We're Totally Worth a Pay Rise

Dear Secretary of State

We’re totally worth a pay rise.

We sent you a Christmas card back in December. We put so much effort into designing a nice card and made it as glittery as possible. We must have missed the one you sent us one back in return...

To jog your memory, we said that we didn’t want to take industrial action, but a 2% pay deal is unacceptable when inflation is running at over 10%. We asked (very politely) if you would raise this with your colleagues. But alas, it appears that this didn’t go further.

As you may have noticed, we did end up taking industrial action on 1 February. It was the biggest Civil Service strike in a decade, with the biggest pickets across Defra sites in a generation. It was fabulous. Our membership and confidence grows every day.

So, we think it would be just fab if you might have a chat with the Prime Minister, pointing out that a civil service where 1 in 12 use foodbanks, where pay has fallen between 12 and 23% in real terms since 2010, isn’t going to be able to deliver your or his agenda. As a solution to this social injustice, might we suggest a 10% pay rise?

We know the Government keeps saying this will drive up inflation. But there’s just no evidence, it is a perspective that has been refuted by leading economists across the political spectrum. The real cost to the public will be a struggling and underpaid civil service unable to deliver the Government’s agenda.

Otherwise, and this isn’t our preferred option, we will have to take industrial action again on 15 March.

Our negotiators are ready to speak whenever the Government is.

Members of PCS Defra, each one a hardworking and dedicated civil servant.