PCS has announced it will ballot staff on taking industrial action over job cuts at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
The union is in dispute with the departments over its ‘FCDO 2030’ restructure which could see a loss of up to 2,000 jobs.
PCS says the FCDO has failed to meaningfully consult PCS on the restructure and failed to give a “no compulsory redundancies” guarantee.
The union also says the department has not provided:
- An adequate rationale or business case for it
- A work force plan in line with the 2016 Civil Service Job Protocols
- An equality impact assessment which meets legal requirements.
The union is also raising concerns about the restructure in light of the escalation in the Middle East.
PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said: “This unprecedented crisis unfolding across the Middle East which sees more than 100,000 British nationals stuck in conflict areas, is exactly why a properly staffed FCDO is vital.
“At present there are not enough staff at the right grades to organise a safe response on the scale required. That should concern everyone. Is this really how the government intends to handle major international emergencies – by cutting jobs and stripping out experience?
“These are the moments when our members' expertise matter most. Staff need security, not redundancy notices. If the government is serious about protecting people, we must secure the workforce needed to do it.”
The ballot of PCS members will begin on 16 March and end on 20 April.
Separately, the union said it conducted a survey between 18 and 25 February to understand staff attitudes towards the restructure and received 1,400 responses from FCDO staff.
PCS said a majority told the union they were "somewhat or very" unconfident that the proposed restructuring would be fair, transparent and accountable, and most also doubted that they have a professional future in the department.
Other results in the survey included:
- 69% lacked confidence in the proposed changes' ability to prioritise the department’s core objectives.
- 77% did not believe FCDO leadership could be trusted to present the results of its own consultation exercise in a fair, balanced and non-selective way.
CSW has approached the FCDO for comment.
MPs raise concerns over restructure
MPs have also raised concerns about the plans. Speaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Sarah Champion, who is chair of the International Development Committee, said decisions on the headcount seem "incredibly short-sighted" given the multitude of international crises. And she said "the failure to produce and share a workforce plan or equalities impact assessment does little to reassure me that the FCDO has sufficiently engaged the staff or unions in its restructuring, or that it has considered the implications of staffing reductions on its ambitions for ODA".
Emily Thornberry added that the department appeared to be "restructuring in order to restructure, while not looking first and foremost at what the Foreign Office is about, what we should be doing, and how we can ensure that we retain the expertise, the knowledge, the connections, the best people, in order to deliver those priorities". She warned this could subsequently "undermine morale" in the Foreign Office.
Responding, FCDO minister Chris Elmore said: "I do not underestimate the challenges that come with FCDO 2030."
Elmore said the resctructure aims to "build an organisation that is agile, innovative and equipped to seize the opportunities of the day".
"They build on deep expertise, which I know is a concern for colleagues, and on the professionalism and commitment that the civil service brings to Britain’s diplomacy and development work every single day," he added. "Our workforce reforms are designed to strengthen that foundation, with officials developing a clear sequenced strategy supported by a department-wide assessment of our skills, capabilities and requirements.
"We want to improve those things, not lessen them, and that can be done, among other things, through the skills audit."