The late British general Sir Walter Walker’s robust views on the civil service came to mind this week as a two-day strike disrupted court hearings, jobcentres, driving tests and the operations of both the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly.
Walker, speaking in 1981, suggested that: ‘Britain has invented a new missile. It’s called the civil servant – it doesn’t work and it can’t be fired.’
With up to 200,000 civil servants engaged in the industrial action, little work certainly took place. And, if a Policy Exchange report is to be believed, the firing of mandarins is still a tricky manoeuvre. Apparently, there were fewer than 100 compulsory redundancies between 2005 and 2008.
But the oft-heard tales of feather-bedded civil servants ticking off the days until they retire in gold-plated luxury are far from the truth. Last year, the average annual civil service salary was only £22,850 and the average pension £6,700.
Workloads are also mounting, with the recession and banking crisis taking their toll on public servants. At the Treasury, particularly, there is talk of ‘overstretch and burnout’ (see page 10).
And life on the front line is likely to get tougher still. The strike, organised by the Public and Commercial Services union, concerned government plans to rip up contracts and cut redundancy payments to save £500m.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Gordon Brown confirmed that the pay of senior civil servants would be frozen, along with that of military top brass, the judiciary and higher-grade NHS managers. This should save £3bn by 2013/14.
So, there should be sympathy for the plight of many Whitehall staff. However, there also needs to be a dose of realism.
The FDA union, which represents top civil servants, described the pay freeze as a ‘mean-spirited gesture’. But one can only wonder what the alternative scenario would be. In the current climate, a pay freeze can be seen as the least worst option. With thousands of redundancies planned across local government and the NHS, Whitehall casualties can’t be far behind.
When Chancellor Alistair Darling delivers his third, and possibly final, Budget on March 24 he will need to find every penny he can. If a pay freeze results in fewer redundancies and less disrupted services, it could be a price worth paying.
And, if high earners – both private and public – are seen to lead from the front, then we might emerge from the battles to come with a lot less collateral damage.
Mike Thatcher is the editor of Public Finance
