What sort of trade union do we want PCS to be?

The PCS Independent Left is clear: a trade union championing membership interests, run by members, employing elected officials who are in touch with members and who are not elevated to a lifestyle out of kilter with the mass of those members by dint of their trade union employment.

“Another world” salaries paid to senior PCS officials

The current General Secretary, Mark Serwotka, takes £103,100pa for the privilege of being General Secretary. Fran Heathcote, Left Unity’s candidate to replace Serwotka, is fully in favour of such grotesque salary levels being paid for out of membership subscriptions. So is Paul O’Connor, LU’s candidate for Assistant General Secretary.

The PCS Independent Left is not. We think PCS salaries at this level are wholly wrong. Such incomes are in another world compared to the lives of tens of thousands of PCS members.

Mark Serwotka once agreed

When he was a young radical Mark Serwotka agreed with these views. In fact they were once common place amongst socialists of various hues in PCS.

The Mark Serwotka pay test

When Mark Serwotka first stood for election for GS in 2000, he contrasted his position as a part time EO (he had child care responsibilities) to the status and earnings of his opponent, a senior PCS official. He saw those difference as important in determining who should be elected. Paul O’Connor supported Mark in that election.

Applying that same Serwotka test today, Paul O’Connor is a very long time, very well paid, PCS official who will become wonderfully well paid if elected to AGS. John Moloney, on the other hand, dedicated his life as an AO and, very belatedly, an EO lay representative. Since he was elected as AGS in 20219 John has donated £120,000 back to PCS. Like Mark Serwotka in 2000, we think these differences and facts count for a great deal in this election.

PCS needs a rational wages policy

PCS needs a rational wages policy reflecting the sort of PCS we need. Individuals’ donating money to the PCS Fighting Fund, as a matter of conscience and socialist principle, is to be welcomed, but a rational wages policy would be better.

Reliance on conscience has not been successful. If you look at the annual accounts going back some years, you will see that virtually nothing has been donated back by the most senior officials apart from the outstanding exception of John Moloney, the current Assistant General Secretary and a candidate in the current AGS election – over £120,000 since his election in 2019.

The IL’s expectation of our candidates for high office

Given the reality of PCS – massively inflated salaries endorsed by Left Unity – we discuss with our candidates for senior office what they might reasonably retain and what they should donate back to the union – the Fighting Fund – to support PCS members who paid that money in subscriptions.

This policy is not an optional extra for us. We want employment by PCS to be one aspect of people’s very serious commitment to our trade union, not the smartest, most prosperous, career move they could make.

John Moloney’s  pay commitment will tie his AGS income to DWP EO

John Moloney has renewed his commitment, first made ahead of being elected AGS in 2019, to tie his income to that of the London EO DWP maxima. As previously advised, John has to date returned over £120,000 to the PCS Fighting Fund, money which has helped fund strikes by PCS members. John has also thereby tied his future income to pay movements in DWP. Our pay interests are his.

Marion Lloyd’s pay commitment will tie her GS income to £30,000 pa and BEIS pay movements

Marion earns £30K pa, pro-rata. Marion has committed to staying on the same income, while moving to full time hours as GS, and returning the balance to the PCS Fighting Fund. Marion has also tied her future income to pay settlements in her current department. 

Paul O’Connor’s commitment: I will take AGS guaranteed pay progression to £103,100pa.

Currently O’Connor  is what is called a Band 6 in PCS. That band has a maximum of £73,122, which we assume he is on because PCS officers enjoy pay progression. If elected O’Connor would join the AGS pay scale with guaranteed progression up to the current maximum of £103,100. he is very clear that he will take every penny of that inflated salary.

In a rare hustings – he and Fran have been desperately avoiding debate in front of members – Paul O’Connor stated that when he wakes up he is focussed on keeping wages up, not on moving them down.

It is a woefully insensitive way of justifying a huge income because O’Connor and his allies have been very unsuccessful in keeping members pay up. We have had years of pay freezes and below inflation awards and tens of thousands of members are on or hovering above minimum wage. But he is asking you to elect him on that record and to a salary he would never have received as a civil servant and which you, the members, can only dream of.

The logic of Paul O’Connor’s position – one that Left Unity shares – is that if the union paid £200,000pa to its AGS and GS he would fight to keep that salary up, as well as keeping it! The hearts of the LU socialists supporting the Heathcote/O’Connor ticket to pay heaven must bleed for bankers when they read about attacks on bankers’ incomes…let’s keep pay up shout the LU socialists!

Fran Heathcote’s commitment: I deserve £103,000pa.

At one (rare) hustings, Fran Heathcote  was asked whether she would take the GS money. She did not say “no.” and she did not say “yes”, to a very simple question and in  contrast to Marion Lloyd’s, and John Moloney’s pledges  and Paul O’Connor’s clear commitment to keeping all the money as the due of a PCS AGS.

Until she clarifies her position, and given LU’s consistent support for these salary levels, it is fair to assume that Fran will, if elected,  take the full GS salary and progress to £103,000pa. She is certainly happy that her running mate will take every penny.

Any grade of member that PCS represents earn a lot less – for most a great deal less – than an AGS and GS. If we take a hypothetical  DWP EO in the national pay area, Fran’s grade, would earning £29,500pa but, upon being elected to GS, that EO member would move  to £74,820pa, a pay rise of £45,320 i.e. 253%. That would be an inflation busting pay increase!

Of course, the same calculation could have been made for John Moloney in 2019, except that he committed to not accepting such a huge leap in pay and progression to that mouth watering maximum.

The Wage Argument begins to hurt LU – so they spin nonsense

LU – now little more than the Fran and Paul fan club and shedding members everywhere (see here and here) say,

“Repeatedly members will hear claims that their [IL’s and Broad Left Network’s] candidates are pledging to take a worker’s wage if elected, because they understand how low paid members’ struggle. They omit to clarify, however, that their GS candidate is a G6 manager with a pro-rate salary higher than that of Fran’s wage as an EO in DWP, or that since elected in 2019, their AGS candidate has taken the rate for that job before personally deciding how much he can afford to donate to causes he supports.”

The statement is dishonest but revealing:

• John Moloney was very explicit, before first being elected to AGS in 2019, that he would tie his salary to the DWP EO maximum (his then LU opponent was committed to taking the full whack).
• Upon election he asked not to be placed on the enormous AGS gsalary but to be paid the DWP London EO wage, saving PCS salary but also the NI and taxation on the higher wage. The leadership said no but that he could donate the money back. That is what he does – every penny to the PCS Fighting Fund.
•  Marion is a G7, not a 6. In the IL we are very happy to have supporters in all the grades represented by PCS and we fight for all members irrespective of grade. But if  the LU leadership of a multi-grade union want to dismiss   G7 and 6 members, that is their privilege. W. The real point, and typically  this is not addressed by LU,  Marion will stay on £30000 pa if elected whereas Fran Heathcote and Paul O’Connor will take every penny.
• LU do not deny that they are really happy for their candidates to be paid £103,000 pa from membership subscriptions.
• We do not say that we will take a worker’s wage because we “understand how low paid members’ struggle” (although it is obnoxious to spend the subscriptions of members on minimum wage on such salaries). We argue that officials should not receive salaries that result in their being totally out of touch with, and with no stake in the bargaining and campaign outcomes for, members. 
• £103,100 pay is a fortune compared to the salaries of HEO’s and SEOs for example. It is a lot more than G7 and G6 members. It is a lot more than most senior civil servants earn!

Vote for the kind of PCS you need, Vote Marion and John.