Imagine your members had taken 6 days strike action and lost 6 day’s pay already with another one day strike called for August. Imagine that sacrifice had led nowhere, no improved pay offer and the Tories had sat it out just like they have always sat out one and two day strikes. That would be the situation now if our opponents, the Broad Left Network and Independent Left, had been in charge of the NEC and leading our national pay campaign. At every NEC meeting and at every turn in the campaign they have called for more and more one day strikes. Imagine how disheartened the membership would be.
Instead following 8 months of highly successful targeted action and just three 1 day national strikes by PCS members during our national campaign, the union is stronger than ever before. More members have joined the union. Many members have become new reps in offices. Hundreds of new mainly young activists have got involved. Groups previously not at the national forefront of the union like DfT and EFRA have delivered big contributions to our fight with solid targeted action.
Many long serving union members will remember past campaigns over the last 40 years that relied on one day strikes. Those campaigns never won, and our best reps swore never again to a campaign of one day strikes that meant members had to lose a day’s pay and do 5 day’s work in 4 days.
Left Unity members on the NEC devised and planned both the levy and the very popular strategy of targeted action alongside national action. On a day-to-day basis it was led and implemented by Paul O’Connor, the Secretary to the National Disputes Committee and the Left Unity candidate in the Assistant General Secretary election.
Supported with full strike pay, members across the union working in the DWP, HMRC, Passport Offices, Border Control, Airports, DVLA, DEFRA, Land Registry and many more, have caused massive disruption to their employers.
The Left Unity led NEC called on all members to make the sacrifice of a one-day strike just three times when it could have the most impact alongside other workers in dispute on the same day as teachers and NHS staff.
As a result of this Left Unity strategy our union has made real progress and for the first time ever our union has won significant concessions from the Tories. This is the first time ever that we have won concessions on pay centrally from any government due to an industrial action campaign. On every previous occasion the Tories have refused to shift and insisted that all talks must be at departmental level. This winning strategy was devised by Left Unity.
The key points won by the campaign are –
- A £1,500 non-consolidated cost-of-living payment, this is in line with payments offered to other public sector workers.
- A 4.5% pay increase with an extra 0.5% for the lowest paid. This is more than double the Tories original offer of 2%. Early indications are that, in major departments of state, the employer is looking to do even better than the 5% for the lowest paid.
- On redundancy pay through the Civil Service Compensation Scheme, the government has confirmed that it will not take any action or make any changes until 2025, in effect after the next general election. Members’ strike action has successfully blocked the government’s attempted 33% cut of the terms of the CSCS.
- The government has given a commitment to further talks on greater coherence of pay within the civil service. This is a significant step on what has been a long-term aspiration for our union for 20 years. National pay bargaining is the only way to end poverty pay and discrimination in delegated pay, to address a pay system which is fundamentally broken. Talks are expected to begin imminently.
- The government also gave a further commitment to more talks on strengthening redundancy avoidance measures.
- On pensions, the government has refused to discuss our members’ overpayments and other issues while the current legal action is ongoing. We have been given leave to appeal the High Court decision and our advice is that we have a good case. We can return to the issue at that point.
In past pay campaigns, members have lost several day’s pay and won little or nothing. A Left Unity led strategy of mainly targeted action on full strike pay has made sure members lost little pay and won pay increases of at least 4.5% and £1,500 plus stopping the attack on our redundancy scheme.
Left Unity Consulted members
These concessions are welcomed by Left Unity and by PCS members, however, concessions are what they are, and this is not a victory. They fall short of the demands in our national campaign and there are serious issues with some of the concessions made by the government. We should be proud of what our members have won but we also know it is less than we would like.
Nevertheless, Left Unity members on the NEC recognised the concessions as significant, and believe that it was therefore correct to consult members about them.
Those members’ consultation meetings were well attended. Part time and women members have made clear their opposition to the £1,500 being paid pro rata. Left Unity agrees this is not fair and negotiators continue to argue for full payment to all members.
Members in these meetings also agreed with Left Unity that whilst the concessions were significant, they are not yet enough. Crucially though, very few members were ready to take further unpaid national strike action at this point in the campaign.
Of the 163 branches that responded, less than half wanted to fight on, and from those that did, a number said they wanted to continue the campaign, but not take further unpaid action, and some who responded were from employer groups who had come nowhere near beating the 50% threshold.
In conclusion, the cost-of-living crisis is hitting our members hard and there is little enthusiasm for fighting on right now, if it means loss of pay. Better to pause, take stock of what delegated and national talks deliver, then review again.
Other crucial factors
Left Unity members on the NEC took members’ views expressed at these meetings into account. A number of other factors also had to be weighed up –
- The DWP is the biggest group in the union. The DWP did not win a legal mandate of over 50% of members voting in the recent re-ballot. Feedback tells us that DWP members want to pocket the £1,500.
- In HMRC the ballot mandate runs out in August. Left Unity are proud of the way HMRC reps and activists tackled the successful reballot, but balloting members during the summer holidays, at a time when more money is on offer, and members are keen to see what negotiations deliver, would not be straightforward.
- In the Home Office, the Left Unity led Group Executive Committee has won a significant negotiated offer which potentially meets our demands on pay. Home Office members will want this money.
- The targeted action strategy devised by Left Unity has won the concessions we have secured. Using the money generated by the levy, we have spent £6 million from the fighting fund. To mount significant further targeted action would mean increasing the levy. The alternative option to increasing the levy is much more unpaid strike action.
With no mandate in DWP currently, one about to expire in HMRC and the Home Office achieving a negotiated deal which meets our demands on pay, alongside MOJ and DSG members not currently with a mandate for action, further national action would be smaller and less impactful than any action taken previously. What message does that send about our ability to deliver and put pressure on the government to return with a better offer?
Hard decisions
On the one hand, Left Unity has led a successful national campaign that has won significant, important and welcome concessions. Whilst they are welcome the concessions won so far do fall short of our demands. On the other hand, mounting further targeted or national unpaid strike action now, did not have members support in the feedback from the members meetings.
This means the NEC had to make hard decisions. The instinct of every socialist activist is to fight on. Having had thousands of members come alive on picket lines and get involved in the union, nobody wants to hold back members’ enthusiasm to fight for better pay for them and their families. Set against this instinct to fight on, Left Unity members leading the union’s NEC also knew from members’ meetings that the circumstances on the ground in offices, with no DWP mandate, an HMRC mandate about to run out, a low fighting fund and a very good offer in the Home Office, the time is not right for further escalated action now across the union.
Re-ballot and Pause for talks
Left Unity is clear that this does not mean that our national pay campaign is over. That is why the NEC is now balloting members on our proposed strategy. This ballot signals a new phase in our campaign for fair pay, pensions and jobs.
The ballot recommends a temporary pause of industrial action, similar to that being recommended by the left majority in the NEU, except for the small number of areas yet to commit to paying the £1500, while we engage in departmental talks on pay for 2023/4.
We will also pause re-ballots in pursuit of our national demands. Delegated talks are ongoing, with negotiators seeking to maximise the money delivered to the lowest paid members and address the merging of AA/AO pay scales in a number of departments, and key national talks are starting soon. Once these talks have taken place, we will reconsider next steps in the campaign.
We will continue to campaign over the unequal payment of the lump sum, including pro-rating, which penalises part-time workers, many of whom are women. We will also continue to campaign on pensions, including continuing to pursue legal action on over payments.
The ballot will be online, and it will ask members to endorse the next stage in our campaign. It will be held from 3 August to noon on 31 August for all members in employer areas within the dispute. There will be a postal ballot for those without personal email addresses.
Left Unity believes that having achieved significant concessions, and consulted members, it is correct to pause to allow further talks and take stock, while continuing to fight for members where money is being held back. A pause will also give us time to keep building the union and prepare for the next stage in the fight for better pay, pensions and jobs.
Interestingly, the left-wing Socialist Teachers Alliance is putting forward a similar view as PCS Left Unity in the teacher’s pay dispute. They have issued a leaflet saying – A ceasefire not a peace treaty – calling on teachers to, “vote for a pause, consolidate our gains and build the union.”
Left Unity urges all branches and reps to talk to your members, explain the reasons for this pause and encourage your members to vote YES in the ballot.
Our opponents have easy answers but no strategy to win
Our political opponents in the union from the Broad Left Network and the Independent Left have constantly attacked the national campaign strategy led by Left Unity.
Firstly, it is important to remember that their criticism was opposed by the PCS national conference in Brighton in May. The vast majority of reps and branches at the union’s democratic decision-making body voted to support the Left Unity strategy.
Secondly, their only alternative throughout has been to call for more and more unpaid national strike action. A strategy condemned by any experienced reps who have seen it fail in the past, as the government sits out one and two day strikes.
Thirdly, at the NEC meeting when the Left Unity majority took hard but honest decisions to ballot members on pausing the campaign, their only alternative was to call for a one day national strike in August. This would be a strategy to end the campaign in defeat and place at risk any further gains we could win.
Vote YES to take stock, but continue the fight
Left Unity is clear. We have only won what we have, because of the action we have taken, and members can be confident that campaigning works and taking action gets results. We have led a campaign that has delivered significant gains. We will focus now on areas where money is being held back, but we will continue to pursue our campaign for better pay for all of our members. Now it is time to pause for further talks at departmental and national levels. The fight is not over or ended. We will assess everything after a pause, and continue to provide honest, winning leadership.
PCS Left Unity 