PCS - The government risks abandoning the regions, union warns

Wednesday, 7 July 2010 12:00 AM

The government risks abandoning the regions, union warns

Regional services will be put at risk if the government's plan to abolish its network of offices goes ahead, the Public and Commercial Services union warns.

The 1,700 staff in the nine Government Offices across the UK learned today (7 July) that communities and local government secretary Eric Pickles was seeking ministers' views on their abolition.

Despite the government claiming it is consulting the public on cuts, the decision has been taken without any consultation with those who will be affected and puts at risk the vital services the offices provide, including child protection and co-ordinating responses to natural disasters.

The Government Offices have built up expertise and strong working relationships with charities and local authorities at a regional level, and removing them will make it more difficult and more expensive to deliver these services.

The news comes as more than 100 senior PCS reps and officials meet to discuss reaction to the most draconian public spending cuts in living memory, and a day after the government announced it intends to change the law to get round a High Court ruling that cuts to existing civil servants' redundancy terms were unlawful.

Reps will discuss how proposed cuts to the compensation scheme fit in with the wider issues of threats to jobs, pay and pensions, and feedback will be presented to the union's national executive committee next week to help frame how PCS responds legally, industrially and politically.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "This announcement again nails the lie to the government's claim that it is consulting the public about cuts. No one has been asked their view on this, instead it is presented as a fait accompli.

"We stand ready to talk to the government about the alternative to public spending cuts, but if it refuses to listen we will not hold back from launching the widest possible resistance in our workplaces and our communities."

ENDS

Notes

- For information and interview requests, contact PCS national press officer Richard Simcox on 020 7801 2747 or 07833 978216

- The Public and Commercial Services union represents civil and public servants in central government. It has more than 300,000 members in over 200 departments and agencies. It also represents workers in parts of government transferred to the private sector. PCS is the UK's fifth largest union and is affiliated to the TUC. The general secretary is Mark Serwotka and the president is Janice Godrich

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