Slashing and privatising public services: David Cameron's 'aspiration nation'
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Version 0 of 1. Earlier this week civil servants learned – through a combination of newspaper leaks and ministerial bravado from the cosseted confines of their conference – that their working conditions were under threat. Their hours, leave entitlement, childcare facilities, chances of promotion or filling vacancies, attendance management system, flexitime arrangements, and even their opportunities for volunteering (RIP the "big society") are all to be reviewed. This is not being done in an open way in consultation with staff and their unions but as an opportunity to tackle their terms and conditions. This perpetuates the myth of gold-plated pen-pushers, and talk of "fairness" with the private sector is straight out of the race-to-the-bottom rhetoric we saw in the dispute over public sector pensions. Working in the civil service is no bed of roses. More than 35,000 jobs have been cut in the last year. Those that remain had their pay frozen for two years when inflation breached 5%, and are now subject to a two-year pay cap of 1%, with inflation at three times that level. As Francis Maude acknowledged in 2010, "median pay in the civil service is lower than that in the private sector". Since April these same workers – who you might know as benefits officers, tax inspectors, court clerks, coastguards or driving examiners – have been paying more for a pension that will be worth less and which they won't get for up to eight more years. This has led to a culture of terminally low morale in the civil service. In the latest staff survey, only 22% felt that "when changes are made in the department they are usually for the better", and only 27% felt changes were managed well. The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) also has almost 30,000 members in the private sector, and our members in both sectors tell us how tough things are for them and their families. Our union is not arguing for special rights for public servants. Our argument is much more fundamental than that. What this government is doing to the economy, to public services and to people on benefits or in care is a disgrace. They told us in 2010 that all this pain was to tackle an unavoidable crisis. Now the IMF is lining up with us to say that austerity is becoming counter-productive. And it's obvious: if you cut people's pay, cut benefits, and cut the investment that creates jobs, you won't get growth – and without that you can't close the deficit. Already this year the deficit has risen by 22%. They are making the situation worse: all pain, no gain. You begin to question whether they're just malicious. How else could you say there's no money for care homes, disability benefits, A&E units, libraries, and women's refuges, yet give tax breaks to the super-rich? But this is not just malice; it's ideology. They know austerity is not working and can't work. All the academic research shows this to be the case, even if basic common sense didn't tell you that cutting jobs and incomes cannot lead to growth. The Tories have set out to slash the public sector's great civilising institutions of our society, and to privatise what remains. Under the cover of dealing with a crisis they are actually exacerbating, they will cut and privatise all they can unless we can stop them. David Cameron calls this the "aspiration nation". It is. Where once we had rights to housing, healthcare, education, welfare, decent pay and pensions, now we can only aspire to them. With another two and a half years before the next election, a new coalition is forming: the dispossessed – people who have lost their job, their local library, the home care for an elderly relative, the chance to study at college or university. On Saturday 20 October this new coalition, hundreds of thousands of people strong, will be marching through London, Belfast and Glasgow for "A Future That Works". Our members know why they are marching – for their jobs, pensions and pay. There is no shortage of reasons why you should join them. |