Civil servants to fight quotas in bonus scheme

The PCS civil service union says it will mount a legal challenge to the Department of Work and Pensions unless it withdraws from imposing changes to the Department's bonus scheme.

The union said that the imposition of a quota system and so-called "relative assessment" to the controversial Performance and Development System (PDS) amounts to a breach of contract.

Under the changes, "at least 50% of staff will be rated as poor irrespective of their individual performance," said the union. If too many workers are given the higher performance marking, they will then be compared with each other to reduce the number of staff to the predetermined level - the "relative assessment".

The changes represent one of the main sticking points in the current pay dispute.