From time to time, I think about the civil service I left behind in 2014 and in particular the DWP where I spent the bulk of my working life. In terms of renumeration, it wasn’t great. I never got close to earning anywhere near the national average wage but I did enjoy relative job security, generous holidays, flexi time and a decent-ish pension which, along with the odd part time job, has since kept me in the style of life that I’m used to. Not exactly Moet and Chandon, Fois Gras and business class air travel, but hey, it beats working full time. Wages have improved since I left but not that much, although you no longer have to wait forever and beyond to reach the maximum salary for the job because many of the pay scales have gone. This year in DWP, staff have been awarded a 2% pay rise from 1st July, which is effectively a substantial pay cut given inflation is rising at 9.1% and the reaction of the trade union, PCS? It’s balloting for strike action. This autumn.
I totally get that staff in the DWP, who are notoriously among the lowest paid in the civil service, will be angry with what is a paltry offer but I am struggling to understand why their union is only balloting for strike action two months after the pay award will have been implemented. Why, if PCS was so concerned about the pay offer, didn’t they call for action straight away? My guess is that they knew they would not win a ballot of members or even secure a 50% turn out to make the vote valid and legal. However, things are even more complicated than that.
Civil service pay has been delegated to individual departments so many will be balloted when there is nothing to ballot them on. For example, HMRC staff voted in 2021 for a three year deal which gave them annual rises of 3%, 5% and, once again for 2022/23, 5%. So, HMRC staff will be asked to vote for strike action over pay despite the fact that on an 82% turn out, four out of five members voted to accept that deal. On what possible basis could PCS include HMRC members in a national pay ballot? It’s nonsense, but if they are not included, it’s not a national ballot, is it? The sheer stupidity of the hard left which controls the union from top to bottom is beyond belief. But it gets even better.
PCS isn’t just demanding a pay rise, which I do agree they thoroughly deserve. They want other stuff:
- An extra £5000 a year for staff working in London
- 35 days annual leave for all staff upon entry to the civil service
- A significant reduction in the working week with no loss of pay
Now, far be it for me to suggest that these things are not desirable, but do you think millions of other workers, many of whom earn even less than civil servants, will sympathise with a union that demands not just a pay rise but a whacking great rise in annual leave AND a shorter working week? My feeling is that these collective demands are absurd. Concentrate on pay and sort the other stuff out another day. Otherwise, how can you say you have ‘won’ a particular campaign because the government will not, in a million years, agree to all this. So, what happens next? My guess is not a lot.
In order to hold strike action, the union needs a positive ‘yes’ vote on a turn out of over 50%. During the recent executive elections, PCS managed a 7.2% turn out for the national executive committee and 6.3% for the DWP Group Executive committee. Do the math. Well over 90% of members didn’t vote at all. But before you accuse members of apathy, do bear in mind each ballot paper contained three hard left Trot ‘slates’ of candidates with no mainstream left or so-called ‘moderate’ candidates at all. There was no point in voting because the Trots were certain to win.
I truly feel for my former DWP colleagues because, as ever when it comes to pay, they have been left behind and now they face another crushing real terms cut to pay. More than that, collectively there is nothing they can do about. Yes, they can take a few days strike action but in truth that will not move the government. It never did. It might make some people feel better but essentially it’s just unpaid leave. Maybe staff should move, as many did in my time, to the MOD gravy train (the actual words used by a former colleague who still works there) or the likes of HMRC? But then, given the promises of Boris Johnson’s potential successors, who is to say that other government departments will be cut back to the bone, too?
I’m just glad to be out of it. I’ve had eight years of doing what I want which I would never have had if I’d stayed in the civil service. I’d have probably been better off financially but money isn’t everything, unless that is money is all you care about. If the work is shit and the money is shit, then do something else or even better, nothing. It works for me.
