28.09.16
Civil Service to impose further caps on public sector exit pay
Unions have been told to accept a reduction in public sector exit payments to avoid an even greater reduction, it has emerged.
In a letter to union heads, Simon Claydon, the director of civil service workforce strategy and inclusion, made a formal offer, which includes reducing the tariff for calculating exit payments from four weeks to three, capping exit and voluntary redundancy payments at 18 months’ salary and capping compulsory redundancy payments at nine months.
However, he said that if “a sufficient number of unions” do not accept the offer, the government will implement an initial version of the scheme before compensation, where the threshold for voluntary redundancy and exit payments will be 15 months’ salary.
Claydon said the changes were needed to “create significant savings on the current cost of exits”, help “reshape and restructure” the public sector workforce, and make the scheme more attractive for staff exiting earlier in the process.
He wrote to the heads of GMB, Prospect, the Prison Officers Association (POA), the Defence Police Federation, Unite, FDA, PCS and Unison.
FDA and Prospect have already agreed to the terms, whilst PCS, Unite and the POA have promised to oppose them.
Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS, said the cuts were “a further kick in the teeth” for union members following “vicious cuts” in the 2010 pay settlement.
“These cuts to redundancy pay are a cynical attempt to lay the ground for further job cuts on the cheap in the public sector as this government continues to pursue its ideological objective of dismantling public services,” he added.
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