The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 23rd August 2024
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 23rd August 2024
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
We start at the very top with the preoccupations of the civil service mandarins’ union the FDA. This union represents not just the archetypal Sir Humphrey role models but covers policy advisors, diplomats, lawyers, tax professionals, economists, statisticians and museum curators in over 200 departments beyond Whitehall. It has lots of members in the Crown Prosecution Service and the Crown Office and Prosecutor Fiscal Service, and it has forged a partnership with Unison, for health and care managers.
The FDA boasts that it has recently secured a great triumph by giving Parliamentary authorities the power to exclude from the Parliamentary Estate MPs who have been accused of sexual or violent offences.
It notes that when somebody is accused of serious sexual or violent misconduct, it is reasonable to expect them to be suspended from their workplace while an investigation is conducted. This did not apply to MPs because working in what is technically a royal palace has always been different. In the past, even if arrested and charged, they could not be barred formally from access to the Parliamentary Estate. This changed in mid-May, when a formal mechanism was introduced to risk-assess any MP if they are arrested. This has also given Parliamentary authorities new powers to exclude MPs accused of sexual or violent offences from the Parliamentary Estate, effectively bringing the Palace of Westminster into line with other workplaces.
It remains to be seen how this works out in practice. If an MP is arrested at a demonstration could he or she be barred from Parliament on ‘terrorism’ charges. Less this seem hypothetical it is worth remembering that one of the first victims of Blair’s anti-terror laws was an octogenarian CND member who shouted “rubbish” at the Foreign Secretary during a Labour Party conference.
The FDA is also keen on protecting the purely imaginary ‘impartiality’ of the civil service and the new President says she opposes harassment, particularly in the Defence Ministry and the House of Commons. That could mean it is OK in the Foreign Office and the House of Lords. She favours hybrid working, which many of her members are keen on as they do not have to come into the office very often. That is a dodgy case for unions to make as anyone who says they can work in the suburbs is also making the case for doing the work much more cheaply in Bangalore – although at the moment this is not a threat to high-caste civil servants.
Another recent achievement the FDA takes credit for is the announcement that His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will be recruiting 5,000 additional staff. It welcomes this on the grounds it “will take a comprehensive approach to tackling the tax gap and making sure more of the tax revenues that are owed are correctly paid”, in the words of the new Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, James Murray.
FDA National Officer for HMRC Matt Barrow said: “This announcement is a clear example of how our campaigning has tangible outcomes. The brilliant engagement from our members formed the basis of our report’s recommendations, which were endorsed by a number of the UK’s leading tax experts and were subsequently included in Labour’s election manifesto.”
It remains to be seen if these staff are deployed against billionaire bankers and financial speculators or against a greater number of dodgy cash-in-hand builders and window cleaners.
Another recent FDA triumph was securing a judicial review concerning the deportations to Rwanda, which could have seen civil servants being forced to ignore international law if asylum seekers were deported without due process.
Needless to say, pay is a major issue for all unions. Recently the FDA boasted of securing a pay rise of 22.5 per cent for members on the “Fast Stream”, which is supposed to be for the bright young sparks who are destined to be high-ups in the state machinery.
The FDA complained this had been stagnating, but on a 60 per cent turnout 80 per cent voted for strike action at the end of last year. This persuaded Management to continue long-stalled talks resulting in a substantial pay rise and a new London allowance. “Streamers will not accept significantly lower pay for carrying out the same work as our colleagues on the promise of future increases at the end of the scheme,” said one of those involved.
Hopeful Prospects?
Slightly further down the food chain Prospect, the high-grades’ union, naively hopes that the new government will bring about a glorious new dawn for civil servants.
General Secretary Mike Clancy expects that the new government will start listening to unions and create a national civil service partnership and consultation forum to discuss such matters as efficiency, reform and the impact of new technology on job and organisational design.
As Prospect represents a bewildering variety of specialist professionals, pay is always a complex problem and civil service pay often is lower than obtainable in the private sector so it wants “flexibility to address recruitment and retention problems”, in particular independent pay review bodies for delegated grades as one option. The threat of strike action does not appear to have come to mind.
The admin and clerical Public & Commercial Services Union (PCS) is also looking forward to more productive pay bargaining, taking Labour’s election promises as a starting point.
PCS, which is the biggest of the lot, was long-ignored by the old Tory government. Now they think they will be listened to for a change. They’ve welcomed the fact that the new Labour government has issued Civil Service pay remit guidance allowing departments to make awards averaging around of “up to” five per cent. Further talks on pensions are promised but that “up to” is a useful cop out.
The union reminds us that strike action even under the Tories brought about reasonable pay awards such as the basic 4.5 per cent and a £1,500 lump sum secured last year, with more for the lower grades. Now PCS expects the new government to respond realistically to this year’s pay claim and later negotiate longer-term deals in the next spending review.
PCS has paused plans for industrial action but will make an exception for offers less than five per cent. We shall have to wait and see what happens in practice but any positive changes are likely to be small, given the Chancellor’s alleged ‘discovery’ of a £22-billion black hole. The union has decided it is wise to maintain its strike levy on members to keep its powder dry for forthcoming battles.
One group of outsourced workers, Jobcentre security guards, have already taken strike action. Over 1,500 guards across England are taking another round of strike action next week.
The workers, employed by the notorious G4S and often only on the minimum wage, fear that the early release of prisoners who often need Jobcentre support, could drastically increase the already high risk of assault from aggrieved and often desperate claimants.
Eamon O’Hearn of GMB, which represents the guards, said: “Job centre security guards provide a vital service even in normal times – experiencing abuse routinely on the job. But with the increase in ex-cons being released early, we could see a perfect storm for chaos, abuse and disorder in job centres.”
This continues action that has been going on for weeks, but G4S accuses GMB of holding-up the pay rise by refusing to put the offer to the workers.
Local Government Housing
Turning to local authorities, on the housing front more than 200 workers employed by Livv Housing Group on Merseyside have voted to strike, having rejected a five per cent pay offer that fails to make up for long-term real pay cuts. Both Unite and Unison are holding a ballot. While Livv is a ‘not for profit’ housing association, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham observes that: “This is an organisation that is pretending to be a cuddly not for profit organisation but is in reality hell-bent on forcing its members into poverty while management enjoys large bonuses.”
It manages about 13,000 properties, primarily in the Knowsley area. Despite being officially a not-for-profit organisation, the company is extremely financially successful. It made a surplus of over £40,000 per employee last year, which provided a £140,000 bonus pot for its small executive team to divi up.
James Robinson, the Unison branch secretary, said: “Livv Housing Group have reported multi-million-pound surpluses for the last five years, awarded their CEO a 19 per cent pay rise, bringing her total to more than £255,000 per year and increased the number of staff earning £90,000 or more by 33 per cent,” at the same time “all staff have seen their pay eroded, pensions removed, terms and conditions worsened, and rents continue to go up.”
That is the main purpose of such housing associations and similar Arm’s Length Management Organisations, which allow councillors to collect huge fees as directors rather than make do with standard local government expenses.
Unite regional officer John Sheppard said: “Strike action would cause huge disruption to tenants, but this dispute has been caused by Livv’s refusal to make a fair pay offer to our members.”
His opposite number at Unite, John Sheppard, added that: “Strike action would cause huge disruption to tenants, but this dispute has been caused by Livv’s refusal to make a fair pay offer to our members. This dispute can still be resolved through negotiations, but Livv needs to make an offer that members find acceptable.”
Earlier this year the very same organisation was highlighted by Unison as an example of just why housing ought to be brought back under direct local authority control.
Formerly known as Knowsley Housing Trust, housing was transferred to them from direct local authority control in 2002.
Bradley Arnold, a Livv worker responsible for selecting candidates for properties, reports that in his seven years waiting times have “gone through the roof. People aren’t getting housed – the average wait time is about 18 months for someone to get a property. Unless you’ve got a band A [actually being homeless], the likelihood of you getting something is very slim.”
As a result: “You’ve got this growing waiting list with no relief, which means private landlords can charge what they want. It’s a vicious circle.”
Lack of housing stock is the main problem. Housebuilders prefer building grander properties for private sale. When obliged to provide at least some social housing as a condition of securing planning permission, builders make strenuous efforts to wriggle out of their obligations.
Taking the example of Knowsley, Arnold points out that there is plenty of housing being built, but the wrong sort to meet urgent needs: “Where I work, they are building hundreds of properties, but only a handful are going into the social housing waiting list. It’s all shared ownership.”
Apart from soaring land costs, money also has to be found for schools and health centres.
In theory private developers are supposed to provide ‘Section 106’ money [to support such development costs], but these are always very modest sums. High land costs inevitably mean high rents for those who can least afford it, if they are fortunate enough to get the few council houses going round.
Staff shortages mean that growing housing waiting lists have fewer people to administer them. Not all on the waiting list are delightful towards staff, especially when they have been on the list for years. In Arnold’s section “overall, we’ve lost one member of staff from the team but the workload has doubled. We get abuse 24/7 because people are waiting years for properties”.
Even worse, whole sections have been lost: the work of the anti-social behaviour team, the rents team and a lettings team now have to be done with just a housing officer team.
The only bright spot was that when Livv noted that the housing officers weren’t making a ‘profit’ they put the team’s work up for tender. As no private business wanted to take it on it was transferred back to the council.
A modest victory for the workers who will get improved terms and conditions, including higher employer pension contributions, but that will do little to improve Knowsley’s housing crisis, a story which will be replicated across the country. Once upon a time there were Direct Labour Organisations run by councils to actually build houses. A revival of that idea should be on the cards.
Hopefully the Knowsley workers will follow the path of the Scottish Borders Housing Association (SBHA), where 160 workers based in Selkirk have secured a 5.5 per cent basic pay rise along with an extra eight per cent for stand-by payments. In addition, they will get an extra day holiday on 30th November.
Pat Egan, Unite industrial officer, said: “The pay deal delivers a significant income boost for Scottish Borders Housing Association workers including those providing essential repair and maintenance services.”
We conclude this selective survey by making brief note of the recent social workers dispute in Lancashire in which staff took five days of strike action over salary grades and working cover. The discontinuous action involves 200 people, and continuous action started in July.
The staff conduct social care assessments for adults and review care packages for people with additional needs. Unison points out that these roles are unpopular because they are comparatively low paid compared with other social worker jobs.
Regional organiser James Rupa said: “Over the years, Lancashire County Council has relied on the dedication and hard work of social care support officers, expecting them to deliver vital services while working above their pay grade. Rather than addressing the workers’ fair request for a role regrading, the council continues to ignore their concerns. Frustrated staff are leaving for better-paid positions, and those who remain feel compelled to take action.”