“In just over a week, we will have finally got shot of this rotten Tory government. The job ahead for the Labour government replacing them is a big one and PCS members will be watching with bated breath after seeing their living standards plummet for nearly a decade and a half.”
Fran Heathcote, General Secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS)
By Fran Heathcote, PCS General Secretary
In just over a week, we will have finally got shot of this rotten Tory government. The job ahead for the Labour government replacing them is a big one and PCS members will be watching with bated breath after seeing their living standards plummet for nearly a decade and a half, they’ve been through too much to be let down again.
No one will be more pleased to see the back of fourteen years of Tory rule than our members, who work across the civil service and its related areas. The way these workers, the government’s own staff, no less, have been treated, is appalling. They’ve been attacked on every front: pay, pensions, redundancy and job security. It’s been relentless.
With those responsible for this disgraceful treatment packing up their bags in Number 10 and across Whitehall, our members are looking to a new government to right these wrongs. That’s why we’ve produced a PCS Charter, which outlines our key demands of an incoming government.
Firstly on pay, PCS members have had to endure a convoluted delegated pay system, across over 200 bargaining areas, that drives down wages and entrenches pay inequalities. What our members need is a return to national collective bargaining and fixing this broken pay system should be a top priority for an incoming Labour government.
This government and those that came before, have made a mess of our members’ pensions too, with everyone overpaying by 2% each month. Not content with throwing retirement plans into disarray, the Tory government had the cheek to ask our members to pay to fix the problem. So, another job in Labour’s in-tray is to secure pension justice for our members and to carry out an immediate review of the state pension age.
It’s not just living standards and pensions that are in the crosshairs, our members’ jobs are as well. Tens of thousands of civil service jobs have been threatened with the chop, with plans to reduce the headcount to pre-pandemic levels. We hope that a Labour government will not only refuse to cut jobs but in fact do the opposite, because the civil service needs more resources, not less. Millions of ordinary people rely on the vital public services our members deliver and not investing in these services will fail communities up and down the country.
Elsewhere, we’re flexing our industrial and political muscles to demand radical change. Our members work across key governmental departments and this unique insight allows us to call for much-needed radical reform. On social security, we’ve long called for a system that helps people rather than punishes them. Our members who work in the DWP know what’s best for claimants but are hamstrung by government policies and we want Labour to work with us to make these changes possible.
The same goes for tax justice. HMRC needs to be adequately resourced to close the £40bn tax gap and to ensure the department is able to make sure those at the top pay their fair share. On immigration policy, we’ve worked closely with Care4Calais to produce a groundbreaking Safe Passage Visa scheme that can put an end to the treacherous boat crossings in the Channel. A future Labour government must build on this policy, work with PCS, Care 4 Calais, and others to ensure the asylum system is reformed.
These demands are by no means a definitive list and are just a starting point. We hope that a Labour government will engage with us on these building blocks as we look ahead to a new political era. Our members are looking to that future with optimism but failure to provide it will have dire economic and political consequences.
- Fran Heathcote is the General Secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS).
- You can follow Fran Heathcote on Twitter/X; and follow the PCS on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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