The case for fully-funded, above inflation pay rises for all civil servants was put by our general secretary Mark Serwotka to the new minister for government resilience and efficiency at a meeting in Whitehall today.

With just 4 days to go until our consultative pay ballot closes, Mark stressed to Caroline Nokes this morning the need to have a negotiated Civil Service Compensation Scheme that respects civil servants’ redundancy rights. He also told her the government must use the budget on 22 November to put in funding for above inflation rises across the civil service.

Mark also took the opportunity to call on the government to stop its office closure programme and cuts to civil service jobs. He said that the minister assured PCS that she wants better industrial relations with our union and agreed to hold future meetings with our union on the issues he raised.

In a video recorded immediately after this morning’s meeting at the Cabinet Office, Mark provided an update on the talks and urged all members to vote yes in the ballot.

He said: “Having met the minister, the most important thing we can do is to send the government a very strong message in the next few days. Our ballot on the question of pay closes at noon on Monday (6 November), so if you haven’t voted yet this is your final chance to vote yes, yes in the ballot to give us a very strong hand so we can negotiate decent levels of pay and decent redundancy arrangements. The stronger the message, the better the chance of a decent negotiated settlement.”

Find out more about our pay campaign.