Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude’s announcement that civil service redundancy pay would be capped at a level lower even than the rest of the public sector, represents an attack on not just civil servants, but all public sector workers.
And to get around the uncomfortable situation that the law currently protects civil servants from having their contracts torn up in this way, he also said the government intends to legislate to allow it to happen. This would be a gross abuse of power.
Maude claimed, disgracefully, that this was only necessary because my union, the Public and Commercial Services union, proved twice in the High Court that it was unlawful for the government to cut terms for existing staff without their agreement.
The government is unique as an employer – no other boss would be able to make new laws simply because the existing ones make it impossible to impose its will on staff. This is a shameful way to conduct industrial relations and it makes having strong unions in the civil service doubly important.
We see through this vindictive attack and understand that the real question is: Why are the Tories’ proposals so much worse than the previous government’s if Maude truly believes that his actions ‘might not have been necessary’ were it not for our court victory?
Given the Tories have long said civil service redundancy terms should be brought more into line with the private sector, it is almost a certainty that this is what they would have done anyway.
Yes the Tories’ plans are a disgrace. But if cuts to contractual rights are wrong under the Tories, they were wrong under Labour.
This has nothing to do with “fairness”, it is about realising an ideological ambition of the old Tory right to dismantle the welfare state piece by piece. There would be no plan to save money on redundancy pay without a plan – the detail of which has not been shared with the public or the unions – to make job cuts on an unprecedented scale.
If they get away with this, it would lay waste to communities across the UK where people rely on the services that our members and other public servants provide.
Many serious economists are urging the government not to cut because it will drive us back into recession and drive more people into poverty.
We have said ministers should come and talk to us to negotiate any changes to redundancy pay – in fact, we offered fresh talks immediately after the High Court ruling, but received only the most cursory response, and then heard nothing more until this week’s unilateral announcement.
We would also like to discuss the alternative to cuts, such as the billions of pounds in uncollected tax, and public sector investment to drive the economy.
Let us turn any anger that is out there into the widest possible opposition against this coalition government, which appears intent on making low-paid public servants pay for a crisis caused by bankers and traders.
Mark Serwotka is general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union
