The civil service needs a reformed pay bargaining process

After this year’s 2% pay cap for civil servants, news that more and more of them are skipping meals and resorting to foodbanks, it is clear it is time for a reformed pay bargaining process for the Civil Service.

The civil service employs around half a million people across the UK. They range from Whitehall mandarins to work coaches in the DWP, to prison officers in the Ministry of Justice. These are people carrying out vital services. The long-term trajectory of pay settlements in the civil service is a clear example of the low-pay approach of the Tories.

What we are witnessing is an intentional and systematic attack on pay and conditions in the civil service.  Salaries have fallen by between 12% and 23% in real terms at each grade of the civil service since 2010. Evidence from Prospect trade union reveals that since 2010-11 a civil servant on a median wage has lost around £10,600.

This is only getting worse. Civil servants had a 2% pay cap imposed on them in this current pay year. That’s more than 10% below the rate of inflation. The extent of the low pay agenda of this Conservative government is laid bare by the high number of civil service staff who are in receipt of the minimum wage. It is a travesty that over a quarter of DWP staff are paid so little that it is the national living wage floor increase this April, which will push their salaries up.

When they contract work, many government departments insist that people get paid at least the real living wage, as determined by the Living Wage Foundation, but the civil service itself point blank refuses to guarantee civil servants the same.

The current situation is having a significantly detrimental impact upon civil service staff. A survey of its members conducted by the PCS union found almost nine in ten said the cost-of-living crisis has impacted upon their mental and physical health and over half of members feared losing their home. Almost a fifth said they’d missed work because they couldn’t afford transport. And the union also estimates around 40,000 civil servants use foodbanks and 47,000 claim universal credit. This inevitably hinders the delivery of an efficient service.

Poor pay, terms and conditions within the civil service are resulting in recruitment and retention problems which in turn is costly for the government.Turnover in the civil service is the highest it has been for a decade. The PCS survey found that over a third of members were considering a career change and looking for employment outside the civil service. The recruitment and retention of specialist staff is a particular cause for concern. The National Audit Office and others have described how a lack of specialist skills in areas from digital to finance has contributed to delays, cost overruns and operational failures.

Research commissioned by fellow unions Prospect and the FDA this year concluded that to ensure the civil service can recruit and retain the right numbers of staff, it is essential that the government urgently addresses the poor levels of civil service pay. This is why civil service staff have been driven to take industrial action. Nobody takes the decision to take industrial action lightly and it is very much a last resort. This is not a choice. It is a necessity.

Since December PCS has been engaged in a series of targeted industrial action across many departments including DEFRA, DVLA, DWP, Border Force. And that is why we will see over 130,000 civil servants take strike action on budget day next week to make this government listen and improve its offer. But PCS are not alone. Prospect and the fast streamers organised by the FDA have also now voted for industrial action.

The ball is in the government’s court and there are a number of issues I believe the government must address. The government must commit to holding constructive talks with the PCS to resolve this current dispute.

First, we need to see an audit of pay differentials, impacting gender and ethnicity, across employment grades and departments. Second, we need to see an audit of pay differentials at the same employment grades, across departments. Third, we need to see agencies grouped around their main government department to harmonise pay arrangements and reduce duplication of administration. Fourth, we need to see an acceptance of the need for pay remits which move the civil service towards national pay rates, which will establish moving floors at different grades and the safeguarding of differentials between grades. And fifth, this should be a step on the way to the reestablishment of a national pay bargaining process that ends the refusal to negotiate with trade unions.

In addition to these structural reforms, Jeremy Hunt must announce in the budget next week a revision of the 2022-23 Civil Service Pay Remit, that understands a 10% rise and a Living Wage of at least £15 per hour is affordable, achievable, and does not require a reduction in service provision. It is time for a reformed pay bargaining process for the Civil Service, and across the public sector, and an end to the Conservative low-pay agenda of holding down public sector pay.