Union attacks MoD civilian job cuts

The Ministry of Defence is to cut a further 7,000 civilian posts
12 April 2012

Union leaders have attacked plans by the Ministry of Defence to cut a further 7,000 civilian posts as "shameful".

The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) said it is "totally unreasonable" for the MoD to be cutting so many posts when efforts are still being made to reduce a previously announced cull of 25,000 jobs.

Officials said they had met Defence Secretary Liam Fox several times in recent months after the Government's strategic defence and security review proposed axing 25,000 civilian and 17,000 military jobs.

Staff are expected to be sent a letter from the MoD saying that further job reductions will have to be made.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said cutting so many civilian and military jobs could put lives at risk, adding: "This is a shameful way to treat anybody, far less the people who serve on the front line, and those who support them.

"Since the defence review announcement in October, PCS has been thwarted at every turn in our attempts to find out where these cuts will be made and what impact it will have on the front line.

"How can the MoD announce more job cuts when they have no idea how they will run the department just now? PCS has been working on a coherent programme for defence that identifies and reduces waste, frees up service personnel to serve in the front line by civilianising non-essential military posts and eliminating unnecessary external expenditure.

"According to the MoD's own records, they spend approximately £6 billion per annum on external expenditure such as consultants."

An MoD spokesman said: "Tough decisions have had to be made to tackle the black hole in the MoD's finances. Now, for the first time in a generation, the MoD will have brought its future plans and future budget into close alignment.

"One of the measures necessary to achieve this is to further reduce civilian staff numbers by an additional 7,000, expected to begin from 2015. Much of this will be achieved through reductions in recruiting and not replacing those who leave. Compulsory redundancy programmes would be used only as a last resort."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in