Public Services International The global union federation of workers in public services

After a decade of campaigning by unions, and a series of high-profile tax leaks, public anger at tax-dodgers is reaching fever pitch. To change the system, we are building political momentum at the national and global level.

Ending corporate tax dodging to fund public services

For decades we’ve been told that there simply isn’t enough money available to properly fund our public services. It is up to us to challenge this.

Austerity policies have given us privatisation, cuts to education, health and public housing, the introduction of user pays and then rising service charges. And we’ve seen wage freezes for essential front line staff.

But recently we’ve also seen a wave of other stories – the LuxLeaks, the HSBC files, the Panama Papers - which paint a very different picture about this supposed money drought.

"There is no Magic Money tree?"

Recently, a public sector nurse confronted the UK prime minister about why public sector wages have been virtually frozen for a decade. The Prime Minister's infamous response: "there is no magic money tree."

In fact, an effective crackdown on corporate tax evasion would deliver us the 'magic-money' needed for our public services.

Until recently, even progressive political leaders internalised the stale thinking that tax reform to fund public services is economically and politically untenable.

But it is difficult to believe that our leaders do not understand this problem. More likely is that they do not want to act. The golden-revolving door between high-finance and government only deepens the problem further. The Panama Papers implicated five serving heads of state, two former heads of state, four former prime ministers and 61 family members and associates of prime ministers, kings and presidents including those of China, UK, Australia, Malaysia and Mexico.

Estimates put the total amount in offshore tax havens at more than $20tn. Yet the total cost of ending extreme poverty worldwide would be a fraction of this amount – around $3.5tn..

Ordinary people, such as the Nurse who confronted the UK prime-minister, are waking up to the injustice.

They see that corporate profits have soared since governments bailed out the banks – yet we still aren’t properly funding our schools, health, housing or infrastructure. Sometimes with tragic and disastrous consequences.

The surge in support for Labour in the UK after it placed tax reform at the centre of its manifesto, or Bernie Sanders in the US, shows these policies are not just essential; they are also politically popular.

12 national leaders and 143 politicians were named in the panama papers.

We need to support politicians and parties to take a stand on tax dodging. Because if we cannot provide bold alternatives to address spiraling inequality, we risk ceding ground to the false promises and fear mongering of the far right.

Ensuring the very rich and global corporations pay their fair share has always been the best way to fund quality public services.

Building public pressure

To change the tax rules, we need local workers and their movements to build public pressure. We need national union movements to develop coherent tax-policy alternatives and push political parties to adopt and implement them. We need international institutions to stop the race to the bottom on tax and the proliferation of offshore tax havens.

Troy's employer, ExxonMobil made $24.8 billion in 3 years in Australia, yet paid zero corporate tax.

In 2016, ExxonMobil contractor UGL sacked Troy and over 200 of his co-workers and offered them their jobs back the very next day but with up to a 30 to 50 per cent drop in wages. Since then they've been on the picket-line for over 500 days and have made Exxon's dodgy tax practices a key part of their campaign. Learn More.