Rayner agrees to meet MHCLG PCS

The long running dispute of the PCS civil service union with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) continues. The dispute is focussed on office closures and their consequences, defence of the location-neutral recruitment and promotion policy, and enforced individual office attendance requirements.

Management could now easily address the first two issues and talks have taken place in recent weeks, albeit without any breakthrough being reported by PCS representatives. The emphasis of the dispute has swung towards the last issue — the right of staff to be trusted to make decisions about how and where they work from. Members who do not wish to meet the attendance requirement are standing firm on non-compliance.

Labour’s Secretary of State for Housing (SoS), Angela Rayner, now has an opportunity to resolve the dispute, proving that she can listen to workers rather than just make speeches about workers’ rights. Rayner recently told an all-MHCLG staff meeting that she is no Rees-Mogg, the former Tory MP who made cheap propaganda against flexible working for civil servants while defending or being indifferent to the outrageous privileges of MPs.

Opening

Not being Rees-Mogg is a very low bar, even as humour. But Rayner’s statement could have provided an opening for management to move from their hardline position. Revealingly however, the MHCLG Interim Permanent Secretary sought to qualify or improve Rayner’s statement by saying that while “she’s [Rayner] not Jacob Rees Mogg… that doesn’t mean you can not do your 50%, 60% or whatever [of office attendance].”

To the pleasure of many staff, a PCS representative insisted on asking Rayner if she would meet with the Union to discuss office closures and office attendance mandates. She consented. We will see if Rayner meets with PCS with a meaningful intention to resolve the dispute. But she should do — and we can say that without building illusions in her or Labour Ministers. At the time Solidarity went to press, PCS had not informed members of any date for the proposed meeting with Rayner.

On 19 August Rayner robustly insisted on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme that home working did not affect productivity in her department, saying again that she is no Rees-Mogg, that she did not need to see people in the office to know that they are working, and working very hard. Rayner’s argument chimes in with key messages of PCS MHCLG’s “Our Work Our Way” campaign.

Example

Across Whitehall, since the election of the (then Starmer) Labour Government in July 2024, civil service bosses have acted as if it is business as usual, no different to having the Tories in charge. In her first period as SoS for Housing under Keir Starmer, Rayner avoided meeting PCS during the onset of the current dispute. She can now set an example to other Labour Ministers by hearing the voice of MHCLG workers.