‘If we get a tax on pensions and jobs and pay, I think that the inevitability of industrial action stares us in the face,’ Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) General Secretary Mark Serwotka warned yesterday.
This came after unions were given the cold shoulder by the government which confirmed that it is proceeding with plans to cut civil service redundancy payments, through ‘reform’ of the Civil Service Compensation Scheme (CSCS).
This is despite a court ruling last month that any scheme had to be negotiated with the relevant trade unions.
The main civil service unions – including the GMB, Unite, Prospect, the First Division Association and the Prison Officers’ Association – said they had been summoned to a meeting at the Cabinet Office yesterday afternoon.
But a Cabinet Office spokesman told News Line: ‘There has never been a meeting with ministers scheduled for today.
‘Officials have, however, pencilled in a number of possible dates over the coming days for meetings with the trade unions, so that they might have time available to discuss the government’s position once a settled view has been reached on how it will proceed on this issue.
‘As outlined in the Coalition Agreement, we are looking at ways to reform the Civil Service Compensation Scheme to bring it more into line with good practice in the private sector.’
He concluded: ‘We will make an announcement to parliament in due course.’
Formally, if agreement on reform could not be reached, ministers would have to amend the 1972 Superannuation Act, which established the redundancy rules.
But the unions say letters have already gone to government departments’ personnel heads telling them they shouldn’t assume the status quo will last for more than the next couple of months, suggesting change will be forced through.
All the unions, except the PCS, have agreed to sign up to changes in redundancy.
The PCS represents about 70 per cent of the civil service workforce.
Treasury figures suggest 600,000 public sector posts could go over the next five years.
Giving his warning of possible strike action, PCS General Secretary Serwotka said yesterday: ‘The High Court ruled twice in our favour that it was unlawful for the government to cut civil service redundancy pay without the consent of its workforce.
‘It is a disgrace that, simply because it failed to get its way, the government now appears to be prepared to change the law to make it easier and cheaper to sack tens of thousands of civil and public servants.
‘Following the High Court decision, we immediately said we were open to negotiations to seek to reach an agreement. So it is shocking that the government does not seem willing to even test whether this is possible.
‘This comes on the back of news that more than one million jobs could be lost in the public and private sectors because of the government’s cuts.
‘There is an alternative to these cuts and we are clear that we will use all the means at our disposal to resist any attempt to make low-paid public servants pay the price for an economic crisis they did not cause.’
The head of the government’s ‘star chamber’, Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude – the architect of the CSCS changes, is due to address senior civil servants about the government’s approach at a conference today.
The government is anxious to push through cuts to the CSCS so that any civil servants made redundant after September 15 will be made subject to the new terms.
