PCS reacted angrily last Wednesday to Government plans to adopt welfare reform plans laid out in the Freud report, warning that questions remained about whether there was the knowledge and capacity in the private and voluntary sectors to deliver.
Accusing the Government of privatisation via the back door the union called on the government to give the public sector the resources and flexibility to innovate in helping people back into work.
Pointing to the success of the public sector run Pathways to Work pilots, which helped 20,000 long-term unemployed back into work, the union maintained that the public sector had the skills, expertise and knowledge to fulfil the Government’s ambitions in getting people back into work.
The union also expressed fears that by introducing the profit motive contractors would cherry pick the easiest to get back into work and place people into unsustainable work.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “We have serious doubts about whether there is the capacity in the private and voluntary sectors to deliver the Government’s proposals.
“The public sector has shown time and time again that it has the skills and expertise to out perform other sectors in getting people back into work. The people who have delivered the lowest unemployment in a generation and who have run the successful Pathways to Work pilots will feel let down and view these plans as privatisation by the back door.”
Thursday 31 January 2008
Friday 18 January 2008
Unions fight pay cap
PUBLIC sector unions have responded to the Government’s announcement of a two per cent cap – well below the rate of inflation – on public sector pay rises by calling for a united campaign against them and by demanding much higher pay rises.
Unison, GMB and TGWU-Unite have agreed to demand a six per cent pay rise – or 50 pence-an-hour, whichever is greatest – for the country’s million-plus local government workers.
This would bring the wages of the lowest paid workers up to £6.50-an-hour, which is still below the £6.75 that is estimated to be the minimum need to live on.
The unions say the demand is aimed to “catch up and match up” to recover losses from below-inflation pay rises over the last four years and to keep up with price inflation this year.
Unison’s national secretary for local government Heather Wakefield said: “Despite the headline figure, this is a modest claim.
“No-one could argue that an increase of 50 pence an hour fuels inflation. Over the past three years local government workers’ pay has increased by less than the rate of inflation, so we are starting from a low base. We need to make sure that they catch up with the rest of the public sector and that they are cushioned against inflation over the coming year.
She added: “The Government’s two per cent limit is just not on. It is half the rate of inflation and represents a real pay cut for loyal, hard-working public-sector workers, two-thirds of whom are women.
struggling
“They are struggling to make ends meet with the ever-increasing spiral of housing and fuel price rises.”
The 2004-7 pay agreements gave an increase of 11.4 per cent over three years, during which inflation rose by 12.5 per cent and average earnings by 13.4 per cent.
The 2007-2008 award was for 2.475 per cent and three per cent for the lowest paid – inflation was more than four per cent over that period.
The claim covers all grades of workers in local government, including refuse collection, school meals, social workers, administrators, cleaners, teaching assistants, parks and leisure workers and librarians.
Meanwhile the civil service union PCS has responded to the pay cap by calling for joint union action at a meeting of the TUC Public Services Liaison Group.
The call coincided with PCS members announcing that they would starting a work to rule in the Home Office next Monday over a below inflation three year pay offer which saw a large proportion of staff receiving a cost of living increase of just one per cent last year with a 0.5 per cent increase this year.
Elsewhere the union warned that members in the Department for Work and Pensions could take further strike action on 31st January should there be no progress through talks. The dispute over the imposition of a three year pay offer in the DWP has already seen a strongly supported two day strike in December.
Staff are angry over the below inflation three year deal which sees 40 per cent of staff receive no pay increase this year and people’s pay cut in real terms over the three years.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “If you look at the three-year deals in the DWP and the Home Office it is becoming increasingly clear that the Government is seeking to drive down pay in real terms with their proposals for three year pay deals across the public sector.
“The 2005 pensions campaign showed that when unions work together they are stronger and can win, which is why we are calling on public sector trade unions to campaign together and prepare for joint action to ensure civil and public servants don’t see their pay cut in real terms.
“With growing anger across the public sector, the government need to recognise that hard working civil and public servants will not tolerate below inflation pay or the false premise of being used as an anti-inflationary tool when it is clear that their wages aren’t fuelling inflation.”
Unison, GMB and TGWU-Unite have agreed to demand a six per cent pay rise – or 50 pence-an-hour, whichever is greatest – for the country’s million-plus local government workers.
This would bring the wages of the lowest paid workers up to £6.50-an-hour, which is still below the £6.75 that is estimated to be the minimum need to live on.
The unions say the demand is aimed to “catch up and match up” to recover losses from below-inflation pay rises over the last four years and to keep up with price inflation this year.
Unison’s national secretary for local government Heather Wakefield said: “Despite the headline figure, this is a modest claim.
“No-one could argue that an increase of 50 pence an hour fuels inflation. Over the past three years local government workers’ pay has increased by less than the rate of inflation, so we are starting from a low base. We need to make sure that they catch up with the rest of the public sector and that they are cushioned against inflation over the coming year.
She added: “The Government’s two per cent limit is just not on. It is half the rate of inflation and represents a real pay cut for loyal, hard-working public-sector workers, two-thirds of whom are women.
struggling
“They are struggling to make ends meet with the ever-increasing spiral of housing and fuel price rises.”
The 2004-7 pay agreements gave an increase of 11.4 per cent over three years, during which inflation rose by 12.5 per cent and average earnings by 13.4 per cent.
The 2007-2008 award was for 2.475 per cent and three per cent for the lowest paid – inflation was more than four per cent over that period.
The claim covers all grades of workers in local government, including refuse collection, school meals, social workers, administrators, cleaners, teaching assistants, parks and leisure workers and librarians.
Meanwhile the civil service union PCS has responded to the pay cap by calling for joint union action at a meeting of the TUC Public Services Liaison Group.
The call coincided with PCS members announcing that they would starting a work to rule in the Home Office next Monday over a below inflation three year pay offer which saw a large proportion of staff receiving a cost of living increase of just one per cent last year with a 0.5 per cent increase this year.
Elsewhere the union warned that members in the Department for Work and Pensions could take further strike action on 31st January should there be no progress through talks. The dispute over the imposition of a three year pay offer in the DWP has already seen a strongly supported two day strike in December.
Staff are angry over the below inflation three year deal which sees 40 per cent of staff receive no pay increase this year and people’s pay cut in real terms over the three years.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “If you look at the three-year deals in the DWP and the Home Office it is becoming increasingly clear that the Government is seeking to drive down pay in real terms with their proposals for three year pay deals across the public sector.
“The 2005 pensions campaign showed that when unions work together they are stronger and can win, which is why we are calling on public sector trade unions to campaign together and prepare for joint action to ensure civil and public servants don’t see their pay cut in real terms.
“With growing anger across the public sector, the government need to recognise that hard working civil and public servants will not tolerate below inflation pay or the false premise of being used as an anti-inflationary tool when it is clear that their wages aren’t fuelling inflation.”
Friday 11 January 2008
HMRC in strike ballot over cuts
MORE THAN 70,000 members of PCS who work for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs(HMRC) began being balloted on Monday 7th January for a one day strike followed by an overtime ban over office closures and job cuts.
Members are being asked to support the stoppage expected to be on the 31st January, which is the deadline for self assessment tax returns, as the department ploughs on with office closures and job cuts, despite services deteriorating and problems such as the recent data loss.
Offices at the heart of communities servicing the public and business are closing across the country as the department plough ahead with plans to close up to 250 offices and to slash 25,000 jobs by 2011.
With 13,000 jobs gone and a further 12,500 planned to go by 2011 the union warned that the department was in danger of serious service failure.
The union also warned that as jobs have been cut the department has increasingly relied on remaining staff working overtime and private consultants to mask the immediate impact of job losses.
The union is also angry that HMRC plans to privatise the remaining security guard work at a dozen sites across Britain, some of which store seized contraband.
Commenting, PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “With office closures and 13,000 job cuts to date, the department is already running on empty resulting in deteriorating services. It is lunacy for HMRC to plough ahead with closing over 250 offices and to cut a further 12,500 jobs by 2011.
“As HMRC’s own staff survey indicates morale is dangerously low. These are some of the most loyal staff, responsible for collecting taxes to build schools and hospitals, securing our borders and overseeing the payment of tax credits. HMRC cannot deliver a quality service in the face of continued arbitrary cuts and the government and the department need to recognise that HMRC needs to be properly resourced and staffed if public confidence is to be restored.”
Members are being asked to support the stoppage expected to be on the 31st January, which is the deadline for self assessment tax returns, as the department ploughs on with office closures and job cuts, despite services deteriorating and problems such as the recent data loss.
Offices at the heart of communities servicing the public and business are closing across the country as the department plough ahead with plans to close up to 250 offices and to slash 25,000 jobs by 2011.
With 13,000 jobs gone and a further 12,500 planned to go by 2011 the union warned that the department was in danger of serious service failure.
The union also warned that as jobs have been cut the department has increasingly relied on remaining staff working overtime and private consultants to mask the immediate impact of job losses.
The union is also angry that HMRC plans to privatise the remaining security guard work at a dozen sites across Britain, some of which store seized contraband.
Commenting, PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “With office closures and 13,000 job cuts to date, the department is already running on empty resulting in deteriorating services. It is lunacy for HMRC to plough ahead with closing over 250 offices and to cut a further 12,500 jobs by 2011.
“As HMRC’s own staff survey indicates morale is dangerously low. These are some of the most loyal staff, responsible for collecting taxes to build schools and hospitals, securing our borders and overseeing the payment of tax credits. HMRC cannot deliver a quality service in the face of continued arbitrary cuts and the government and the department need to recognise that HMRC needs to be properly resourced and staffed if public confidence is to be restored.”
Union anger at 3-year pay cap
by Daphne Liddle
PUBLIC sector unions reacted angrily last week to an announcement from Prime Minister Gordon Brown that he intends for the next three years to impose a limit each year of two per cent on pay rises for six million public sector workers.
Globally there is a mighty economic storm brewing and the ruling classes have decided, as usual, that the workers must bear the burden.
Economic storms, unlike the weather, are entirely created by human beings – by the capitalist economic system that runs on insatiable greed for profit at the expense of the workers who produce the wealth that ends up in their bosses’ bank balances.
For the last decade or more the British economy has been carried forward on the back of consumer deficit spending – of workers spending wages they have not yet received and running up huge personal debts – mortgages, credit card debt, bank loans and so on.
This has sustained demand and kept the capitalists in business while the workers have been forced into ever longer hours, exhaustion, debt and depression to meet the bills.
Now they face rising interest rates, rising fuel bills, rising food prices – and the prospects of unemployment through cutbacks in the public sand private sectors.
To then expect public sector workers to accept a pay cap so low that it effectively a pay cut for the next three years is outrageous.
The public sector trade unions have reacted angrily – including the Police Federation and the Prison Officers’ Association, which are both preparing for battle on the right to strike because they are so angry over shabby pay deals. raw edge
If all the public sector unions fight together they can be unstoppable. But this is the raw edge of the class struggle and the ruling class will be out to divide and corrupt the union leaders. Can the rank and file hold their leaders to the task in hand? It depends on how hard they are prepared to fight for their right to fair pay.
Commenting on the three-year pay cap, GMB national secretary for public service Brian Stratton said: “There are four fundamental problems. The first is that the argument that public sector pay has to be controlled to manage down inflation is economically flawed and socially unacceptable.
“The second is that different parts of the public sector have different needs from pay negotiations and whereas for some a period of stability makes sense for others there is a desperate need for change.
“The third is that any sensible negotiator will want to see a premium for sacrificing future negotiating rounds and that would mean any long-term deal having to go above Retail Price Index – and that isn’t the Government’s intention.
“Perhaps most importantly of all is whether they can be trusted. After all, the Government has reneged on most recent pay review body awards and who’s to say they would honour a three-year deal? Their track record says otherwise.”
Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of Unite, said: “Below inflation pay rises are pay cuts whether they are over one, two or three years. Let’s put a proper value on this key group of workers who deliver for us all day in day out, receiving the praise and goodwill of the British people but are slapped in the face by ministers who do not seem in touch with their staff.” driving down
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “We suspect that these proposals are about driving down the pay of hardworking staff who deliver the everyday things we take for granted.
“The Government have to recognise, as an Income Data Services report shows, that civil and public servants aren’t fuelling inflation and that they are real people with bills and mortgages to pay.”
Civil servants and teachers are already preparing to ballot for strike action. On the opposite side the Government is preparing new laws to hamstring the unions. Secretary of State for Justice Jack Straw last week announced the reintroduction of a ban on prison officers going on strike.
If he succeeds he will probably try to extend the ban to other public sector workers.
The Prison Officers’ Association (POA) said last night it was a betrayal of a Labour pledge in opposition to scrap a Conservative anti-union ban imposed in 1994 by Michael Howard as home secretary.
Unison announced it is holding a pay summit this Thursday to draw up tactics to beat the Government’s two per cent pay limit this year on behalf of workers in local government, the NHS, further education, schools, transport, British Waterways, police staff and meat hygiene.
The union leaders have made their statements. Now it is up to the workers to put on the pressure to hold them to their word in the coming battle.
PUBLIC sector unions reacted angrily last week to an announcement from Prime Minister Gordon Brown that he intends for the next three years to impose a limit each year of two per cent on pay rises for six million public sector workers.
Globally there is a mighty economic storm brewing and the ruling classes have decided, as usual, that the workers must bear the burden.
Economic storms, unlike the weather, are entirely created by human beings – by the capitalist economic system that runs on insatiable greed for profit at the expense of the workers who produce the wealth that ends up in their bosses’ bank balances.
For the last decade or more the British economy has been carried forward on the back of consumer deficit spending – of workers spending wages they have not yet received and running up huge personal debts – mortgages, credit card debt, bank loans and so on.
This has sustained demand and kept the capitalists in business while the workers have been forced into ever longer hours, exhaustion, debt and depression to meet the bills.
Now they face rising interest rates, rising fuel bills, rising food prices – and the prospects of unemployment through cutbacks in the public sand private sectors.
To then expect public sector workers to accept a pay cap so low that it effectively a pay cut for the next three years is outrageous.
The public sector trade unions have reacted angrily – including the Police Federation and the Prison Officers’ Association, which are both preparing for battle on the right to strike because they are so angry over shabby pay deals. raw edge
If all the public sector unions fight together they can be unstoppable. But this is the raw edge of the class struggle and the ruling class will be out to divide and corrupt the union leaders. Can the rank and file hold their leaders to the task in hand? It depends on how hard they are prepared to fight for their right to fair pay.
Commenting on the three-year pay cap, GMB national secretary for public service Brian Stratton said: “There are four fundamental problems. The first is that the argument that public sector pay has to be controlled to manage down inflation is economically flawed and socially unacceptable.
“The second is that different parts of the public sector have different needs from pay negotiations and whereas for some a period of stability makes sense for others there is a desperate need for change.
“The third is that any sensible negotiator will want to see a premium for sacrificing future negotiating rounds and that would mean any long-term deal having to go above Retail Price Index – and that isn’t the Government’s intention.
“Perhaps most importantly of all is whether they can be trusted. After all, the Government has reneged on most recent pay review body awards and who’s to say they would honour a three-year deal? Their track record says otherwise.”
Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of Unite, said: “Below inflation pay rises are pay cuts whether they are over one, two or three years. Let’s put a proper value on this key group of workers who deliver for us all day in day out, receiving the praise and goodwill of the British people but are slapped in the face by ministers who do not seem in touch with their staff.” driving down
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “We suspect that these proposals are about driving down the pay of hardworking staff who deliver the everyday things we take for granted.
“The Government have to recognise, as an Income Data Services report shows, that civil and public servants aren’t fuelling inflation and that they are real people with bills and mortgages to pay.”
Civil servants and teachers are already preparing to ballot for strike action. On the opposite side the Government is preparing new laws to hamstring the unions. Secretary of State for Justice Jack Straw last week announced the reintroduction of a ban on prison officers going on strike.
If he succeeds he will probably try to extend the ban to other public sector workers.
The Prison Officers’ Association (POA) said last night it was a betrayal of a Labour pledge in opposition to scrap a Conservative anti-union ban imposed in 1994 by Michael Howard as home secretary.
Unison announced it is holding a pay summit this Thursday to draw up tactics to beat the Government’s two per cent pay limit this year on behalf of workers in local government, the NHS, further education, schools, transport, British Waterways, police staff and meat hygiene.
The union leaders have made their statements. Now it is up to the workers to put on the pressure to hold them to their word in the coming battle.
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