PCS - Union brings reps together to plan response to cuts

Wednesday, 7 July 2010 12:00 AM

More than 100 senior reps and officials of the Public and Commercial Services union are meeting today (7 July) to discuss reaction to the most draconian public spending cuts in living memory.

The meeting comes 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.

The union has warned that the drastic cuts to redundancy pay, under the civil service compensation scheme, would pave the way for mass job losses that will damage the essential services that its members provide to the public.

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: "The coalition government has wasted no time in setting about dismantling the public sector piece by piece, so we're wasting no time in planning how to fight back.

"We have always said we are willing to negotiate and reach agreement, but when jobs, pay, pensions and now civil servants' contracts are under attack, we will have to plan for industrial, political and community campaigns on a scale not seen for decades."

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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