IN JANUARY Civil Servants in the Home Office, Department for Constitutional Affairs and Prison Service went on strike over their 2003 pay claims. This was followed last month by the largest Civil Service strike since 1994 when 90,000 civil servants from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and Driving Standards Agency (DSA) took industrial action.
Civil Servants in other Departments are now balloting for action and are likely to walk out with workers in the DWP in March.
These pay disputes are snowballing due to an attempt by the Government to freeze public sector wages. The Daily Mirror revealed New Labour intends to freeze pay in the DWP for the next three years. The government's 2004 Pay Remit Guidance for the Civil Service focuses almost entirely on restricting pay bill increases to a 3.5 per cent 'earnings growth threshold".
Workers are facing soaring council tax bills, higher National Insurance premiums, exorbitant house prices, increasing fuel bills and escalating childcare costs
The low paid simply cannot afford such rises. Many workers administering benefits in the DWP are claiming benefits themOver 10,000 Jobcentre workers earn less than £10,000. Under the DWP's 2003 pay offer the majority of staff will receive only €500 or £600 extra for the year. As in the DSA, this pay 'increase' is to be paid in stages reducing its value. Civil servants are fied up with being paid too little, too late.
In many Departments workers are also protesting against performance related pay (PRP) that is non-consolidated and discriminatory. Statistics show part-timers, ethnic minority staff and staff with disabilities receive less money than other groups through PRP.
Pay is not the only issue fuelling discontent in the civil service. New Labour and the Tories have been threatening to cut 80,000 to 100,000 Civil Service jobs. In the DWP, Blair's reforms have led to draconian new sickness rules, extended opening hours and the removal of screens protecting staff from violent clients.
Union activists in the DWP are still ecstatic with the excellent level of support for the recent strike. The bosses went to desperate lengths to argue it was a failure. In East London, management opened an office for half an hour to claim it was open during the dispute. A work to rule is now underway.
The Tories ended national pay bargaining in the civil service and currently there are over 200 pay bargaining units. The PCS (the Civil Service Union) is seeking to reinstate national pay bargaining. To win such a fight it is essential sections of the union struggle together and make the same demands. Unity
Such co-ordination has started to develop following the election of Mark Serwotka as General Secretary and a left wing National Executive. Unity in action between sections is paying dividends in the current disputes.
The disputes have gained greater press attention and more pressure has been exerted on the employer (the government). Members have felt more confident to take action seeing they are part of a wider struggle against low pay.
Now the PCS must reach out to other unions for support and involve its entire membership in these struggles. It must set up a national hardship fund and encourage all members to contribute.
Strike committees should be set up in all localities. Unfortunately some in the DWP Group Executive (GEC) believe the GEC is the only strike committee' needed. This is the same Committee that suspended a strike in January following a miserly further offer by management.
Although the DWP GEC is supposedly left led, many of its members want a quiet life and are bureaucratic careerists.
The rank and file must control disputes. For example, DWP Branch representatives must be allowed to decide the way forward for their dispute at a meeting organised by the PCS for March 6th. It is likely representatives will call for an escalation of the action.
The Labour government collapsed in 1979 after it betrayed workers' aspirations and introduced a pay freeze. Millions on strike led to millions of lost votes for Labour and their loss of office.
Again today we are seeing a Labour government running into economic difficulties and trying to make workers pay the cost of their follies (eg the Iraq war). Tory support is rising in the polls as Labour alienates its traditional supporters.
RESPECT has got to make itself a credible alternative to such disenchanted voters and through the current disputes build a base in a union where the General Secretary is a supporter.
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