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Build for a real fight for pay and conditions

Vote No to the
DWP pay deal

he PCS DWP Group Executive

Committee voted recently by
17 votes to nine to accept
the employee deal on offer from
management.
While the deal does include substantial
pay increases for some members of staff,
though not all, it also contains detrimental
changes to terms and conditions that will
affect everybody.
Nobody could object to the
Departments decision to increase the pay
of those not on the max by substantial
amounts and to resolve the issue of pay
progressionwhich is long overdue.
But there are problems with the deal.
The strings attached at the insistence
of the Treasury will see hours worked
increase to 8am-8pm and Saturday
working as part of the normal working
week.
Although 22 percent of staff are already
on these contracts, in most cases they have
never been enforced.
Where they have, such as in CMG,
extra hours working allowance has been
paid. This is now to end in 2019.

Restricted

For staff on the max of their pay scales,

the increases are only marginally above
the Tories1 percent pay limit.
Although an opt out has been
negotiated, this will see pay restricted to
0.25 percent for the four years of the deal.
This is no choice at all and as these will
be older staff, this will also depress the
amount of their pensions.
The deal also does nothing to address
the eight years of 1 percent imposed pay
deals under the governments of Gordon
Brown, the coalition and now the Tories.
It is right lower paid staff should move
to the max. but that max is considerably
lower than it should be.
After four years staff will be slightly
higher paid than HMRC staff are, but they
have had their pay held down for years
too.

Pay parity between departments has

long been PCS policy but with thousands
of HMRC staff due to transfer into DWP
it is noticeable their pay is liable to be less
than the Tories 1 percent pay cap.
Nobody wants to bring about pay parity
by depressing other workers pay rates.
In reality the government is vulnerable.
The changes to working conditions are
all related to the roll out of its flagship
welfare reform, Universal Credit.
This will incorporate in-work as well
as out of work benefits and the need to
provide a service for people in work.

Weak

The transfer of thousands of better paid

workers from HMRC would have seen the
potential for further disruption hence the
governments desire to bring pay rates into
line.
With junior doctors, teachers and
indeed other civil servants planning
industrial action, the government is weak.
George Osborne has had to retreat over
much of his budget and the Tories are at
each others throats over Europe.
Further disruption to the roll out of
Universal Credit which is already years
overdue and hundreds of millions of
pounds over budget means they can be
beaten.
This will however mean a serious

campaign of industrial action to defend

working conditions and to win the
pay increase for all that PCS members
working in DWP deserve.
The pay offer proves the money is there.
Lets fight for it without the detrimental
changes to out terms and conditions.
The first stage of this must be to vote
No in the forthcoming ballot.

Back Welsh
indefinite strike
Museum workers in Wales have begun
an indefinite strike.
The members of the PCS union are
fighting bosses plans to slash weekend
premium pay rates for low-paid workers.
Workers were told that they had to
accept limited compensation for the
loss of extra weekend pay.
The other alternative management
gave them was to face dismissal and
then re-apply for their jobs without any
compensation!
lSend a message of support to PCS
branch chair Neil Harrison at tubz1917@
live.com or branch secretary Peter Hill at
dennishill20@hotmail.com
lSign the petition for fair pay at
bit.ly/1W2tavK
lDonation details at bit.ly/24huqOv

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