Activate: Urge members in Scotland devolved sector to have their say on pensions

Members outside of the Scottish devolved sector have been sent a personalised survey link asking if they support the PCS pay demands for 2024/25 and would be prepared to take part in strike action in order to achieve them.

However, members in the Scottish devolved sector – which covers 10,600 members in 37 employers – have received a different personalised survey link because they are not being balloted on pay.

As members in the Scottish sector are currently in the second year of a two-year pay deal, the questions asked are different.

Those members are being asked if they support the PCS demands on pensions, if they would be prepared to take part in strike action in order to achieve them and if they would be prepared to contribute to a levy to fund paid, targeted strike action.

That is because PCS members have been overpaying their pensions contributions by 2% each year since 2019. A key PCS demand is that the government stops raiding our members’ pockets and refunds the stolen 2% year-on-year overpayments.

The UK coalition government imposed detrimental changes to public sector pension schemes in 2015. Following litigation launched by trade unions, the High Court confirmed in 2019 that those changes were discriminatory based on age and that the discrimination must be remedied.

Rather than pay up, the government transferred this financial burden to our members, thereby ignoring the recommendations from 2019 that our members should be given a 2% reduction in pension contributions.

Currently, the government are making members pay an extra 2% per month more than they should. In other words, our members are paying to fix the discrimination that they caused. These losses are already substantial. Members can calculate their individual losses using the PCS pensions calculator.

Although PCS has taken the government to court over this move - our legal action goes to the Court of Appeal this month - we can’t rely on the legal system alone to defend our interests. That’s why we’re asking our members in Scotland to back the PCS campaign on pensions.

Please ensure Scottish sector members complete the survey by Tuesday, 5 March to have their say, so that we can gauge support for the campaign.

The NEC will look at the survey results and make any necessary decisions at its meeting in March. It is likely that strike action will be part of our campaign on pensions in Scotland so it is essential that members’ details (particularly ballot address, email and workplace) are up to date on PCS Digital.