In the same week as it published its Equality Strategy, the government was told by a parliamentary committee that its plans to introduce a bill to cap civil service redundancy pay was inconsistent with human rights law.

If made law, the bill will cap all payments for compulsory job losses to one year, and 15 months for civil servants who volunteer to leave their jobs.

But the human rights joint committee backed the PCS campaign when it decided that proposals to limit payments would ‘interfere’ with the rights of civil servants, and it concluded that the government had not provided ‘adequate justification’ for the planned changes in legislation.

Under the coalition government’s plan to cut costs, 500,000 public sector jobs are expected to be lost over the next four years. Many would be low paid older workers and under the superannuation bill, they could loose thousands of pounds in redundancy payments despite years of loyal service.

Ministers could still attempt to bulldoze the bill through despite a High Court ruling that civil servants had accrued the right to redundancy pay and that any detrimental changes needed the agreement of all the civil service unions.

Behind the scenes PCS leaders are lobbying in the House of Lords to get amendments included in the bill before it becomes law and, on 7 December, 270,000 members of the union took part in a consultative ballot.  Members are also being urged to seek support from their local MP as part of the campaign to put more pressure on the government.

The government also published its Equality Strategy last week reflecting a marked shift from legislation to voluntarism.

In particular, it has decided not to implement section 78 of the Equality Act introducing mandatory pay reporting from 2013 for employers with more than 250 employees. Instead it says it will carry out an annual review of the numbers of companies releasing information and take a view “over time” whether a mandatory approach is required.

It has also dropped the requirement for public sector bodies with more than 150 employees to report on gender pay from April 2011.