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Whitehall trade unions will lobby Parliament this week in a late bid to block the coalition's controversial plan to slash public sector redundancy payments before a forthcoming cull of staff. Members of the FDA, which represents senior civil servants including many permanent secretaries, will join the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) and Prospect, representing rank and file and specialist Whitehall staff, at the House of Commons on 9 September. The unions intend to ‘raise concerns' with MPs over the coalition's Superannuation Bill, which will introduce tough new caps on redundancy payments paid to staff. Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude published revised proposals for the Civil Service Compensation Scheme (CSCS) in July, but thousands of Whitehall staff have opposed the plan. The PCS said it feared Mr Maude could hurry the Bill through parliament with little time for debate. The Bill's second Commons reading was due on 7 September. A recent PCS consultation document argued: ‘The Bill is clearly designed by the coalition government to influence on-going negotiations on the reform of the CSCS and to coerce the unions into reaching an agreement on terms which would disadvantage many of our members.' Under current CSCS rules, some staff receive up to three years' salary if they are made redundant. But following the recession – and the realisation that thousands of public sector jobs would be cut to reduce public spending – successive government's have sought to alter government payouts. In February this year, the former Labour government imposed a cap of two years' salary on staff and adjusted pension entitlements. But those changes were effectively ruled unlawful by High Court decisions in May and June, which found staff had not been consulted properly. Mr Maude, who felt the Labour proposals did not go far enough, then sought fresh amendments to the CSCS and has consulted unions. PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka warned Mr Maude's proposals would ‘worsen' redundancy terms for ‘large numbers' of civil servants – in advance of a cull of public sector staff beyond next month's Spending Review. Most Whitehall departments face budget cuts of at least 25% from next year and, as part of his commitment to spending cuts, Chancellor George Osborne indicated last week he could reduce Treasury staff by a quarter over the next four years.

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WHITEHALL

Unions vow to fight redundancy payoffs

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