts as a pre-condition to talks.

How the situation has developed

3 June - Terms of talks

A letter from the Cabinet Office sets out the government's planned changes and terms for any further talks, including:

• Reforming the Civil Service Compensation Scheme to "produce significant changes"
• Imposing a tariff of 3 weeks redundancy pay for each year of service
• Reducing the compulsory notice period to 3 months
• Limiting voluntary exit and voluntary redundancy payments to 15 months' salary
• Making employer-funded early access to unreduced pensions available from the age of 55 and then tracked 10 years behind state pension age.

The letter invites unions to confirm that they accepted the terms to allow them to enter talks.

7 June - FDA and Prospect accept terms

At a meeting of the National Trade Union Committee, the single body which undertakes consultation and engagement with the Cabinet Office, FDA and Prospect, whose members make up a relatively small percentage of the staff affected by the cuts, indicate that they are prepared to sign up to the terms for further talks.

13 and 14 June - Further talks

FDA and Prospect write to the NTUC to say they would be responding to the Cabinet Office on their own.

19 June - Joint response

PCS gives a joint response to the Cabinet Office with the POA and Unite stating that the 3 unions - PCS, POA and Unite - represent an overwhelming majority of civil servants who are union members and a majority of civil servants affected by redundancy situations in future years.

The letter, signed by PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka, calls for the Cabinet Office to explain the situation and says: "We are at a loss to understand how the minister can be minded to amend the scheme if the government has not yet reached a decision on what changes to make to the CSCS, or any changes to other public sector schemes."

It also asks for an analysis of how the minister's view is based on consideration of consultation responses, including those expressed by trade unions.

We also call for details of a full equality impact assessment to "inform our discussions going forward".

And we make the point that it is "simply illogical to conclude what the outcome of discussions will be before those discussions have taken place".

21 June - Cabinet Office fails to give answers

The Cabinet Office responds but fails to provide answers to the issues raised by PCS, the POA and Unite. They simply reiterate their earlier position that talks would be conditional on unions accepting their terms; and say an analysis of the consultation responses and equality impacts would only be provided after further talks take place.

4 July - Suspected sham

PCS, POA and Unite respond to the Cabinet Office, stating:

• Their letter did not provide any answers on the issues the 3 unions raised
• Their assertion that information required to inform further talks would only be provided after those talks had taken place was bizarre
• Our concerns over the way this exercise was being conducted led us to suspect that it was a sham
• The unreasonable restrictions and illogical sequencing undermine the entire concept of free collective bargaining
• No justification had been provided for proceeding with the changes.

All of this notwithstanding, we were prepared to engage in further talks with a view to seeking agreement; but we would do so unfettered.

8 July - Restated case

The Cabinet Office reply simply restates their position on the CSCS.

Joint approach

PCS, POA and Unite have held exploratory discussions on the possibility of a joined-up campaign. We have provisionally agreed a joint campaign, including:

• Consultation exercises with our members and activists to identify areas of leverage where we may be able to take targeted and sustained industrial action
• A political lobbying exercise designed to build opposition to the changes.

PCS has consistently called upon the TUC for a co-ordinated approach to attacks on workers across the trade union movement. In the light of the latest CSCS developments we will be approaching the TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady again to highlight our joint campaign and again call for public sector-wide action.

Support our campaign to stop the cuts to the CSCS:

Contribute to the fighting fund

Ask a colleague to join PCS or become a union advocate.

Original Source