End outsourcing in the civil service – write to your MP
PCS has launched a new e-action, calling on MPs to support our campaign to end outsourcing in the civil service.
Our e-action follows the tabling of an Early Day Motion on our behalf by John McDonnell MP (Labour), Carla Denyer MP (Green Party) and others, which calls on the government to implement without delay the manifesto commitment to review the use of outsourcing in government departments.
Outsourced services, provided by private companies like ISS and G4S, include cleaning, security and catering services across a range of government departments and agencies.
The manifesto pledge made by the Labour party prior to the general election and in relation to its plan to ‘make work pay’ is, in its own words, to ‘learn the lessons from the collapse of Carillion and bring about the biggest wave of insourcing of public services in a generation’.
PCS members working for G4S and ISS who provide support services to government departments in Whitehall and across the UK are currently engaged in industrial action, struggling to get parity on pay and terms and conditions with their civil service counterparts working in the same buildings. For workers employed by ISS, this is now the sixth year in a row that members have had to take action just to force the employer to increase their pay annually.
Outsourcing has been a disaster in the civil service and in public services more widely, creating a two-tier workforce across many sectors with those on outsourced contracts experiencing the worst terms and conditions, including pay, sick-leave and holiday entitlements.
Outsourced workers, as is the case with those working for ISS on the DESNZ contract, are more likely to be women and from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, thus increasing the urgency that this issue is resolved.
Speaking for PCS members in outsourced, private companies, PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said: ‘PCS members on outsourced government contracts have been disadvantaged for far too long. It is a critical test for the new Labour government and PCS, alongside the rest of the trade union movement, is keen to see Labour act on its manifesto pledges without delay.’
Fran added: ‘It's vital that PCS members use this e-action to write to their MP and to put as much pressure on the new government to end outsourcing once and for all’.