Cabinet Office plans to cap redundancy pay for departing Civil Service staff have been described as ‘unacceptable' by Whitehall's largest trade union. The Public and Commercial Service (PCS) union is consulting its lawyers over a possible legal challenge to new redundancy proposals, recently outlined in a letter sent to Whitehall union leaders by Dusty Amroliwala, the Cabinet Office's director Civil Service workforce. Mr Amroliwala writes: ‘As a general principle, compensation will, in future, be delivered through a severance payment which takes account of length of service, but does not exceed a maximum of two years' pay.' He also suggests allowing departments new ‘flexibility to tailor terms to meet their business needs for voluntary departures'. Both proposals have led to fears that redundancy packages could be slashed by hard-up departments seeking to reduce their head count as part of the Government's efficiency plan. PCS leaders claim many long-serving staff could lose out. A union statement described the plan as ‘an outrageous attempt to cut people's jobs on the cheap at a time when many are worried about job security'. The union said it would ‘determine whether we should seek a judicial review'. Mr Amroliwala claimed the ‘reform proposals were intended to provide fairer outcomes for all parties – both better value for money for the taxpayer but also a fairer approach for staff.'