Home Office Pay 2020

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1st October 2020

HO/MB/050/20

Summary: Department publishes final offer letter for 2020 Home Office pay.

Background

The Department has today published their final offer letter in relation to Pay 2020.  This follows negotiations which the department opened in July and continued in August.  The implementation has been delayed by the roll out of Metis.

The Treasury published its pay guidance document in May.  This sets out how departments can implement pay awards each year.  This year the document expected awards between 1.5% and 2%.  However, flexibility to use up to 2.5% of monies was allowed if demonstrable improvements in systems and equality outcomes could be demonstrated.

What’s important to note is that the actual new money available from the Treasury is in fact only 1%.  This means that in order to top it up to 2.5% use of internal recycled funds is necessary.  This exposes the inherent problem with negotiations – the lack of funding from the Government.

The Government have limited the amount of new funding to only 1% meaning that the substantial pay award that our members need cannot be funded.  Our national pay claim was for a 10% rise in order to recognise the years of below inflation pay rises that have been imposed, but the refusal of the Government to properly engage with our national union means discussions locally were in a tough position. Continue reading →

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SIGNIFICANT PCS CAMPAIGN VICTORY MAJOR CHANGE TO PDR SYSTEM

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HO/MB/043/2020
Summary: For many years PCS has been campaigning for a significant change in the way our reporting system is operated. As a result of our campaigning that change is on its way.

 

Members will have been aware that for many years, PCS have been campaigning for a significant change to the PDR system operated in Home Office. In the first instance, we sought to remove the system of forced distribution, moderation and box marking quotas. This change came about in 2017, but, despite the change, PCS did not feel that this went far enough and sought to remove the system of year-end and mid-year box marking.

 

PCS felt that the star rating system was one that created an adversarial environment, hindering honest conversations, where managers felt obliged to fill quotas.  Likewise, we felt that the half year and end of year report process was a significant drain on resources and was essentially an arbitrary construct.  Ultimately, assigning a nominal star rating in October and March did nothing to aid continual development of our members throughout the year and their careers. Continue reading →

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Help promote the new PCS pay petition

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PCS members deliver every day to keep essential services running, and in the pandemic they’ve done that even more than ever.

Boris Johnson and other ministers have lauded the work UK government workers have done. But now is the time for the government to deliver a fair pay rise, because warm words do not pay the bills.

Prime minister Boris Johnson has already said he wants UK government workers to have another pay cut this year, by limiting pay rises to below 2.5% – the 11th consecutive year of cuts in real terms.

Only a decent pay rise will ensure our members do not have to worry about the cost of living. And our petition tells the government that now is the time to deliver fair pay to our members.

We’re demanding the government gives those workers a 10% pay rise, which is only half the money they have lost in the last decade.

We’re asking PCS members do 5 things to be part of our campaign to force the government to deliver fair pay:

  1. Sign our petition, on the UK government and parliament petitions website.
  2. Share our petition on social media.
  3. Ask a work colleague to sign the petition. The more of us who sign it the stronger we are.
  4. Get involved in PCS, if you’re not already
  5. Ask non-members in your workplace to join PCS. The more of us who are in the union, the more chance we’ve got of being successful.

We also want to hear from members how they’ve delivered during lockdown, email editor@pcs.org.uk

Let’s make sure this is the year it’s not just warm words that UK government workers get, it’s actually a proper pay rise.

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