Crown employees

Crown employees are not entitled to statutory redundancy pay or time off, but civil servants are entitled to better than statutory redundancy under their civil service redundancy scheme and to time off to look for work. The benefits payable under the scheme have, however, been significantly scaled back as a result of changes introduced by the coalition government.

A judicial review challenge was mounted by unions in 2011, based on the Human Rights Act, but it was ultimately unsuccessful. The challenge began with the case of R (Public and Commercial Services Union) v Minister for the Civil Service ([2010] EWCH 1027). In this case, the High Court agreed with the unions that the government acted unlawfully by failing to obtain the consent of all unions to its proposed changes. Consent was required under the terms of the Superannuation Act 1972, under which the scheme was originally made.

However, the government responded to this ruling by changing the law — bringing in a new Superannuation Act 2010 to remove the unions’ right to withhold consent. Next, the government brought forward a new scheme, which introduced a significant cut in the scale of benefits, and then re-opened negotiations on the basis of the new scheme. Some crown employees have had their compensation on leaving the service cut by as much as 40% as a result of these changes.

Two unions, the PCS and the Prison Officers Association, mounted a judicial review challenge to the new scheme. In R (Public and Commercial Services Union v Minister for the Civil Service [2011] IRLR 903, the Court agreed with the unions that benefits under the old scheme were protected by the European Convention on Human Rights, and also that the government’s actions “interfered” with those rights. However, the Court decided against the unions by concluding that the cut in benefits was “reasonable and commensurate” and did not go beyond what was needed to meet the “legitimate aim” of reducing the budget deficit.

PCS has confirmed that cuts to the compensation scheme remain part of its overall national campaign against cuts to jobs, pay and pensions, and that it is “committed to carrying on the fight both industrially and politically”.