Join the discussion – you can comment below each post

Thursday 20 July 2017

PCS court victory - the General Secretary's view

PCS has won a highly significant judicial review ruling that our exclusion from the negotiations over the civil service redundancy scheme was "unlawful". 

Last year the government proposed to cut redundancy pay by around 30%. With thousands of civil service jobs under threat, PCS campaigned against the cuts to these payments. Before negotiations started, the Cabinet Office took the unprecedented step of asking all unions to agree, in advance, that these cuts would form the basis of the final agreement. By far the largest civil service union, PCS refused to agree these preconditions, and was excluded from the talks.

A number of smaller civil service unions agreed to the preconditions and talks went ahead. In September 2016, the Cabinet Office made an offer, which PCS members voted by 96% to reject. The government imposed the new terms in November 2016.

On Tuesday 18 July the court ruled that our exclusion from the negotiations was "unlawful". Further details of the case are reported on our website. The Court is expected to rule this week on the remedy of the case, which will determine whether the current scheme will stand or will be quashed.

Mark Serwotka
General Secretary

No comments:

Post a Comment

We welcome comments, including constructive disagreement, that are made in a comradely manner. Abuse and spam will be blocked.