By Jaimie Kaffash
11 December 2009
Unions are considering legal action against the government over reform of the Civil Service Compensation Scheme, branding the changes as another example of politicians making public workers an ‘easy target’.
The changes, announced by Cabinet Office minister Tessa Jowell on 4 December, will come into effect on April 1, 2010. They will limit compulsory redundancy payouts to two-years salary for workers earning more than £25,000 a year and three-years salary or £50,000 – whichever is less – for those earning less than £25,000. Workers who return to the civil service after being made redundant will have to pay back redundancy on a pro rata basis.
Jowell said the current system wasn’t ‘appropriate for the modern civil service’ and the changes would help to achieve £500m savings over three years.
A Cabinet Office spokeswoman said: ‘The existing terms of the Civil Service Compensation Scheme are expensive and substantially more generous than those generally available in the wider public and the private sectors.’
But unions are considering legal action. The Public and Commercial Services union said the changes ‘will see staff robbed of entitlements’. It added there had not been any consultation with unions, which is contrary to ministerial promises to find a negotiated settlement.
PCS communications officer Alex Flynn said the reforms were an unfair attack on civil service workers.
‘The civil service has been an easy target,’ he told Public Finance. ‘We’ve had the Gershon [efficiency programme], where we have lost 100,000 civil servants, we’ve had politicians branding civil servants “faceless bureaucrats”, despite the majority of them working on the front line. We’ve had politicians from all sides trying to outbid each other on who can cut the most, so this has to be seen in that context.
‘In some ways, the government is doing the Tories’ dirty work for them.’
Senior civil servants union, the FDA, said that there had been ‘little meaningful dialogue’ and the announcement reneged on a commitment given by Jowell in September to find an agreement. Dave Penman, the FDA’s head of operations, said: ‘Unfortunately, we are now left with no option but to consider legal action to enforce what we believe are our members' accrued rights to the current terms.’
He added that some changes, including those for the lowest paid and workers approaching retirement, were welcome, ‘which makes it all the more disappointing that a negotiated settlement was not the priority’.
But the Cabinet Office spokeswoman said there had been consultation. ‘From the beginning, the Cabinet Office has been clear about the process. We put our proposals to the unions formally on July 31 in the document Fairness for all and asked for the unions’ formal response,’ she said.
11 December 2009
Unions are considering legal action against the government over reform of the Civil Service Compensation Scheme, branding the changes as another example of politicians making public workers an ‘easy target’.
The changes, announced by Cabinet Office minister Tessa Jowell on 4 December, will come into effect on April 1, 2010. They will limit compulsory redundancy payouts to two-years salary for workers earning more than £25,000 a year and three-years salary or £50,000 – whichever is less – for those earning less than £25,000. Workers who return to the civil service after being made redundant will have to pay back redundancy on a pro rata basis.
Jowell said the current system wasn’t ‘appropriate for the modern civil service’ and the changes would help to achieve £500m savings over three years.
A Cabinet Office spokeswoman said: ‘The existing terms of the Civil Service Compensation Scheme are expensive and substantially more generous than those generally available in the wider public and the private sectors.’
But unions are considering legal action. The Public and Commercial Services union said the changes ‘will see staff robbed of entitlements’. It added there had not been any consultation with unions, which is contrary to ministerial promises to find a negotiated settlement.
PCS communications officer Alex Flynn said the reforms were an unfair attack on civil service workers.
‘The civil service has been an easy target,’ he told Public Finance. ‘We’ve had the Gershon [efficiency programme], where we have lost 100,000 civil servants, we’ve had politicians branding civil servants “faceless bureaucrats”, despite the majority of them working on the front line. We’ve had politicians from all sides trying to outbid each other on who can cut the most, so this has to be seen in that context.
‘In some ways, the government is doing the Tories’ dirty work for them.’
Senior civil servants union, the FDA, said that there had been ‘little meaningful dialogue’ and the announcement reneged on a commitment given by Jowell in September to find an agreement. Dave Penman, the FDA’s head of operations, said: ‘Unfortunately, we are now left with no option but to consider legal action to enforce what we believe are our members' accrued rights to the current terms.’
He added that some changes, including those for the lowest paid and workers approaching retirement, were welcome, ‘which makes it all the more disappointing that a negotiated settlement was not the priority’.
But the Cabinet Office spokeswoman said there had been consultation. ‘From the beginning, the Cabinet Office has been clear about the process. We put our proposals to the unions formally on July 31 in the document Fairness for all and asked for the unions’ formal response,’ she said.
