It is time to choose

On Wednesday this week, the Chancellor, George Gideon Osborne will announce several thousand more civilian job losses in the Ministry of Defence as part of his comprehensive spending review package. As yet, we do not know exactly what the painful figure will be, but our union is clear that even a single further civilian job cut will be one too many.

Our department has already seen over 25,000 civilians leave since the last comprehensive spending review – the SDSR in October 2010 – with little or no corresponding drop or cut in outputs. PCS members are already covering two, three and sometimes four jobs as our loyalty is stretched to breaking point.

We know, from the department’s own HR dashboard, that at the end of the financial year, TLBs were running with vacancy levels above 24% - a staggering 16,000 civilian vacancies. It’s no wonder the remaining staff were under such pressure to deliver outputs, with 1 in 4 posts vacant.

Misplaced loyalty

Our union now firmly believes that members who have loyally served the department and have gone further than the extra mile to keep the department and support to the frontline afloat can now see exactly what that loyalty is worth - nothing.

In fact for PCS members our loyalty is worth less than nothing. Pay restraint is a real terms pay cut when inflation is almost three times the paltry 1% being offered this year; which comes after two years of a pay freeze. Two years (with one more to come) of pension contribution increases has further reduced the money PCS defence sector members have in their pockets at the end of every month. Members can see the real impact of these reductions here:http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/campaigns/national-campaigns/pay/austerity-pay-calculator.cfm

The new performance management arrangements threaten to see 1 in 20 members sacked within the next year. We wait to see if the Chancellor will increase the pain threshold in our department on Wednesday as they seek to sack people on the cheap. The Permanent Secretary has confirmed in his latest blog that there will be no new early release scheme, so they are clearly looking for those sacked under the performance management scheme, who get no compensation payments however long they have worked for the department and whatever loyalty they have given, to make up the latest cuts.

Our union understands that the next term and condition that will be attacked is the death in service benefit. It is clear to our union that not only do this government wish to see their own staff suffer poverty pay in life, then their dependants must also suffer poverty pay in death. As we now have to work longer (68 at present), there is little doubt that sadly more of us will die in service, thus leaving our loved ones with further financial problems.

How will the MoD continue to deliver their outputs?

A simple and fair question, which the department cannot answer.

Our union is of the firm opinion that every single civilian job loss will actually cost the department and the taxpayer more money in the long run. We are already seeing wholesale militarisation of civilian work and as our military colleagues cost roughly twice as much as their civilian counterparts, this will simply add cost to the defence budget.

Similarly, if any privatisation goes ahead that gets numbers out of the MoD civilian workforce, this will simply mean the private contractor will absorb these civilian staff, pay these civilian staff, but charge the MoD a premium for doing so. The result – MoD civilian numbers down, private contractors profits up and cost to the taxpayer up.

Stand up and demand a Fair Deal in Defence

We know that members care deeply about the Ministry of Defence. We work alongside our military colleagues on a daily basis; we socialise with them and on occasions we form lifelong friendships with them. Our union does not blame the military for the problems in our department, even though the latest announcements seem to protect the military at the cost of civilian jobs, pay and allowances.

No, the problems lie at the door of ministers and intransigent senior MoD management. Con Dem ministers who seem hell bent on destroying the public sector; with the Civil Service first on their agenda because PCS, the main civil service union, has the audacity to stand up for its members; the services they provide and the communities they live in.

However, senior MoD management also must take their share of the blame for meekly accepting and then implementing this cuts agenda. They have the option on the table to give us a Fair Deal but, because we took strike action on 17 June, senior MoD management took their ball away and went home.

We had made some progress on our union’s Fair Deal campaign objectives, but because we took legitimate, democratic strike action as part of the PCS national campaign, the Ministry of Defence took the huff and withdrew from negotiations. HRD, the MoD business unit conducting the negotiations on behalf of the MoD have a business unit motto of ‘Promoting Good Employee relations” – you couldn’t make it up.

We will continue to seek talks around our Fair Deal objectives, but we also now need to do more.

You can also make your concerns clear by posting on the PUS blog here:http://pppaintranet.chris.r.mil.uk/blogs/pus/2013/06/24/24-june-2013/.

Conclusion

Our union is not surprised by this latest announcement of further MoD civilian Job cuts. Yet again, the casino bankers, city spivs and tax avoiders are given a free pass to continue on their merry way whilst honest working people are sacrificed on the altar of political ideology.

For civilians working in the Ministry of Defence, it is now time to choose.

There are two stark but simple choices: –

1. Stop getting your loyalty abused and push back against those who would seek to damage your future. Our union’s Fair Deal in Defence campaign does exactly what it says on the tin. If you are with us, we will stand together and fight for fair pay, fair and decent pensions, job security and terms and conditions a modern employer should be proud to offer.
2. Accept pay restraint, pension increases and attack after attack on your job security and terms and conditions. By keeping your head down and doing nothing you signal to senior MoD management and the government that they have not gone far enough to reduce your living standards, prospects and job security. It will be a green light to impose further pay cuts, pension increases and change your conditions of service as detrimentally as they see fit. You would also be telling them that you commend them on the imposition of the new draconian Performance Management arrangements that will see 1 in 20 colleagues (that may include you) being sacked on an annual basis. You can also suggest that if there are any other employment related issues that they have not already considered reducing, changing or altering, that they consider doing this as soon as possible.

We know, from the numbers of staff simply leaving the department that many have now given up the fight. However our union is not willing to meekly throw in the towel.

If you believe that all staff, whether military or civilian, deserve a Fair Deal in Defence then our union is up for the fight. To choose any other option is unbearable, when the consequences for you, your family and our community in the future are clear.

DSG 29 May action briefing 1 - All Out On 29 May

As part of our Fair Deal in Defence campaign that is intertwined with the PCS national campaign to safeguard pay, pensions, terms and conditions, PCS Defence Sector members will take one-day strike action on Wednesday 29 May.

Our union’s general secretary, Mark Serwotka, rallied members when announcing this further wave of group action at this year's conference in Brighton. Mark praised the "magnificent" contribution members have made in the Budget Day strikes and rolling programme of group action, saying: "Our range of tactics have so far been very effective, demonstrated in efforts management have tried to make to disrupt our action."

Mark continued by talking about a 16% cut in members’ living standards over the last five years, at least another two years of a 1% pay policy in the pipeline, an unprecedented number of job cuts in the public sector, privatisation, closures, attacks on terms and conditions and pensions,

Giving up is not an option

In his opening speech at national conference, Mark said, “"This government believes it can carry on doing what it's doing without anyone stopping it. It's not going to stop unless we stop it."

"Because giving up will condemn our members and people who use our services to years and years of misery we will never get back if the government gets away with it," he said.

"With our national one day strikes, regional rolling strikes and short-term disruption we are giving it a real go and catching the employer on the back foot with our tactics. But our challenge now is to deliver a campaign that gets Francis Maude off his arse and around the negotiating table. We are in the battle of our lives but now we have to dig deep.”

Mark concluded by saying, “We need to step up our campaigning and organising and deliver our alternative. We must show real commitment and carry on fighting."

Conclusion

In the Ministry of Defence 24,000+ staff have left in little over two years. Nobody, whether it be defence ministers, senior MoD management, PCS reps or PCS members has been able to give any detail as to how the loss of these staff has been balanced by a corresponding reduction in defence outputs.

For those remaining – the survivors – the reward is attack after attack on their loyalty:

• Pay frozen for two years and now indefinitely set at rates below inflation – in other words, continuous pay cuts.
• Two pension contribution increases already with more to follow. The ‘reward’ – work longer and get less.
• Threat after threat to our terms and conditions. It has started with flexible working for new starters; if we don’t make a stand it will be attacks on flexible working for all employees, attacks on leave entitlements, attacks on sickness absence limits and many more.

Government ministers refuse to talk to our union nationally and we are treated with contempt in the MoD as we try and get a Fair deal in Defence. We now need to take strike action so that we can give every member a Fair Deal in Defence.

Fair Deal in Defence update No 12 - Work to rule action postponed whilst negotiations recommence

Since serving notice on the MoD of our intention to commence a work to rule from 9 March, we have at last received their proposals to achieve a negotiated settlement to our dispute.

Although their proposals are a step towards a solution, they do not at the moment meet our Fair Deal in Defence campaign objectives.

Departmental officials have indicated a willingness to meet again in an effort to achieve a settlement with our union. We have made clear what improvements are necessary to secure an agreement with PCS and will ensure that officials understand that a deal is achievable.

As a show of good faith, we have agreed to suspend our work to rule action while we meet again to thrash out the terms of a possible agreement. The departmental overtime ban will also be suspended.

However if no agreement is possible, our intention would be to commence the work to rule following the industrial action called on Budget day (20 March) in support of our national jobs, pay and pensions campaign.

Our Fair Deal objectives were endorsed this week by the Defence Select Committee, who said: “We are concerned that the output of the MoD and the reforms needed within the MoD are at risk because of the reductions in staff numbers required to meet the budget cuts”.

We are clearly making progress in delivering our campaign aims, but must be ready to apply further pressure if needed to secure a Fair Deal in Defence for all members.

By standing together and taking action, on Budget day and beyond, we will succeed.

Fair Deal in Defence campaign update No 11 - It's time to stand up for our interests

Our union has been in substantive negotiations since the New Year with senior departmental officials to deliver a negotiated settlement that achieves a Fair Deal in Defence for all staff.

As part of the negotiations, our union identified a number of possible solutions for each of our campaign objectives and offered a potential framework agreement to achieve a negotiated settlement to our dispute. Our discussions identified a number of areas of possible agreement, including issues where the department believed that they might already have developed solutions through other initiatives.

To apply further pressure on the department to deliver a negotiated settlement, we commenced an overtime ban across the Ministry of Defence with effect from 9 January 2013. Branches have been policing this overtime ban, with picket lines appearing in key branches to help explain the importance of the action in support of our Fair Deal campaign.

We have been told that departmental officials have drafted a letter to our union, outlining their proposals to achieve a negotiated settlement to our dispute. We have further been told that their proposals have been shared with both PUS and the Secretary of State.

However our union has received no such letter, despite regularly hastening officials. We therefore need to significantly escalate our actions, to demonstrate to the department that we are serious about our demands and we are growing increasingly impatient for a solution.

We have therefore given notice to the Permanent Secretary that our union will be starting a work to rule from Saturday 9 March 2013, in addition to the overtime ban that will continue. Details of the proposed work to rule are attached as annex A. Further, detailed, briefings will be issued to members and branches on individual elements of the work to rule shortly.

Our union takes industrial action only where other options have failed to deliver. We hope that our notice of intended action will be enough to persuade officials to deliver a negotiated settlement, but we must stand ready to deliver action if they continue to drag their feet.

Our union has given notice to the department that we will commence a work to rule across the Ministry of Defence with effect from 9 March 2013. This will run alongside the existing departmental wide overtime ban, which will continue.

Work to rule actions will consist of:

With effect from 9 March – Take your proper breaks, including:

• Meal breaks
• Rest breaks
• Rest days
• Display screen equipment breaks

With effect from 16 March – Take your proper breaks, plus work your proper hours, including:

• Work only your conditioned hours per week
• End any opt out waivers under Working Hours regulations
• Go home at a reasonable time each day
• No travelling out of normal working hours
• Establish and maintain a proper work/life balance

With effect from 23 March – Take your proper breaks and work your proper hours, plus refuse to cover the work of others, including:

• Cover only the work of your post and work appropriate to your grade
• Refuse to accept additional tasks beyond your existing agreed objectives
• Refuse to accept objectives or tasks that you are not competent, trained or resourced to deliver

With effect from 30 March - Take your proper breaks, work your proper hours, refuse to cover the work of others, plus work rigidly to laid down instructions, including:

• Comply with any laid down rules or procedures

Detailed briefings on each of these elements will be sent to branches and members in advance of these dates.

We will also be working with branches to develop measures to ensure that these actions are effective across the department.

Regional liaison officers will be available to support branches in publicizing the importance of the work to rule in all workplaces and can answer questions or concerns as they arise.

Vote Yes Yes in the national Ballot

The ballot of PCS members taking place between 8th February and 4th March is vital for the living standards of our members.

A large YES vote on a healthy turn-out would allow us to begin to redress the balance in the UK economy and secure a fair reward for the hard work civil and public servants continue to provide. 

Throughout the next few weeks we can expect the legitimacy of our demands for a pay increase – 5% of £1,200, whichever is greater – to be challenged. This newsletter is intended to deal with those challenges. 

We’re not “all in this together”! 

According to the Sunday Times Rich List the one thousand wealthiest individuals in the UK increased their wealth by £156bn or 60% in three years between 2009 and 2012. Over the same period, as a result of the public sector pay-freeze and 1% cap, your pay has lost between 16% and 25% of its value in real terms.

Fig 1 

Over the last thirty years, the highest earners have seen a disproportion-ate increase in their pay compared to average (median) and low paid workers, as this graph from the TUC demonstrates. 


Divide and rule – the oldest trick in the book 

A lot of rhetoric from our opponents seeks to pit the interests of public sector workers against private sector workers and, more recently, unemployed workers by establishing an arbitrary “1%” as the benchmark for annual uprating. The fact is, while the super rich continue to line their pockets the rest of us are all suffering. In fact, since the late 1970s when Thatcher’s attacks on the unions gathered pace the share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP – the nation’s “wealth”) paid as wages has fallen dramatically to just under 55%. 


Fig 2: UK wage share as proportion of GDP 




The “missing” 45% is largely profit and helps explain the vast sums accumulated by the people featured in the Rich List mentioned above. 


What about the workers? 

If the power of the unions had not been undermined over three decades and collective bargaining coverage in the whole UK labour market not fallen from 64% to 31% over the same period, average earnings today would likely be over £33,000 per year rather than just under £26,000 per year. 

Fig 3 



When you consider that average earnings usually equate roughly to the EO (or equivalent) scale maxima, it soon becomes clear to what extent workers, including among our membership, have lost out. Neither is this just a UK phenomenon; similar patterns are evident in most advanced industrialised countries. 

Conclusion 

Calls from leading economists on George Osborne to ditch a policy of austerity are growing and it is widely recognised that cuts in spending power are the cause of the double (soon to be triple) dip recession rather than the cure. As we have demonstrated in this newsletter, our demands for a decent pay rise are not just legitimate but necessary. 

VOTE YES/YES 

Fair Deal in Defence campaign update No 10

Since our last Fair Deal update in late December, our union has held a number of meetings with senior MoD management in the hope that we can avoid taking industrial action in order for us to achieve our Fair Deal campaign objectives.

Unfortunately, although we have made some progress and MoD management has come to the table prepared to discuss our concerns; we now have to take action to further pursue our campaign objectives.

Meetings with MoD management

The Permanent Secretary, Jon Thompson acknowledged our concerns regarding job security and overstretch, mobility and redundancy and threats to our terms and conditions in a meeting in mid December. At that meeting, we jointly agreed that further discussions with key officials could develop acceptable solutions to our key campaign objectives.

Several meetings have been held since then and these have been positive and have identified common ground that can be further developed into meaningful concessions and agreements that address our concerns and bring some relief to our union’s members.

Progress halted

We understand that PUS and the Secretary of State have now cleared a full and detailed written response, but as yet our union has not received this response.

Unfortunately the prohibitive trade union legislation in place in the UK meant that as we had not been fully successful in achieving our campaign objectives in these meetings by Monday 28 January, we had to enact our industrial action mandate. If we had not enabled it by this date, the ballot result would have been declared invalid and any action declared unlawful.

Overtime ban

Therefore, although we are making progress, we have little choice but to announce that the Defence Sector Group will start an indefinite overtime ban from 00.01 hours on Monday 4 February.

We have chosen the use of an overtime ban to start the industrial action part of our campaign, as one of the key issues we are currently discussing with MoD management is overstretch in the Ministry of Defence. The department is currently just about able to continue functioning because of overtime being worked by PCS members.

Our union believes that if all PCS members support the overtime ban, the department will very quickly reach crisis levels and we believe it will hasten an agreement between the department and ourselves on our Fair Deal objectives.

Overtime is usually voluntary and we are asking all members not to do any overtime for this indefinite period. If there is any compulsory or conditioned overtime which is counted as contractual pensionable pay, in your area, then you would still do that. If unsure, please seek advice from a PCS rep. If Saturday or Sunday working is classed as voluntary overtime, rather than part of the normal shift rota, then members should not do it.

If the employer makes any threats to deduct pay or take other punitive action as a result of the overtime ban, please contact your full time officer immediately for advice. PCS will resist any such threats.

Overtime ban picket lines

We will attempt to ensure that branches mount picket lines at defence sites that are currently offering voluntary overtime. Branches and members should report where overtime is being offered by emailing information to Tahira Hussain at tahira@pcs.org.uk.

PCS HQ will then work with the GEC, branches, reps and members to ensure we have sufficient pickets at each site with the relevant picket line materials.

Elsewhere in PCS

Defence Sector group members will have seen that last week our colleagues in DWP won guarantees that remove the threat of compulsory redundancy for 43 low-paid jobcentre and benefits staff. Similar to the Defence Sector group, DWP members had voted for industrial action but, after what officials described as "very constructive discussions", the compulsory redundancy notices have been withdrawn.

Today (31 January), PCS negotiators in the Department for Transport (DfT) have called off a strike planned for tomorrow after progress in negotiations lifted the threat of compulsory redundancy for hundreds of staff.

In both of these areas, the respective departments have reaffirmed their commitment to avoiding compulsory redundancies and are now working with PCS on this. We have offered such agreements to MoD management - we can only hope that MoD management value our members in the same way as DWP and DfT members are.

Conclusion

Taking industrial action is always the last resort for our union. We recognise that losing pay at a time of pay restraint and increased pension contributions is difficult and financially painful. By starting our industrial action programme with an overtime ban, we hope to ease those difficulties whilst putting maximum pressure on the department.

Threats to job security, mobility and our terms and conditions allied to further pay restraint, further pension contribution increases and more and more privatisation proposals that will bring a much worse support to the front line is what we face if we don’t stand together.

It is time to stand up and be counted. Do not work overtime and fight for a Fair Deal in Defence.

Fair Deal ballot briefing 2 – Vote YES/YES for an end to privatisation

A key objective of our Fair Deal campaign is to stop privatisation in the Ministry of Defence and to review all previous transfers of work. In our recent consultative ballot, 98% of members agreed with our fight against privatisation.

History has shown us that our job security, pay and terms and conditions are all under threat following privatisation. Since the 1980s the UK’s public services have been under constant threat from privatisation, despite growing evidence that it leads to worsened services, higher costs, fatter profits and a greater risk of failure.

This political ideology has seen the energy and transport sectors deregulated, resulting in continuing price rises well in excess of inflation. While the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) sees areas such as the NHS, education and our own department locked into 20 - 30 year contracts, with taxpayers stuck with huge, on-going spending commitments – often for items, sites or services that are no longer required.

However, just like the casino bankers who caused the financial crisis, the risks associated with PFI have not transferred to the private sector. The UK taxpayer bails out PFI failures (of which there are an increasing number) as essential public services cannot be allowed to fail. Like the major banks, it would be impossible to conceive of an NHS Trust or school being allowed to go under.

MoD privatisation

We have seen more than our fair share of privatisation in our department. Introduced as part of moving from a provider to a decider role, the outcome has been to lose our ability to act as an intelligent customer and to hold companies to account. This puts providers in a ‘no lose’ situation, charging exorbitant fees to support the front line.

The sale of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency is the most glaring example of dubious privatisation. The setting up of a public/private partnership called QinetiQ made 10 senior civil servants multi-millionaires, as their total personal investment of £540,000 turned into £107 million, whilst a National Audit Office review concluded that the taxpayer lost “tens of millions” on the sale.

Failure follows failure

Europe’s largest IT privatisation, the Defence Information Infrastructure project (DII), was predicted to cost £2.3bn over 10 years. Since then, costs have risen to some £10bn, or £1bn a year, for a service that is barely adequate running software described as ‘the least secure on the planet’ (Internet Explorer 6, launched in 2001). As you wait to log on in the morning, browse the internet, or save a file, you can decide whether the service we get from DII is worth nearly £3M a day.

After the G4S failure at the Olympics, where our armed forces had to step in to save the day, we might have thought that privatisation would have had its day. But some in MoD persevere, with the latest proposal being the planned privatisation of Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S). Our union believes the GoCo proposals will be costly and extremely risky, with the potential of conflict of interests with major suppliers and our international partners being unwilling to share their technical knowledge, specifications and classified information with a privatised DE&S.

Pensions and Privatisation

Every time the value of our pension decreases, a private company bidding for MoD work will not need to bid as much to take over that work. So, for example, at Abbey Wood we estimate that staff there have lost over £14M from the value of their pensions in the current year alone. Thus any company bidding to take on the proposed GoCo will be getting a workforce at £14m cheaper than last year. 

Conclusion 

Privatisation of defence services has failed. Costs and risks have increased, while contractors have grown fat on regular contracts and payments from the MoD. While for staff, time and time again privatisation leads to lower pay, worsened job security and a degradation of terms and conditions.

The Ministry of Defence has become more and more dependant on the private sector supporting the front line, with no fall back capability should things go wrong.

We believe its time to look again at whether privatisation is the answer and to review all existing and proposed contracts to ensure that they are delivering for defence.

By voting YES/YES in our statutory ballot, we can send a powerful message that privatisation should be taken off the agenda in our department, whilst those staff who remain committed to supporting defence should be guaranteed a Fair Deal.

The statutory ballot runs from 19^th November to 5^th December. If you haven’t received a ballot paper by 27^th November, then please contact the group office on 0207 801 2634/2645.