On the go: The civil service and related public sector areas are set to vote on industrial action over pay, pensions and redundancy terms this autumn.
Delegates at a Brighton conference held by the Public and Commercial Services Union, which is the largest civil service union, agreed to hold a national statutory ballot in September.
The union said in January 2022 that its members have been forced to overpay into their civil service pensions over the past couple of years and have “lost” an average £1,000.
A cut in employee contributions was due to happen nearly three years ago following the 2019 valuation of the Civil Service Pension Scheme, but the government has now dropped this reform following the McCloud judgment.
This is in addition to the PCS’s demands for double-digit pay and safeguards over redundancy terms.
The union is concerned that a 2 per cent pay offer for civil service employees is not enough during the cost of living crisis when inflation is almost five times that rate, and is also criticising changes to the compensation scheme as well as cutting 91,000 jobs.
The ballot in September will take account of the outcome of the PSC’s recent consultative ballot on pay, in which 97 per cent of members were in support of the union’s national campaign and 81 per cent were willing to take industrial action if negotiations do not deliver a fair deal. The turnout was 45 per cent.
The PCS national executive committee’s motion stated that members’ difficulties are “further compounded by the ongoing pensions robbery”, and the “refusal of the government to remedy the cost-cap breach in relation to civil service pensions”.
Some years ago the government set up a cost-control mechanism for public service pension schemes to ensure a fair balance of risks between scheme members and the taxpayer.
The employer cost cap for the Civil Service Pension Scheme was set at 18.5 per cent of pay following the 2012 valuation, but the scheme came out at 13.1 per cent of pay.
The Scheme Advisory Board decided to make minor changes to reform this by reducing employee contributions by 2 per cent, which would have meant an increase in take-home pay for employees. This was delayed due to uncertainty around the McCloud judgment.
However, the government* has decided to transfer the cost of the McCloud remedy to the 2016 valuations for several unfunded public sector pension schemes.
The government's position now is that no cost-sharing adjustment needs to be made.
In December 2021, the PCS and several other trade unions filed a judicial review to contest this.
*This article has been amended to reflect that the decision to include the cost of remedy in the cost control mechanism at the 2016 valuation of the public service schemes was made by the government, and not the GAD, as previously stated.
