The PCS union has told the Ministry of Defence it objects to the pay rise being offered to civil servants working across Defence – but will not prevent it being implemented.
PCS has formally rejected this year’s pay offer – which is in line with civil service-wide pay remit guidance that allows departments to award an average 3.25% pay adjustment to their staff. The guidance also allows for an additional 0.5% to be used to target “specific departmental workforce issues” such as increasing wages for the lowest-paid staff members, maintaining pay differentials and retaining key skills.
PCS said the funding being made available to the MoD and its arm’s-length bodies by the Cabinet Office is “insufficient” – but said it has “agreed not to stand in the way of [the pay offer’s] imposition”.
PCS said the pay offer fails to address “years of pay restraint” and the “urgent need for pay restoration”, as well as ongoing cost-of-living pressures.
It said the 0.5% component is being “stretched too thin across too many problem areas”.
The union is calling for similar or increased allocations in future years to address those issues. “So far, there has been no assurance that this will happen,” it said.
It pointed to plans announced at the end of last year to cut civilian roles in the MoD by 10% by the end of the decade – which the union said is expected to deliver “substantial cost savings”.
“PCS is urging the department to use the efficiencies and benefits promised by defence reform as the basis for a future business case to the Cabinet Office,” it said.
PCS said it had spoken to three arm’s-length bodies – Defence Equipment and Support, the Submarine Delivery Agency and the UK Hydrographic Office – about pay and determined that the available funding pot is “too small to make meaningful progress” in each case.
Pay talks are still ongoing at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, it added.
An MoD spokesperson said: “We are committed to investing in our people, whether civil service or military. Our civilian workforce is crucial to protecting our nation and supporting our Armed Forces. We work closely with trade union representatives to develop the pay offer for our employees by balancing various pay priorities".