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24 August 2016

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£500m on civil service redundancies in two years

PCS strike on budget day, 20 March 2013 , photo Paul Mattsson

PCS strike on budget day, 20 March 2013 , photo Paul Mattsson   (Click to enlarge)

A civil service worker

Whitehall spent more than half a billion pounds on redundancy payments in two years, according to its own major departments' figures, recently published by the Telegraph.

The Tory paper is very specific in its outrage over who gets large government payouts. Its owners have been parasites on public funds for generations.

They raise a good point though. How many nurses, doctors, teachers or firefighters could be funded with the money spent on firing civil servants desperately required to carry out the basic functions of the state?

Just three people, a bunch of Whitehall apparatchiks Cameron called his 'advisors', received £1.3 million - before transferring straight to another department after his resignation. Meanwhile, around 90,000 workers have been laid off since 2010, with proposals for another 100,000 despite increasing workloads.

We demand an end to the contempt of the 1% for our public servants. Reverse all public service cuts and sell-offs.

When the ruling class agitates for an end to government profligacy, it means sacking workers without proper redundancy payments. In fact, bosses are already developing policy proposals to cut redundancy payments, despite having stated the budget is balanced following the pensions dispute of 2011.

When the government cuts funds from our public services, it's because we need to "pay down the deficit" or because "the last Labour government overspent". They dream of creating an emptied-out 'night-watchman state' that can only really exist in the fantasies of free marketeers like George Osborne and Sajid Javid.

In reality, public sector cuts are made to fund the next payout or tax cut for the super-rich. When the establishment righteously declares we need to be 'doing more for less', what it really means is that bosses should be getting more for less.

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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.

The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.

The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.

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In The Socialist 24 August 2016:


#KeepCorbyn

Kick out the Blairites

#KeepCorbyn: Answer right's attacks with firm socialist programme

Corbyn union nominations round-up and view from the workplace

#KeepCorbyn: huge support at rallies and among Labour rank and file


Socialist Party news and analysis

Black footballer's taser death: stop police racism now

Pay still below pre-crisis levels

Train fares to rise again - nationalise railways now!

£500m on civil service redundancies in two years

Them & Us


International socialist news and analysis

Trump in trouble - political polarisation deepens

International news in brief


Socialist readers' comments

Readers respond to Trotskyist red scare smears by capitalist media

Would you call G4S for help over discrimination?

The Socialist inbox


Workplace news and analysis

Deliveroo strike action forces bosses to back down

Junior doctors set for further strike action

A day in the life of a call centre worker

Workplace news in brief


Save our NHS

Save our NHS!

The threat of private health insurance

Organise against secretive NHS cuts plans


Socialist Party reports and campaigns

Greenwich council tenants: We won't pay! We won't move!

Local estate agents back Butterfields tenants

Nottinghamshire Pride makes history

Immingham residents' housing battle


 

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Related links:

Civil Service:

trianglePCS leadership ballot underway

triangleUnion conference stripped of powers by NEC

trianglePCS pay claim: Vital work unrecognised

triangleShould the Socialist still be produced during the Corona crisis? An exchange with Mark Serwotka about sales of the Socialist

triangleMore than ever, we need accountable union leaders

Redundancies:

triangleEast London cleaners fight outsourcing and redundancies

triangleLeicester university workers ballot for action against redundancies

triangle"I'm here to fight for the future education of children in Hackney"

triangleUniversity teaching moves online in England

Government:

triangleBobby Sands - Nothing but an Unfinished Song

triangleStop Israeli state brutality

triangleWelsh Labour holds on to government but new crises loom

Cuts:

triangleRMT: Militant industrial and political strategy must be fought for

triangleCan the 'Preston model' beat the cuts?

Redundancy:

triangleChristmas redundancy shock at L&Q housing association

Public services:

triangleTories keep bailing out bosses, while piling pain on workers and public services

Public sector:

triangleLessons of the 2011 pensions strike: when workers showed their power

George Osborne:

triangleSay no to finance capital-backed luxury tower block in Enfield

Budget:

triangleHands off our NHS

Article dated 24 August 2016

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