Government implements civil service compensation scheme changes

The government has tabled legislation to implement the changes to the Civil Service Compensation Scheme which were agreed by Prospect and a number of other unions including the FDA, GMB, Unison, the Defence Police Federation and Unite.

Prospect members voted to accept the terms of the negotiated settlement in a ballot. The result was communicated to members on 1 November.

In earlier correspondence, Prospect outlined the process – if the Minister believed that a sufficient number of trade unions agreed to the negotiated offer, he would implement those terms through legislation.

Following formal responses from the unions who accepted the terms of the offer, the Minister tabled legislation in the House of Commons which brought the new terms into effect from 9 November 2016.

Prospect deputy general secretary Garry Graham said: “While we welcome the fact that we reached agreement on terms more favourable than would have been the case without Prospect’s involvement, we have told the Cabinet Office and the Minister they they should take no solace from the result.

“We have made it abundantly clear that our members are angry at the decision to revisit these terms so soon after they were last negotiated. We have also told the Cabinet Office that we are determined to hold the government to its commitment that this agreement will be an enduring one.

“The fact that an agreement was possible is testament to Prospect’s determination to act in the best interests of its members, to defend their terms and conditions and to challenge the government at every turn on their proposals.

“It is, of course, positive that members of all civil service unions have benefited from this work. We avoided the arbitrary imposition of worse terms for members and secured some improvements to the package. This vindicates the approach taken by by Prospect and its representatives on the Civil Service Sector Executive Committee,” Graham added.

Prospect will now work with the Cabinet Office on implementing the revised redundancy protocols through departmental talks.

“This agreement is a testament to Prospect’s strategy of negotiating hard for members and exemplifies the power of that collective voice.

“If you have a colleague who is not a member of Prospect, please encourage them to join. If you use our member recruit member scheme, we will donate £10 to charity or give you a £10 voucher,” Graham concluded.