05 December 2008
By Tash Shifrin Money from efficiency savings will be ‘recycled’ into civil servants’ pay as part of a deal with the Public and Commercial Services union to call off strikes originally set for this month. The deal, ratified by the PCS executive at a meeting on December 2, follows Chancellor Alistair Darling’s announcement in the Pre-Budget Report that the public sector must produce a further £5bn efficiency savings on top of the £30bn target already set for the three years to 2010/11. The PCS suspended a national strike set for November 10 to allow for talks after Cabinet secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell agreed that it could extend the period for which its ballot was valid by 28 days, allowing union members to strike in December. But the deal means that the industrial action has been called off. O’Donnell wrote to the union on December 1 confirming that Yvette Cooper, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, had agreed ‘some flexibility to recycle efficiency savings into pay’. This would be introduced into civil service pay guidance for 2009/10, with a rider that this must be used ‘in support of significant workforce reform’. But the letter adds: ‘Any reform or improvement to the pay of staff will need to be funded from within existing budget settlements and be consistent with the government public pay policy.’ The PCS hailed the national agreement as ‘a breakthrough’, although this year’s pay claim is not yet settled and will be subject to negotiations in individual departments and agencies. General secretary Mark Serwotka said: ‘Over the coming weeks and months we will be ensuring that this agreement produces better pay for the low- paid civil and public servants who deliver the everyday things we take for granted.’ The union was ‘seeking to address our remaining concerns over pay through further talks’, he added. These negotiations are set to cover performance pay, pay progression, regional pay and reducing the number of bargaining areas. NHS members of trade union Unite staged a work-to-rule day on December 3, in protest at the three-year pay deal that was accepted by other NHS unions earlier this year. Unite’s 100,000 NHS members rejected the package, worth around 8% over three years, in a ballot.
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