Superannuation Bill

My understanding is that on 11 October, PCS and POA tried to explore with the Minister opportunities to make the scheme fairer and more just for their members, and to set out certain parameters in which negotiations could take place. The PCS executive was scheduled to meet on 26 October to consider the next steps in its negotiations with the Government, but on 25 October it received a letter from the Minister, who told them that negotiations had been concluded and that he would implement the proposals that he set out on 4 October. I do not consider that an appropriate way to seek agreement. As a result, PCS wrote to the Minister on 26 October to say that it was willing to submit proposals. He welcomed that offer and confirmed he would reopen talks if proposals came from the Council of Civil Service Unions, which is exactly what the PCS did—it submitted the parameters and proposals via the CCSU in a constructive approach to reach agreement. The Cabinet Office made no attempt to go into any detail on those proposals or to cost them, and on 9 November, the CCSU submitted terms to open the detail of talks with the Minister, who must have been aware of the background to that letter and of the detail of the PCS proposals. However, on 15 November, he said that the window for talks was closed. Although PCS sent a further letter on 16 November, it was informed that there would be no future talks. That is a different historical account of those negotiations. The unions, which represented the vast majority of their members, were open to continuing talks to reach an agreed settlement. If amendment 1 had been in place before those talks, the House might have had a more objective historical account of the negotiations than the Minister or I have given—at least we would have had the opportunity of receiving a full report. However, the Minister's amendments have denied us the opportunity of a report on those negotiations and allow a report only of future negotiations. That is extremely disappointing. It is another act that will undermine civil servants' confidence that they are being treated fairly by the Government at this critical time in their lives—we are told that 360,000 of them will lose their jobs because of the comprehensive spending review and subsequently. In addition to souring the industrial relations climate, the Government have opened up a vista of legal challenges—under article 11 of the European convention on human rights and article 1, protocol 1—which has occurred before. Amendment 1 is the Government's attempt to find legal cover for their infringement of those articles, particularly article 11, but it does not go far enough. In fact, amendments 2 and 3 take away that cover completely in respect of the current negotiations. The Government's proposals are legally precarious to say the least. I am sure that there will be a legal challenge from PCS. I believe that it will be successful. In the previous Government's negotiations, PCS threatened legal challenge, and it was advised by civil servants—they met us a week before the general election was declared—that the Government were confident of winning in court. The same civil servants advise this Government of the same thing. They were wrong before the election, and I believe that they are wrong now. In fact, PCS is yet to lose a case against the Government. We have the prospect of tens or perhaps hundreds of thousands of civil servants being made redundant. If the Government's proposals are overturned, the civil servants who are made redundant under the imposed scheme could seek legal redress and compensation, which could run into many millions of pounds. The challenge will be on two grounds. The first will be article 11, which is meant to protect the right of trade unions to negotiate on behalf of their members. Until 2008, the Europe Court of Human Rights treated the right to collective bargaining and the right to strike merely as examples of individual aspects of freedom of association that states could choose as means of complying with article 11, ensuring that unions could at least be heard. However, Demir and Baykara v. Turkey changed the atmosphere and legal standing of article 11 and that of the right to collective bargaining. The grand chamber resiled specifically from the original rulings and elevated the right to collective bargaining to the status of an essential element of article 11. Interference with this right has to be justified against the background of the historical circumstances of the country. However, in this country, there is a long history of the right of civil servants in negotiations and of collective bargaining by the civil service, which I believe enforces the article 11 rights of this particular union. On the basis, I believe that the amendments do not go anywhere near far enough to protect the Government from legal challenge. The second basis for a legal challenge against the amendments, which fail to provide the Government with cover, is that dealt with by the Joint Committee on Human Rights. The amendments fail to address the need for agreement by the unions over their protected and accrued rights under the compensation scheme. Article 1 of the first protocol of the European convention on human rights insists on the right to peaceful enjoyment of possessions. Under the scrutiny of the Joint Committee, the Bill has been found to be lacking in providing that protection. First the Government argued that they were not possessions, but that was quashed by the law courts in their last judgment against the previous Government. The Joint Committee found the Government's arguments over possession to be unacceptable. They are accepted then as accrued rights, which means that they can be interfered with only as a result of agreement—amendment 3 insists not on agreement but simply consultation—or if the interference is justified. However, the Joint Committee determined that the Government had brought forward no justification—and, in fact, had not even addressed seriously the justification for interference with these accrued rights, which the civil service has garnered over years of negotiation and service. For that reason, the amendments will fail to protect the Government against further legal challenge. I urge the Government, therefore, to think again. On the legalities of the Bill, even as amended by the Lords amendments, we are entering legal quicksand, and the Government will regret that. I think they recognise that and have inserted the changes into the legislation rather than the original scheme because they were worried about the scheme being quashed very quickly in the UK courts of law. Even with the amendments, however, the Government are entering an industrial relations minefield and a political morass. So I urge the Government, even at this late stage, to step back. PCS, the POA and the other unions are still willing to meet and negotiate, to see whether a reasonable settlement can be obtained. I urge the Government to take up the offer of getting back around the table. The unions are willing to negotiate because these measures will have such a significant impact on their members. In Committee, we heard example after example of the impact on individual lives of such a severe deterioration in the redundancy payments being offered to civil servants. The POA and PCS are reflecting the views of their members about this Government's threat to their redundancy payments. It is for that reason that the POA and PCS are willing to get back round the table and seek a reasonable agreement with the Government. However, I believe that, failing that, there will be legal actions and industrial action. They will undermine the credibility of this Government in any future negotiations or when they want to make changes not just to the scheme in question, but to other conditions of service across the civil service. Surely it is better to bring along a willing work force—a committed work force, with high morale and people who are willing to implement the Government's policy with enthusiasm because they enjoy their jobs, rather than people living under the threat of being made redundant without adequate compensation. I urge the Government, even at this late state, to back off—to pull the Bill this evening, enter negotiations, get back round the table and seek an agreed settlement that brings in all the unions, rather than trying to divide them in the way that the Government have.