Members across the union will be hugely disappointed and demoralised with today’s announcement of the DWP pay ballot result.

Despite a 5-week balloting period, only 37.5% of members were convinced to vote, making it by far the worse result for a pay ballot in a large group since the introduction of the 2016 trade union act.

As the union has missed out by the 50% threshold by so much, we are unable to call any action and the pay campaign this year is dead in the water. This despite the horrific position on pay DWP staff have been left with.

It would be very easy for us to place all blame for this result on the campaign run by this year’s DWP Group Executive Committee (GEC), and it’s true that the campaign was woeful, but we need to accept that the problem in DWP runs much deeper than a poorly executed 5-week ballot campaign.

Unfortunately, the leadership don’t have the inclination or ability to address these issues. This was made clear to members hours after the result, when the group published a very undignified list of claims and excuses about the ballot, including the positively Orwellian claim that ‘your GEC has run a strong campaign’. Which begs the question, what would a weak campaign look like?

It will convince no members or reps involved on the ground who will believe their eyes and ears. But of course, it isn’t aimed at us DWP members, it’s aimed at shoring up support across the rest of the union during the ongoing branch AGM season.

Back to fundamentals

This result is not an aberration, and as we’ve said, it cannot be soley laid at the feet of a poor 5-week campaign. Decades of top-down organising and bargaining has rendered the union inert in DWP.

Since the right-wing were overthrown by mass membership mobilisation in the early 2000’s, reps and members have been told that as long as you vote for the right people to lead the group every year, you don’t need to concern yourselves with anything else.

This model ensured that a culture of complacency set root in workplaces, members were slowly stripped of their agency and control moved from the workplace to the group.

Over the years, attacks such as check-off, the Employee Deal and years of real-terms pay cuts, which should have rallied members to action, has instead resulted in a collapse in union density and participation. Demonstrated by the collapse in Group density from 75% in 2016 to less than 50% today.

Stats which leave us as a union powerless in the face of the employer who knows our weakness and is able to respond to our admittedly woeful bargaining efforts with such distain.

Some branches, from across the factional spectrum, but most consistently those who side with the Independent Left, have managed to swim against this tide, and they consistently achieve higher membership engagement, but this is despite the Group Leadership.

Membership control

While it’s clear to us that pay is a significant issue for members in DWP. An issue we’ve been consistently vocal on, the insistence of the Group to ignore other issues which have demonstrably significant members’ support remains a key issue.

For example, hybrid workers, hundreds of which tuned up to members meetings to vote in favour of action against the increase of the office attendance mandate were refused a ballot. Similarly, members in HQ London, 69% of which attended to members meetings and physically voted for action against redundancies were denied a ballot. Instead, the GEC made the decision on their behalf that they would be balloted over pay instead.

Imagine the confusion and frustration of these members. It’s certainly not the actions of a member-led union.

A pay campaign is desperately needed, but the demands need to reflect the interests of all our members. The headline demand of this ballot was to re-open talks and to re-allocate the maximum to the lowest paid.

The GEC are right to prioritise the lowest paid, but without a specific fixed sum or percentage demand for all grades, some members in the middle to senior grades may be forgiven for thinking the demands were either to reallocate money away from them or that any new money would not be directed to their grades. It’s bizarre to us that the dispute didn’t include concrete and tangible demands to agitate around.

Again, if we want to convince the majority to vote for action, we need demands which reflect the interests of the majority of our members.

How do we fix this?

It can’t be fixed overnight, and it certainly can’t be fixed by repeating the same mistakes year after year.

Some things are easier than others. For a start, DWP members need a Group Executive Committee which will listen and support members and branches to fight on the issues that are important to them. Be that hybrid working, redundancies, pay, staffing etc. Members and staff in general are more likely to be engaged with the union and join if we are fighting for their interests.

We also need to be bolder in how we agitate. Passivity is a key symptom of the disease in DWP. Organising rudderless, open-ended ‘fact-finding’ members meetings does not inspire and does not motivate. It’s not ‘organising’ and it’s not ‘leadership’.

Members need to be convinced that there is a plan and that they have the agency to win disputes. This is what members and car-park meetings should be centred on.

But longer term, we need to change the culture.

Across the trade union movement, including parts of PCS, disputes are spreading from the workplace. Where reps on the group are able to organise freely, or willing to organise against their bureaucracy when needed has resulted in explosions of membership and activity. This hasn’t come from the NEC or GEC’s, but from the workplace.

In DWP we need a GEC who will take risks in support of members and who will clear the way for disputes, and who will ensure through training and organising that reps are armed with the tools to agitate effectively.

The alternative is for branches to re-nominate and re-elect the same GEC with the same top-down culture, expecting a different result.

If you agree, we urge PCS members and reps, but especially those in DWP branches to nominate and support candidates on the joint Coalition for Change DWP Group Executive and National Executive slate at their branch Annual General Meetings. Candidates including Bev Laidlaw for National President. A DWP rep whose branch has consistently practiced the principles we advocate, and which are so desperately needed on a national scale.

We also urge reps and members to join PCS Independent Left in fighting for these principles throughout the year.

Group President:

• Rachel Heemskerk

Vice Presidents:

• Bev Laidlaw
• Vijay Menezes-Jackson
• Katrine Williams

Assistant Secretaries:

• Abigail Clark
• Kip Collins
• Michele Greb
• Craig Hodgson
• Yemisi Ilesanmi
• Steve Jouanny
• Declan Power

Organiser:

• Reece Lawton

GEC Ordinary Members:

• William Campbell
• Abigail Clark
• Kip Collins
• Michele Greb
• Tom Harris
• Rachel Heemskerk
• Craig Hodgson
• Yemisi Ilesamni
• Steve Jouanny
• Bev Laidlaw
• Reece Lawton
• Vijay Menezes-Jackson
• Jenny Pollard
• Declan Power
• Wayne Scott
• George Thompson
• Katrine Williams

The 2026 NEC elections are a vital juncture for members to regain control of their union from Left Unity and the bureaucracy; the Independent Left is part of the Coalition for Change electoral alliance which is fighting to make this happen by delivering its programme.

For 2026 we need a new President and NEC that will undertake the dual tasks of leadership; to listen and to lead. The President of PCS should not exercise dictatorial powers, no matter who they are or what faction they are from. Bev Laidlaw of the Independent Left is the Presidential candidate for the Coalition for Change. Bev has a longstanding record against the increasing role of the bureaucracy in the union and understands how to listen to members and reps to help to transform it alongside us all.

A Coalition-led NEC will begin the process of refounding PCS by improving its democracy, communication and the power and resources that reps and members have to deliver change on the ground, ending the monopoly of power by unelected staffers. If PCS is to thrive, it must be genuinely democratic, drawing on members and reps’ knowledge and giving them the tools and resources to build successful industrial campaigns and deliver wins. A transformed rank and file led union will fight on jobs, terms and conditions and pay, overturning long-term decline by the LU leadership.

In the last year most members have seen their pay fall when compared to inflation. Low pay remains endemic and our lowest paid members are routinely overtaken by the National Minimum Wage rise each April.

At the Annual Delegate Conference in May last year, your delegates passed motions to build a national campaign to fight the Government for fair pay and wider terms and conditions changes, with the aim of moving to an industrial action ballot in September.

Since the election of a Left Unity-majority NEC and re-election of Martin Cavanagh as President, we have seen an abdication of leadership by our elected officials and the employed bureaucracy, seemingly singularly directed by Fran Heathcote, the General Secretary.

The union effectively demobilised over the summer, did ineffectual choreographed engagement with Group and Branch representatives and concluded in September not to proceed to ballot members to advance the national campaign.

They ran down the Fighting Fund by blocking motions last year to increase contributions and by processing their irresponsible ‘levy refund’. They did not launch a true national campaign this year because they actively eroded the conditions to have one. All the while, they announce the (lack of) outcomes from their meetings with the Cabinet Office even though there has been no material progress.

Beyond pay, the leadership have been ineffective in stemming increasing workloads, the erosion of hybrid working, fighting unilateral rota changes by management, opposing office closures, tackling the rising threat of AI to civil service jobs and the deliberate attack by the government on London-based civil service jobs in particular through Places for Growth and the Plan for London. Can any PCS member say that the current union leadership has done them proud on these urgent issues?

A Coalition for Change-led NEC will build momentum towards a coordinated industrial fight, including national and selective strikes, and action short of strikes, to force the government to concede members’ legitimate demands on pay, pensions and jobs, but also to secure genuine freedom and flexibility for our members in how and where we do our work. We will fight to put equality at the heart of everything PCS does and support reps and members with discrimination cases.

This is just a small part of the programme we will deliver if we are elected, read more about our joint platform in full and vote for the Independent Left and Coalition for Change candidates! And if you want to help shape our work to change PCS, consider joining the IL for just £3 per month.

In the Independent Left we know that rights for trade union members and reps aren’t just given by management, they’re fought for and won. In the IL we believe there is a need to refound PCS from the top to the bottom, to make it more democratic and put power in the hands of members and reps rather than unelected officials. 

HMRC plays a crucial role in developing a national campaign worthy of the name on pay, job security and pensions and we will seek to build our strength to deliver that, for too long we have been passive in the fightback against the employer. 

We must also be part of a co-ordinated, cross-Civil Service drive on new and emerging campaigns about how and where we work, so we can fight for a workplace that gives us power to do Our Work, Our Way, whether that is about pushing back against rigid office attendance policies or about preventing unilateral management rota changes. There are industrial Our Work Our Way campaigns happening across the Civil Service, with industrial action and action short of strike, and it is time HMRC prepared itself to join this fight. 

On HMRC-specific issues, on the GEC we would seek to:

1. From Fear to Fighting- Building a Better Branch Culture 

Access Agreements for Reps and Members – The Employment Rights Act has created ‘Access Agreements’ for unions in workplaces and this provides a generational opportunity to change the toxic anti-union culture within HMRC and, by fighting for the right Agreement, allow reps to communicate with members on employer systems and map their branch density without undue management interference. We will also push to create a guidance document so reps and members know what is and isn’t suitable for Government systems. Other reps in Civil Service employers have these rights, it’s time for us to insist on the same.

Back to basics political education – To build a better culture, it needs to start with members on day one of their membership. We will push to create starter packs for members, to be sent when they join, with the aim of tweaking the mindsets of new starters to believe they deserve better. We will also pressure HR to provide a list of new starters to BECs, so they may be contacted by reps in their area and encouraged to join. In addition, we want to revamp the Business Trade Union Side structures to be member-led and grassroots, moving away from a liaison model and more to coordinating collective action in a business area.

End Toxic Management– In areas like parts of Customer Services Group where there are bullying managers and toxic environments, we will fight for members to be protected and for reps to organise against these managers with guidance on tactics and strategies for reps to use. All staff should feel empowered to push back on unreasonable demands from above.

For a Development-led P&D System– Other parts of the Civil Service have P&D systems which are development led, they are based on identifying skills gaps and working out how to help them develop their careers and skills, not based around narrow performance criteria and using Performance Improvement Plans as a fast track to dismissal. We must develop a campaign in HMRC based around pushing management to implement a Model P&D Policy that we develop and end the rigid performance management focus of P&D. 

2. Improving Agitational and Industrial Strength 

Multi-Employer Building Organising– Create a plan to ensure branch details of BECs are shared between those in the same workplaces and local areas to enable local organising and mobilising to support national union policy. Support the establishment of joint Health and Safety Committees to help deliver this in the short term, before wider union policy change.

End Strike Breaking– organise within the Surge and Rapid Response Team to prevent this in-house contingent labour being used to break strikes through political education and organisation of these workers.

Insource FM workers – build a campaign to insource FM workers, starting by improving relations with FM staff in buildings and encouraging reps to represent FM staff even if in their own time. Identify potential FM reps and build a campaign to win.

3. Creating a Member-led Group

Branch Mergers – Members need to be involved in the decisions that impact them. If HMRC Group or PCS National believe changes to branch structures would be beneficial; the branches themselves, who are best placed to understand the impact of such changes, should be meaningfully consulted and their views considered when decisions are made. Fostering our members’ sense of ownership of their branch is crucial to the lifeblood of our union.

VOA merger, not a hostile takeover – ensure a thorough comparison of T&Cs for HMRC and VOA takes place and the optimised policies for workers are implemented- we must see upwards harmonisation with thorough comparison and a fight for change, not enable the merger to result in a race to the bottom. 

In the IL we are happy to work with any member, rep, faction or group who is committed to delivering our programme and shares in our wider aims. If elected, we will build a stronger PCS within HMRC and hope you will support us in this fight.

Our IL candidates are: 

Rose Baker (R&C PCS Croydon Regional Centre Branch)

Fi Weldin (R&C PCS Croydon Regional Centre Branch)

and other candidates who support our aims. 

The PCS Independent Left think that it’s important that members come together to discuss the challenges our union faces and recognising the importance of rank and file organising we’re beginning a series of monthly online meetings to discuss how we can transform our union and meet those challenges.

The first in this meeting series will take place online via zoom Friday 13th February (12:30 – 13:30) where we will discuss how we respond collectively to the continuing wave of cuts across the Civil Service.

The government has announced sweeping budget cuts across the Civil Service. It is estimated that Departmental administration budgets will be cut by 11% in real terms between 2025/26 and 2028/29, with a further 5% in 2029/30 alone.

In order to meet these cuts, Departments have already enacted a raft of redundancies and recruitment controls. The impact is likely to be the most severe in London, where the Plans for Growth scheme incentivises employers to decrease the proportion of jobs in the capital relative to other specific locations, significantly reducing access to public sector jobs for working class people in the most diverse region of the country.

We have to oppose all efforts to reduce budgets through pay cuts or job losses – through a coordinated and rigorous industrial response. But so far, PCS has failed to provide the leadership we need. We need to build from the bottom up and bring together affected workforces.

Join the Independent Left for a discussion to pool ideas and begin to organise the fight back – both in our own branches and across the Civil Service – against cuts.

Join the discussion next Friday (13/02/26), 12:30 – 13:30, via the zoom link below:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85916233677?pwd=OSW4GNbBPGxY1aZ7aPdYenLjH95jJC.1

This meeting will be the first in a series of monthly online meetings so keep your eyes open for the next meeting.

If you’re interested in building a rank and file democracy that seeks to empower members, then consider joining the Independent Left in our campaign to transform the union.