Civil service unions are gearing up for battle as Labour’s fiscal squeeze threatens job cuts in Whitehall. Rachel Reeves is scrambling to stick to her self-imposed fiscal rules in Wednesday’s Spring Statement (definitely not an emergency budget). The axe is swinging towards the civil service…
The Cabinet Office’s Pat McFadden is writing to departments this week ordering them to slash administrative budgets by 15%, a move designed to save £2.2 billion a year by 2029-30. Reeves took to the Sunday shows, claiming 10,000 pen-pushers will be culled. Though now ministers are reportedly quietly drawing up plans to sack 50,000 civil servants. Co-conspirators will remember the union backlash when ex-chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced plans to cut the blob by 66,000 in 2023…
Unsurprisingly, the unions are livid. PCS union boss Fran Heathcote fumed: “The impact of making cuts will not only disadvantage our members but the public we serve and the services they rely on. We’ve seen this before under Gordon Brown- cutting backroom staff led to chaos. Cuts plucked out of the air in order to make it sound like an efficiency they will meet with a lot of opposition”. FDA general secretary Dave Penman told ITV: “We’re talking about something close to 10% of the entire civil service salary bill over the next three to four years. The Civil Service is about half a million strong—so up to 50,000 jobs could go.” That number is now being briefed by the government…
Meanwhile, Mike Clancy, boss of the Prospect union, warned that ministers must avoid turning budget cuts into an “arbitrary” civil service headcount reduction. He pointed to Reeves’ pledge of a “zero-based review of spending” saying it must include a “realistic” look at what the government won’t be able to do after these cuts. Another grovelling letter from Starmer to civil servants to stave off more strikes incoming?
The Department for Education has finally released transcripts of meetings held with teaching union bosses since 4 July last year. Bridget met 33 times with union officials while giving only one chat to the Independent Schools Council…
Guido asked for transcripts of meetings with Daniel Kebede (National Education Union) and Paul Whiteman (National Association of Headteachers). At a meeting just four days after the general election Bridget met with NAHT general secretary Whiteman:
- BP said “she was keen to meet early on. Want to work with you and your members.”
- PW: “Feel the refresh already. We are pushing in the same direction… We will be offering the expert advice.“
- PW: “The Government is moving with pace already.“
At a call with radical National Education Union head Daniel Kebede the education secretary provided an early briefing of a 5.5% teacher pay award for 2024/25.
- BP: “Securing this package has been very challenging and it will be funded by savings found across government.“
- DK: “Very pleased to have been briefed. From his perspective SoS has already succeeded in resetting the relationship with the sector with this announcement… He passed on his sincere thanks to SoS.“
Bridget held a separate call to discuss the award with Whiteman, who said “this was really helpful.” Meanwhile copies of five entire meetings with union bosses Daniel Kebede, Paul Whiteman, or Mary Bousted are fully redacted – curious…
During a call before the budget, Bridget went out of her way to soothe Daniel Kebede’s concerns:
- DK: “have read other press releases and NEU probably won’t be as positive.“
- BP: Emphasised “this is a 1-year settlement and the need to look to the future and the multi-year settlement.“
- BP: Clarified “that schools and colleges will be compensated on NICs and more details will follow on this.“
- BP: Offered a call with Officials if Daniel felt one was needed in the coming weeks.
A call with Whiteman confirmed provision of new money and added: “NAHT have no complaints at the moment and are positive.” No surprise there…
Bridget also called Kebede, NEU representatives, and Whiteman on the Sunday prior to her reform speech at the Centre for Social Justice last month.
- PW: “Thanked SoS for the briefing – this is another signal of a welcome different approach. There is nothing that SoS said is surprising or concerning, and he may have some
things to say about that but the overall thrust is one he wants to support.“ - NEU: “Would like it to be clear in the speech tomorrow that every single teacher and every leader wants the best for their children, and the unions represent 90% of teachers and leaders.” Telling Bridget what to say…
- PW: “The conclusion of SoS’s speech sounds exactly in the right place. The previous government went through Education Secretaries rapidly, and none of them set out a vision for the education system – what SoS has said sounds like a vision and ambition.“
- BP: Concluded the call to reiterate her thanks.
A love-in of some proportions. Compare that to Bridget’s meeting with Birbalsingh. Unions cheering Bridget on as she tears down some of the only Tory reforms that have been almost universally successful…
Read the full released transcripts below:
Andy Burnham has taken a break from pledging not to enact Starmer’s policies and today’s been talking to train operators at the Rail North Committee meeting, mostly about the “big deterioration” of services by Northern Rail. Burnham was aghast at state-owned Northern’s continued use of fax machines – “How is earth is that the case in 2024?” He went on the attack:
“Your modernisation plan, like your training plan, is moving nowhere near fast enough. You could get rid of this stuff tomorrow. You could put in place IT to support people to communicate differently.”
Northern Rail’s response? Yeah, sure. But the unions…
“We wouldn’t be able to get rid of them tomorrow without an agreement with our train unions. We have to look at these issues with the depth and complexity they have and the historical issues that we absolutely are going to address. It isn’t as simple as turning them off tomorrow because at the moment we have an agreement to use the processes that we have and in order to change that, we do have to change the agreement.”
Burnham has discovered the unions. Remember Louise Haigh gave ASLEF train drivers a pay rise to £70,000 and reversed the previous government’s commitment to get rid of “Spanish practices.” Which allows staff to start their lunch break again if their boss starts talking to them and blocks the use of technology like video calls…
The government has been firing round an official summary of its flagship “Make Work Pay” plans to stakeholders. Today’s Employment Rights Bill contains about a third of the measures which make up those plans…
Curiously the government refers to the bill straight away as the “Employment Rights Union Bill.” Did they forget to delete the name of the working draft?
The Freudian slip won’t be much comfort to businesses and workers, who will have to deal with massive restrictions on zero hour contracts, statutory protection of “flexible working,” and a rollback of trade union legislation. As expected most changes will be subject to consultations in 2025 and the government makes clear that the majority won’t come into place until 2026. Labour has softened its rhetoric on unfair dismissal, which will now be subject to a “light-touch” statutory probation period instead of “day one protection.” The unions for whom the bill is named will be hard at work to chip away at that concession…
Labour will also establish “day 1 rights” to paternal leave as well as a “Fair Work Agency” and “Employment Rights Unit” to deal with enforcement. Large companies can look forward to being required to produce “action plans” on how to address their gender pay gaps and how to “support employees through the menopause.” A pen-pusher’s charter…
Read the full summary below:
Continue reading “Labour Accidentally Calls Rayner Worker Legislation “Union Bill””
As Labour continues back-patting in the Liverpool Exhibition Centre, over at local socialist haunt The Casa Bar the Cuba Solidarity Campaign gathered for a fundraiser to help bypass the US’ sanctions regime against the communist country. Apart from receiving supportive speeches from Labour MPs and the Cuban Ambassador, numerous union representatives pledged their support to the totalitarian state…
Prison Officers Association general secretary Steve Gillan turned up to announce his union, the largest of prison officers in the UK, would fund the campaign to the tune of £10,000. He added that the funding wasn’t discretionary: “We’re not going to specify how that’s spent… Viva Cuba.” Union dues well spent then…
No one picked up the irony of someone representing prison officers pledging funding for a country which is currently starving and torturing over 1,020 political prisoners. They were too busy getting raffle tickets with a prize of a Che Guevara mug or flights to Cuba to notice…
Motions are in for the Trades Union Congress’ annual meeting next month in Brighton. Delegates’ votes on them will decide the political and lobbying direction the TUC will take. Unions bosses have renewed energy now Labour is in and are gunning for more pay rises from a permissive government. More strikes are already on the way…
Apart from pushing for bumper pay deals, union chiefs have crafted a list of some truly insane and/or idiotic motions. Guido gives you some of the worst below:
- The Educational Institute of Scotland wants repeals of the 2016 Trade Union Act and 2023 Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act, outlaws on zero-hour contracts, and devolution of “employment law fully to the devolved administrations.” More fun for the SNP and Welsh Labour…
- The Artists’ Union England wants a “prohibition of the use of AI in workplaces without explicit collective agreement” and “legislation to protect workers against the use of AI in workplaces.” UNITE joins in by calling for a bill that “ensures trade unions have the right to be consulted and to negotiate on the use of AI.” Luddites gonna luddite…
- The University College Union wants the TUC to lobby for “a decolonised curriculum in the prison education system.” That’ll fix the prisons…
- UNISON demands that the TUC raises “awareness of Reform’s policies for the workplace and society” and provides “training courses, resources and support for unions in tackling the politics of far right.” The cherry on the cake is a commitment to “organising and recruiting migrant workers.” Do they think staff need therapy to deal with Nigel?
- The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy wants to tackle the gender pay gap by challenging “the status quo of senior leadership positions in public services being ‘full-time’ roles.” Got to break down that “taboo of working at senior levels on a part-time basis”…
- The Royal College of Midwives demand a “campaign for mandatory neurodiversity awareness training for all NHS staff as part of their EDI mandatory training.” Just what the NHS needs to get productive again…
- The TUC Black Workers Conference wants “legislation to make ethnicity pay gap reporting mandatory and for this to become a standard practice in employers’ policies and procedures.” More paper-pushing woke drudgery…
- The FDA looks to seize on Partygate and the “betting scandal” by introducing a “fully independent body which will have the authority to independently investigate and determine outcomes of breaches of the ministerial code, free from political interference.” Maybe Labour can fill that with its cronies too?
- The British Dietetic Association wants “a statutory right to accessible, affordable and nutritious food.” How’s that going to work?
- The Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union demands the UK sets a “national maximum working temperature and put in place a heat wave furlough scheme.” Which means they’ll do a “Heat Strike” this summer “when temperatures go above 36 degrees.” If you can’t take the heat, get out of the bakery…
- Accord wants to raise capital gains tax to income tax levels and apply national insurance to investment income, as well as ending “special treatment” of AIM shares. ‘Poof’ goes Labour’s promised “growth”…
- The Fire Brigade Union is pushing for a motion to “repeal of all anti-union laws and for positive legal rights for trade unions.” Goodbye to the Thatcher revolution…
Union bosses are no doubt itching to unveil some of their even kookier ideas once they secure more concessions from Labour over the coming months. “Get round the table” because “the adults are back in the room”…
Former leader of the SNP in Westminster Ian Blackford told Times Radio why he believes Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she spent no time in the kitchen and therefore didn’t see any of her husband’s purchases:
“She doesn’t have a passion for cooking.”
