This campaign was started by a number of branches who do not accept that the proposals from the government are an adequate settlement to end the current dispute. We agreed to launch a broad, branch based campaign in order to express this position and campaign for a rejection of the proposals and a continuation of the national dispute.

We have drafted the statement below for branches to propose to their Branch Executive and Members meetings, to join the campaign.

We encourage members and reps to take this to their branches, pass it and join-us.

Once you have done so, please let us know at join@pcssayno.co.uk.

We, the undersigned Branches, note that:

  1. The package of measures announced by the Government on 2nd June, was not an offer to PCS and was not conditional on PCS calling a halt to its campaign to secure, most importantly, a 10% consolidated cost of living increase in pay backdated to 2022/23 and an underpin of £15 per hour.
  2. The 2023/24 Pay remit headline figure was sharply criticised by the PCS leadership and by Early Day Motion (1097) for being below the rate of inflation. Further, it is not clear that the 4.5% plus 0.5% will be funded by HMT additional to existing departmental budgets and if it is not that will result in job loss and increased work pressure.
  3. The discretion to enable departments to make a fixed non-consolidated payment of £1,500, while a welcome unconditional achievement of our campaign, has many weaknesses. For example:

    • It does not add a penny to our salaries and the 2023 pay awards will be based on the poor pay rates established in 2022.
    • It will leave our low paid members stranded on desperately low pay.
    • Departments are free to pay civil servants working part time, overwhelmingly female, on a pro rata basis.
    • It will not count towards pension, redundancy, or overtime calculations.
    • It is left to local PCS negotiators to persuade management teams not to impose conditions on payment, but they have government permission to do so. This is an equality issue.
    • The lump sum will only be paid to members in the civil service on 31 March 2023 and who remain in the CS on the date of payment.
    • Delegated bargaining units are not required to offer an option for members to take the lump sum in a manner that will reduce the amount of Universal Credit they will lose.
    • Unlike similar payments to other parts of the public sector, central government is not providing additional funding for the lump sum.
  4. There is little meaningful progress on job security and nothing at all on the reduction of our pension contributions and repayment for the overcharging to date.

We therefore call on the NEC to:

  1. To regain and renew legal mandates for strike action.
  2. Call national action involving all bargaining groups with a current live legal mandate for strike action.
  3. Draw up and implement a programme of national and selective strike action, showing tactical flexibility and not ruling out any particular form of industrial action.

    We commit to campaigning for a “No” vote in the event of the NEC balloting members to end our campaign and strike action for our pay demands.