Redundancy pay cut court challenge fails

The High Court challenge by the PCS civil service union to the imposition of cuts to civil service redundancy pay has been dismissed, despite the judge agreeing that existing rights should be protected under human rights legislation.

Mr Justice McCombe said in his published judgment that because rights to certain redundancy terms had accrued through length of service, they were classed as a “possession” and should not be “interfered with”. But he ruled that ministers had not acted unlawfully because they had justified the cuts as a way of tackling the budget deficit and it was not for the court to interfere with the government’s economic or social policy.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “Despite the ruling, it still can not be right that low and modestly paid public servants are being forced to pay for the economic crisis with their jobs, their pay and their pensions.”

www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/pcs_comment/index.cfm/id/F84B4A0D-A717-489F-98ECFBEF1AA4B74B