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We are urging PCS members to get involved in the campaign to scrap the public sector pay freeze and fight for fair pay on payday this Friday (26).
We are supporting the TUC mass rally for a workers’ budget at 7.30pm on Tuesday (2) ahead of Wednesday’s budget where chancellor Rishi Sunak is expected to confirm a pay freeze for millions of public sector workers.
As the pandemic rages, unemployment rises and thousands of people are forced to work in unsafe conditions. We support the call for a pay rise for all our key workers. For safe workplaces and decent sick pay for all. For decent jobs for everyone – and fair funding for our precious NHS and public services.
On Friday, we are holding meetings for members who work at the Cabinet Office at noon, and Canary Wharf at 4.30pm, with PCS President Fran Heathcote. There is also a Nottingham lunchtime activists’ open town committee meeting at 1.30pm.
We are also encouraging members to get active in PCS by lobbying their MP on pay – email the campaigns team campaigns@pcs.org.uk for help with this – and attend your branch AGM to hear updates on the campaign.
We are also planning to launch a campaign e-action to send a message to the government about pay.
Sign the TUC petition calling for a pay rise for all key workers.
Tell us how a pay freeze will affect you, email editor@pcs.org.uk
The country can’t afford a pay rise at the moment
In the third in a series of myth-busting articles as part of the PCS pay campaign we look at the claim that the country can’t afford a pay rise at the moment and our members and other key public sector workers should be happy to have a job.
Think-tank the New Economics Foundation says that a public sector pay rise is both affordable and will play an important role in retention, recruitment and Covid recovery.
The NEF's head of economics, Lydia Prieg, has said: "Key workers play a vital role in our communities and have held our economy together throughout this crisis.
“Our analysis shows that public sector pay rises are not only a just reward for the workers protecting us on the frontline, but they will also boost demand and strengthen the economy in a time of recession.
"It should be a no-brainer for government. Paying our public sector workers properly can help us through this crisis and support our economic recovery on the other side. But it is vital that this is new money, and not making further demands on stretched departmental budgets."
Kam Gill from the TUC wrote in a blog post that plans for a public sector pay freeze were a “hugely regressive step” by the government.
“Public sector workers have already suffered from almost a decade of low and lost pay,” he wrote.
“We need them to earn a decent wage that recognises the vital work they do and helps promote growth in the economy.”
Public sector workers have already suffered from almost a decade of low and lost pay.
After 2010 their pay was frozen, and then capped so that any increases in pay stayed well behind rises in the cost of living.
TUC analysis found that some public sector workers have lost as much as £3,000 from the value of their wages.
And he made the crucial point that: “When demand in the economy is low, because people have less money so can’t buy as much as they would otherwise, increased spending power translates into more demand and so more money going into local economies.
“Key workers have earned their pay rise. Attempts to make them pay for the pandemic are unjust. But they’re also unnecessary. We can afford to pay our key workers a decent wage and its time we did just that.”
PCS is launching a campaign action for every member to email the chancellor directly before the budget, members will be emailed about this in the next few days. Taking this action will be a theme of our Fair Pay Day activities on Friday (26).
We are also working closely with the TUC on a series of events across the country where Conservative MPs have agreed to directly meet public sector workers to hear their concerns. PCS members are speaking at some of these meetings alongside colleagues from other unions.
On the eve of the budget at 6pm on 2 March, the TUC is holding a mass rally for a workers' budget and PCS is encouraging all activists to attend this as the campaign steps up.
If you want to get more involved in the pay campaign and want to help by lobbying your own MP email campaigns@pcs.org.uk
Not a member? Join online today.
Any queries to Mike Hepworth please
On 3 March the chancellor Rishi Sunak will deliver his budget for 2021.
He is expected to confirm the public sector pay freeze he pre announced last November. PCS and the TUC are stepping up our campaign to get the pay freeze scrapped. It’s a slap in the face for all your hard work during the pandemic.
It comes on top of years of similar freezes and caps which have seen average pay in the civil service fall substantially in real terms each year. Since 2010, average salary levels in the civil service have fallen in value, by comparison with inflation, by between 8.8% (CPI) and 15.2% (RPI). Civil service pay has fallen in value by comparison with local government, health and education, by 11.4%.
Even the ‘concession’ offered by the government of £250 a year for staff earning below £24,000 is being paid for out of existing running costs as the Treasury has indicated that the pay remit for the civil service is 0%.
PCS is launching a campaign action for every member to email the chancellor directly before the budget, members will be emailed about this in the next few days. Taking this action will be a theme of our Fair Pay Day activities on 26 February.
We are also working closely with the TUC on a series of events across the country where Conservative MPs have agreed to directly meet public sector workers to hear their concerns. PCS members are speaking at some of these meetings alongside colleagues from other unions.
On the eve of the budget at 6pm on Tuesday (2 March) the TUC is holding a mass rally for a workers' budget and PCS is encouraging all activists to attend this as the campaign steps up.
If you want to get more involved in the pay campaign and want to help by lobbying your own MP please email campaigns@pcs.org.uk
In the second in a series of myth-busting articles as part of the PCS pay campaign, we look at the often cited claim that wage increases in the public sector are still better than in the private sector.
This claim has been used by chancellor Rishi Sunak as a justification for the public sector pay freeze he is set to confirm in the 3 March budget. Analysis by the TUC has shown the freeze will effectively cut £1.7 billion from key workers’ pay in England and hit struggling high streets and firms dependent on consumer spending.
As a union we represent members in the public and commercial sectors many of whom are all suffering from chronically low pay. We campaign against a race to the bottom which pits workers in the private sector against their public sector counterparts in an equalisation of poverty pay.
Hannah Slaughter, economist at the independent think-tank the Resolution Foundation, said in December last year that a decade of pay freezes and caps after the 2008 financial crisis has reduced any premium public sector workers had over those in the private sector to zero overall.
“We have now entered a fresh phase of pay turmoil – with millions of private sector workers facing job losses, furlough-induced pay cuts or pay freezes,” she said.
“The government has justified the coming public sector pay freeze on the basis of the pay premium these workers will experience as a result of the pandemic. But this is a very poor description of the impact of the policy – with the freeze largely falling on those already experiencing pay penalties relative to the private sector.”
Our parliamentary petition for fair pay reached 100,000 signatures and was the beginning of the next stage of our campaign to win fair pay for members.
We held a successful first fair pay day on 29 January and further events are planned for 26 February and 31 March.
Sign the TUC petition which calls for fair pay.
Get active in the PCS pay campaign by signing up to be a union advocate and joining our fair pay day activities.
Not a member? Join online today.
In the first in a series of myth busting articles as part of the PCS pay campaign we look at the government’s claim that there will be no return to the austerity of a decade ago.
In June, prime minister Boris Johnson pledged his government would "not go back to the austerity of 10 years ago.”
In fact, the pay freeze for more than 2.6 million public sector workers, announced by chancellor Rishi Sunak at November’s spending review, is an act of austerity just months after Johnson’s hollow declaration.
PCS believes civil servants and other public sector staff feel a deep sense of betrayal because of the pay freeze.
Despite keeping the country running during the Covid pandemic, supplying Universal Credit and helping businesses access the furlough scheme, the chancellor has justified a pay freeze by pointing to lower wages in the private sector.
We believe the answer is to raise wages across the board to increase spending power in the economy, to aid our recovery not pit public and private sector workers against one another, like crabs in a barrel.
The pay freeze intensifies long-standing anger at a decade of pay restraint.
Get active in the PCS pay campaign by signing up to be a union advocate and joining our fair pay day activities.
PCS, working with Thompsons Solicitors, has launched a questionnaire on Covid-19 exposure, which will help us improve workplace health and safety.
All members are encouraged to complete the questionnaire.
Have you or your colleagues contracted Covid-19 as a result of your work?
You should complete the online questionnaire if you:
- Have been diagnosed as suffering from Covid-19 as a result of your current or past employment; or
- Believe you have suffered from Covid-19 as a result of your current or past employment; or
- Have worked with colleague(s) who have suffered from Covid-19 as a result of their employment
The form can also be used in the tragic circumstances where a PCS member has died as a result of suffering from Covid-19 as a result of their current or past employment.
The information that we collect via the questionnaire will be used to inform PCS bargaining and campaigning priorities. It will help us improve workplace health and safety for every member. In addition to this a team of workplace personal injury experts at Thompsons Solicitors will also analyse the completed questionnaires and explore every avenue to provide the best support for those who have become ill due to coronavirus.
With the Covid-19 infection rate tragically on the increase, PCS has been pressing the civil service for some time to reinstate more stringent lockdown measures with an emphasis on workers remaining at home rather than attending workplaces. Where staff have been required to continue to attend their workplace employers must take action to minimise and eliminate risks to our members’ safety and health; ensuring they make a proper assessment of those risks, and take appropriate steps to address and minimise them. Where employers are unable or unwilling to do this PCS will not hesitate to act to protect our members’ health and well-being.
PCS general secretary, Mark Serwotka said “Thousands of PCS members have been at work throughout the pandemic, often putting themselves at risk to help others. Our members have shown exemplary dedication and professionalism throughout the pandemic. The very least they deserve is for their employer to meet its legal obligation to provide a safe working environment. The PCS Covid-19 exposure survey will enable us to ensure that every employer, in every workplace, is taking the necessary steps to make the workplace safe. Where they do not, and where they fail in their duty of care, we will act.
As part of our Covid-19 response I am asking every member of the union who has been asked to attend their workplace during the pandemic to complete this questionnaire so that the union can build a comprehensive picture of the situation in every workplace.”
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Want to get more involved in PCS? Attend your PCS branch annual general meeting, have your say and get active in your union.
The branch AGM, which is held between now and early March, is at the heart of our union’s democracy. It’s where annual and financial reports are agreed, election results announced, motions debated, conference delegates elected and nominations and motions for group and national conference and elections considered.
It is important to attend because not only are key decisions being made, but you can really see how the union works and get involved. Obviously because of the pandemic most AGMs will take place virtually this year.
Virtual get-together
Focal point
All members have the right to attend and take part, and ask questions about the committee’s annual or financial reports, or other issues.
Elections are held before the AGM for branch officers and branch executive committee (BEC) members. Sometimes branch structures and policies differ slightly, but each BEC will have a chair, secretary, organiser and treasurer. The branch may elect other branch reps covering local workplaces, as well as specific roles that typically include health and safety, union learning, environmental rep, equalities and young members.
To find out how to put yourself forward, talk to your local reps and look out for notices from your branch officers ahead of the meeting.
Any members who go along to the AGM are also directly involved in electing which delegates will go to PCS group and national conferences, which will also be held virtually this, as well as delegates to other bodies in which the branch participates. AGMs can also vote to nominate people who want to stand in PCS’s group and national elections (GEC and NEC).
Increase representation
Branches are encouraged to nominate members from under-represented groups including:
- Women
- Black
- Disabled
- Young members,
- And LGBT+ members.
The meeting will also consider motions being put forward on key issues and campaigns at branch, group or national level. Motions can be on branch or workplace issues, group issues or on national issues for the annual delegate conference. Those agreed will then be dealt with by the BEC, or submitted for debate at the group and national conferences.
Any questions?
Talk to your local rep, branch officers, or regional PCS office, or email organising@pcs.org.uk
Tell us why you’re going to your AGM and why you feel it’s important to get involved and have your say, email editor@pcs.org.uk
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PCS is calling on the UK Civil Service to urgently instruct all UK government workers, contractors and agency staff to work from home wherever they can as the latest national lockdown measures are introduced.
Following the new lockdown measures, we demanded that everyone should be allowed to work from home where possible. That simple message should be immediately cascaded to all those who work in the UK Civil Service as well as contractors and agency staff.
Yesterday, we and the other public sector unions had a virtual meeting with Cabinet Office officials who said they would consider instructing all civil servants to work from home wherever possible. We are meeting again tomorrow to discuss the details of the measures the civil service should urgently take to ensure all work by UK government workers, contractors and agency staff can now be done from home unless it is demonstrably not possible to do so.
We are calling for all tribunals and courts currently open to the public to be shut. We know that courts and tribunals can operate digitally. And in the case of jobcentres we fully accept that a limited service to vulnerable people should continue but that is all. Services provided to the public such as driving tests must be paused.
As a matter of urgency, we request that the civil service reviews those areas where the mass roll-out of IT kit has not happened, for example in the DVLA, and to put arrangements in place so that work can be done from home.
In relation to DVLA, we know that the contact centre has the highest infection rates in the agency, in an area (South Wales) which has some of the highest rates in the world. Therefore, the contact centre should be immediately shut down.
A number of departments, for example MHCLG, DVLA and DEFRA are in the process of opening new or existing offices. That of course should stop.
Special leave
All governments now say that those who are clinically extremely vulnerable should not attend work. Therefore, these staff should be instructed to either work from home or, if they cannot, be put on special leave with pay. We are proposing further that all clinically vulnerable staff should also be placed on special leave with pay if they cannot work at home.
Special leave with pay should be given to parents where childcare has been disrupted owing to school closures. Also, if key/critical workers require children to be at schools so that they can work from home, this should be facilitated.
All those working on civil service contracts, including facilities management staff, should receive the same Covid-related consideration as civil servants. Such staff should receive full pay if they have to self-isolate for any reason.
The current lockdown should also be used to carry out a review of risk assessments for all staff and contract staff in each workplace, in light of the new strain of the virus.
Not a PCS member? Join online today for protection at work.
Following the new lockdown measures, we are demanding that everyone should be allowed to work from home where possible.
PCS is demanding an urgent meeting with the Cabinet Office to change the policy in the civil service to one where everyone should work at home unless it is impossible to do so. This is in line with the prime minister’s announcement on 4 January about the new lockdown measures which are in place in England from today (5). Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are also in full lockdown with similar measures in place and we will be arguing for the same policies regarding working from home.
We are also demanding that private sector workers such as cleaners and other facilities staff should continue to be paid if they are unable to work as usual.
The policy of getting staff back into workplaces, as shown by the case of the DVLA contact centre, among others, has already proved dangerous to staff, and given the current situation of a full lockdown we will argue that the health and safety of our members is of primary importance.
Our demands echo those made during the previous full lockdown last year and we will argue that civil servants have proved that they can still deliver a full and efficient service while staying safe in their own homes.
