THIS week, at both the Wales TUC conference and our own annual delegate conference, PCS will be taking further steps to challenge the Westminster government’s attack on public-sector workers’ livelihoods.

At the PCS conference in Brighton, our national executive committee (NEC) is seeking conference’s support to launch an industrial action ballot in pursuit of our national pay campaign. 

The union submitted a pay claim in January for a fully funded 5 per cent or £1,200 pay rise, a living wage of £10 an hour, pay equality across the Civil Service and a common pay and grading structure. 

This follows nearly eight years in which our members, in common with other public-sector workers, had their pay frozen for two years and were then subjected to a 1 per cent cap on annual pay increases.

The pay cap has caused considerable hardship, reducing the value of average pay in the Civil Service by up to 9 per cent against inflation. 

The value of average earnings in the Civil Service has fallen even further than in the rest of the public sector and in the economy as a whole. If the pay cap continues until 2020, average Civil Service pay will have fallen in value by 12 per cent if the consumer price index (CPI) is used to measure inflation and 20.4 per cent if the retail price index (RPI) is used. 

The Cabinet Office finally agreed to meet PCS just before Easter to discuss the union’s claim. When ministers sent their formal response, however, they said that the PCS claim “runs counter to the 1 per cent budgeted amount set out in the current spending review period,” implying that the pay cap, while officially abandoned, very much continues to dictate what our members will be offered by the employer. 

It looks, therefore, as if PCS members will not benefit from the greater flexibility on pay — however limited that may be when scrutinised closely — that has been applied to other parts of the public sector, such as health and local government. 

And, while talks are set to continue for the time being, our expectation is that little progress will be forthcoming and we will therefore need to apply pressure on the Westminster government through a programme of industrial action.

The union has already held an indicative ballot, towards the end of last year, to seek members’ support for our national pay campaign and their willingness to take industrial action if necessary. 

There was overwhelming support for both propositions, but the turnout fell just short of the 50 per cent threshold introduced by the draconian Trade Union Act in 2016. 

Immediately following conference, therefore, all of our branch activists and full-time officers will be mobilised to deliver a clear mandate for action that will meet the necessary standard and prepare the ground for the next stage of our campaign. 

The only significant area excluded from our forthcoming ballot will be the Scottish devolved sector, where the Scottish government has decided to fund pay offers well over the rate of inflation, delivering increases of 4 per cent or more for most of our members for whom they have responsibility. 

The Welsh government, while opposing the de facto 1 per cent pay cap, says that it cannot afford to pay wage increases much in excess of that figure as long as its funding from Westminster remains as tightly restricted as it has been in recent years.  

PCS has long campaigned against the underfunding of Welsh public services by the Westminster government — both the savage cuts imposed under the Tory austerity programme since 2010 and the longer-term structural shortfall resulting from the inadequacies of the Barnett formula. 

One of our two motions to the Wales TUC conference, now composited with a similar motion from Unison, therefore attempts to build a united trade union campaign within the Welsh devolved sector for sufficient funding to meet the needs of Wales. 

This would be based on an agreed calculation of the additional resources required to deliver a 5 per cent or £1,200 pay increase for all workers in the devolved public sector. 

We are seeking agreement that all Wales TUC affiliates should campaign around such a figure and attempt to secure a commitment from the Welsh government and other politicians to demand the necessary additional funds from Westminster and, in the meantime, to seek ways to break the pay cap without cutting jobs and services.

The other PCS motion at Wales TUC conference condemns the DWP proposal to shut offices in Caerphilly, Cwmbran, Merthyr, Newport and Cardiff, transferring the 1,700 jobs involved to a new site in Treforest. 

This plan undermines the commitment of the Wales TUC and Welsh government to secure “better jobs, closer to home,” threatening to take much-needed work out of already deprived communities. 

The additional journey time entailed by the proposed move means that a high proportion of current staff would be unable to transfer to the new site, yet the department is apparently willing to dispense with the vital expertise they have built up.

MPs, Assembly members and local councillors for the areas involved are up in arms over the DWP announcement and are working closely with PCS in a bid to halt the plan and keep offices and jobs in their current locations.   

The situation is a further reminder of the Westminster government’s callous disregard for communities, local services and its own staff, but, as with the pay campaign, PCS is determined to fight for a just and socially rational outcome. 
      
Shavanah Taj is PCS Wales secretary.