Major victory for union over plans to cut civil service redundancy pay

The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union has this week won a major legal victory against government plans to drastically cut civil service redundancy payments.

Following a two-day judicial review hearing in the High Court in April, Mr Justice Sales ruled on Monday 10 May that the previous government acted unlawfully when it introduced, without PCS’s agreement, a new redundancy scheme reducing the rights staff had accrued over time.

In what is a dramatic win for the union’s 270,000 public sector members, the judgement quashes a revised scheme that the government had sought to impose from 1 April. It means the next government, when it is established, must reopen negotiations with the union if it is to agree a new arrangement that protects existing members’ rights.

The union has always maintained the changes to the civil service compensation scheme, which governs payments in the event of redundancy and early retirement, would have made it easier and cheaper to cut tens of thousands of civil service jobs and privatise more of our public services. It has also argued consistently that the government had no authority to act independently.

When PCS members took three days of strike action in March, including on budget day, Gus O’Donnell, the head of the civil service, described it as “misguided” and Tessa Jowell, then the civil service minister said the “time for talking is over”.

Despite widespread anger among the government’s workforce, and opposition from 176 MPs including 121 Labour backbenchers, changes aimed at saving £500 million over three years were forced through. If they had been allowed to stand they would in many cases have robbed civil servants of thousands of pounds if they were forced out of their job.

Strike action was suspended during the election – though the union continued to campaign in targeted constituencies across the UK – but PCS now says a failure to comply with the ruling would risk angering civil servants still further, leading to the possibility of more industrial action.

The ruling applies to members of the civil service redundancy scheme only and not to members of local government schemes generally.