Civil service pay-offs capped
THE government escalated its stand-off with the public sector unions yesterday, announcing plans to bring forward legislation that will slash the amount of compensation civil servants receive when they are laid off.
A new bill will cap all compulsory redundancy payments at 12 months’ salary and all voluntary payments at 15 months – a far cry from the six years’ worth of pay that some civil servants are currently entitled to.
Francis Maude, the minister for the cabinet office, said: “Sadly the huge deficit we inherited means there is a real urgency now for change. It is for this reason, and in the light of the current deadlock, that we have had to reluctantly start this process today.”
The government is also changing a law that requires it to get the backing of unions before changing a workforce’s terms and conditions.
That will stop PCS, the left-wing civil servants’ union, from blocking the legislation in the high court, which it did when the Labour government tried to alter the compensation scheme.
Yesterday, the PCS was forced to defend its decision to block Labour’s reforms, which were much less draconian than the coalition’s. Had the union signed up to the changes, the new government would have been less likely to pursue its own, more radical reforms.
Maude is changing the law ahead of widescale job losses in the public sector, amid fears that the cost of pay-offs could prove incredibly expensive.