Join the fight for the civil service

In addition to raiding their pensions and freezing their pay, the government is now mounting unprecedented attacks on civil servants’ terms and conditions.

Ministers are pressing ahead with draconian changes to pensions which will mean many people having to work longer, pay more and receive less in retirement, despite huge opposition and lack of agreement, having already imposed cuts to civil service redundancy pay.

Many public sector workers will also lose thousands of pounds as a result of a two-year pay freeze and a 1% pay cap and now the government has announced it is determined to rip up their hard-earned terms and conditions.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said:

“Amid an imposed pay freeze, and cuts to pensions and redundancy terms, the Cabinet Office now wants to undermine some very basic working conditions that any decent employer should offer.

“It is impossible to separate this from the Tory-led government’s wider political project to unpick the welfare state and drive down pay, conditions and employment rights across the economy, and we are determined to oppose it at every step.”

Read and share the PCS terms and conditions leaflet and encourage everyone you know to march on 20 October.

Bonfire of terms and conditions

The Cabinet Office has asked every civil service department to review all terms, conditions, policies and practices – essentially all the things civil servants rely on to manage their working lives. Included are:

• Hours
• Leave
• Parental and special leave
• Childcare
• Job sharing
• Volunteering
• Vacancy filling
• Promotions
• Attendance management.

Download Cabinet Office memo to HR directors

Changes to part-time working and attacks on flexitime are likely to hit women and those with caring responsibilities the hardest. They are already bearing the brunt of the cuts and these changes will make it even harder for them to work and earn a living wage.

PCS will resist changes to terms and conditions. We will be talking to the other unions, raising it with the Cabinet Office and government ministers, in parliament through our parliamentary group, and with every civil service department. The union’s national executive policy and resources committee will meet to consider our response next week.

If you are angry about these changes you should:

• March against austerity on 20 October – pcs.org.uk/20oct
• Join PCS if you’re not a member – pcs.org.uk/join
• Recruit a colleague if you are a member – pcs.org.uk/join
• Use the austerity pay calculator – pcs.org.uk/austeritypay
• Sign up for news about PCS campaigns – pcs.org.uk/email-alerts.

We can only fight these cuts together. PCS is campaigning for jobs, pensions and pay and for the future of the civil service.