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Five Whitehall trade unions have endorsed new redundancy terms which could save the Government £1bn, while protecting low paid staff. However, Whitehall’s largest trade body – the 300,000-strong Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) – has refused to back the Cabinet Office-led deal and remains on collision course with ministers over plans to slash thousands of staff beyond the Spending Review. As reported in The MJ last week, five Whitehall unions – the FDA, Prospect, the Prison Officers’ Association, the GMB and Unite – recently broke away from the umbrella group Council Civil Service Unions (CCSU), which includes the PCS, to consult on a revised redundancy package offer from the Cabinet Office. With the PCS showing no appetite for what ministers described as their ‘final offer’ to the CCSU, the five unions – which represent 180,000 civil servants – moved quickly to reach a separate settlement on 7 October. The alternative, they said, was to put their members at risk of a settlement imposed by ministers. The new package would cap redundancy payouts at 21 months’ pay, plus three months’ notice, for voluntary exits. Civil servants made compulsorily redundant would receive a maximum of 12 months’ pay, while all staff earning below £23,000 annually would have their redundancy package calculated according to a salary of £23,000. Prospect’s assessment of the new package states it would generate ‘more than £1bn of savings’ for the Government and give ‘special protection’ to Whitehall’s lowest-paid staff. Dai Hudd, the union’s deputy general secretary, said: ‘This deal is both necessary and fair. It meets the needs of our members to have a decent redundancy scheme, but is also affordable to the Government and the taxpayer – important in the current economic climate.’ The new arrangements, which must still be endorsed by the unions’ members, change the terms of the Civil Service Compensation Scheme to bring them into line with the rest of the public sector. The deal follows 18 months of fraught negotiations between the former and current government and trade unions. Earlier this year, the former Labour Government’s proposed amendments to the redundancy scheme were effectively ruled illegal, following a union-led court appeal. But with coalition leaders under pressure to slash staffing costs since they came to power, new Cabinet Office minister, Francis Maude, recently threatened to impose an even tougher settlement. He also plans to remove the legal clause on compulsory staff consultation which led to the unions’ court victory. Following the provisional agreement with the five breakaway unions, Mr Maude said: ‘Throughout this process, we have been committed to reaching a negotiated settlement that is affordable and gives protection to lower-paid civil servants. ‘There is, of course, one name missing from the list of unions – the PCS. I very much regret that the PCS leadership has not been able to sign up… at this time.’

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WHITEHALL

PCS refuses to join redundancy accord

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