PCS

Public & Commercial Services Union - trade union for civil servants

Civil servants strike on Budget Day

Working-class people saw further attacks in George Osborne’s 20 March budget in the form of cuts to benefits and a continued pay freeze for public sector workers. However, the strike by PCS members across the civil service on Budget Day — over pay, pensions, and terms and conditions — should help raise our spirits! The government’s policies of pay restraint and pay freezes have seriously eaten into the living standards of the lowest paid civil servants over the past years. They face another hike in pension contributions this April with a further, final increase in April 2014. The 20 March...

Industrial news in brief

PCS branches are mobilising to defend workplace reps victimised for union activity. Lee Rock in Sheffield, Jon Bigger in Merseyside, and Kevin Smith in Bootle all face the sack for trade union activity. For more on these cases, and how labour movement activists can support Lee, Jon, and Kevin, see here . The Civil Service Rank-and-File Network (CSRF), a newly-formed grouping of PCS activists, is planning local actions to coincide with the European TUC’s Day of Action on 13 March. Union officials block Lewisham hospital fight Activists in Lewisham Hospital in south London are discussing their...

Civil servants' budget day strike

The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) will begin a three-month programme of industrial action, including strikes, on 20 March, when George Osborne announces his budget. The strikes are against a variety of measures, including attacks on pay, job losses, and pension reforms. The programme will include both national and sector-specific action, and will combine strikes with other industrial action. In between days of industrial action, the union will organise local protests and campaigning activity around specific themes. PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “This is not a one-day...

Tories attack civil servants' union rights

The government has begun reducing facility time (paid time off from work duties in order to carry out trade union activity) within the civil service. By the end of this year, we expect facility time will be reduced by about 50% and many, if not most, union activists currently on a 100% facility time will be on 50% or less per cent. There are good union arguments for nobody to be a full-time rep. But there is the world of difference between the labour movement deciding that and a Tory minister cutting overall time off for all activists. This government is obviously hoping to weaken the union...

Department for Education workers strike

Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) members in the Department for Education have voted by 63% to strike against cuts. Bosses’ cuts plan for the department threatens six office and 1,000 jobs. A PCS statement said: “Last autumn, following a review led by global management consultancy Bain and Company, the department announced it would be shedding more than a quarter of its workforce, going further even than chancellor George Osborne’s required level of cuts. “The union believes education secretary Michael Gove is using the department as an ideological test-bed for wider civil service...

Civil service fightback

Ballot papers have been sent out to 250,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) working in the civil service and associated bodies. The ballot is for discontinuous strike action and action short of a strike. The dispute is about pay, job security, pensions, and terms and conditions. A series of regional briefings have been held in the run-up to the ballot to ask reps what sort of action, and how much of it, will members support. Feedback from the briefings suggests all is not well. Some reps have said the pay claim (5% or £1,200 — whichever is greater) is unrealistic...

PCS national strike ballot

The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) will launch a nationwide strike ballot on Friday 8 February. The ballot will close on 4 March. PCS members will be balloted for strikes over a range of issues, including job cuts and attacks on pay. A union statement said: “Because of massive job cuts civil and public servants are working harder than ever to provide the public services that we all rely on. But instead of rewarding them, the government is cutting their pay, raiding their pensions and trying to rip up their contracts by cutting terms and conditions. “A plan announced in the autumn...

DWP jobs saved?

A strike by workers in the Department for Work and Pensions against job losses, scheduled for 21 January, is unlikely to go ahead. The ballot, in response to the announcement of 43 compulsory redundancies, returned a vote in favour strikes, but it now looks as though management might back down from that. PCS union leaders say talks with management have been “very positive”. As we go to presss, the exact detail of the talks is unknown. Members should decide on the future of the dispute. If the jobs have indeed been saved, that is a significant victory.

Civil servants' strike ballot

Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) members in the Department for Work and Pensions will strike on 21 January if a ballot, which closes on 10 January, returns a yes vote. The immediate context for the ballot is the announcement of 43 compulsory redundancies, but the potential strike comes against a backdrop of a much wider set of attacks against DWP workers. DWP sites, including Job Centres, face cuts, and the automation of various benefits processes also threatens jobs. Workers at the DWP Social Fund also face what the union calls “an uncertain future”, with the Fund due for abolition...

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