PCS

Public & Commercial Services Union - trade union for civil servants

Public pay strikes in Scotland

As we go to press (20 August 2008) a 24-hour strike action by local government workers, members of UNISON, UNITE, and the GMB is taking place. The same day PCS members employed by the Scottish Government and Registers of Scotland, are staging a follow-up 24-hour strike. Both strikes are about below-inflation pay offers for workers in the public sector. The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities has offered local authority workers a three-year pay-deal, with pay going up by just 2.5% each year. Scottish Ministers have offered for Scottish government employees just 2%. These pay offers...

Short industrial reports

CIVIL SERVICE JOB SECURITY PCS members are currently being balloted on a job security agreement struck with the Civil Service. This agreement, called the protocols, is the result of long running union agitation over job security. Members should vote in favour, but be clear as to limitations and weaknesses. The original union campaign was for a no compulsory redundancy guarantee; the protocols fall short of that. The guarantee would not have saved jobs; it just would have guaranteed that the jobs run down (which still continues) was achieved without overt compulsion. This agreement means that...

Civil Service ballot on job security

By a civil servant Civil Service members of the PCS are currently being balloted on a job security agreement struck with the Civil Service. This agreement, called the protocols, is the result of a long running agitation by the Union over job security. So should members vote in favour of it. We think yes but the Union should be clear as to its limitations and weaknesses. The original union campaign was for a no compulsory guarantee; the protocols falls short of delivering that demand. The no compulsory guarantee would not have saved jobs; it just would have guaranteed that the jobs run down...

Union round up

• TEACHERS: The Executive of the National Union of Teachers on 29 May considered alternative timetables for a ballot for discontinuous strike action to continue the pay campaign. The recommendation discussed was a ballot for the Autumn. The earliest date based on that timetable would be 12 November. An amendment (objection) to that recommendation deleted autumn and replaced it with summer. A paper prepared for the Executive included a possible summer timetable which would allow action to start at the same time as a possible Unison local government strike on the same issue which would involve...

Civil Service Pay

Pay will be the major issue before this year’s PCS national conference. Given the general pay squeeze across the public sector and high inflation rate everybody expects that civil servants will get below inflation offers; with many of these increases being non-consolidated. All rational activists agree on the importance of public sector unions working together. If this were to happen, or even if a few unions were to band together, it would be politically and industrially significant There will be major differences at conference as to the tactics needed to win. Outwardly the differences are to...

Public sector activists call for action after 24 April

Civil service by Workers’ Liberty PCS Members A number of Groups (sectors) in PCS are striking on 24 April alongside the teachers and lecturers. Our strike will make the news and will undoubtedly worry the powers that be; how much better if the whole of the PCS union was on strike. Of course it does not stop there. Where are Unison, GMB, Unite etc? Gordon Brown has a united and consistent policy towards public sector pay and employment, yet the union movement does not. At PCS national conference, which will happen shortly, AWL members have put forward motions calling on all the union to fight...

24 April in London

The picket line at the Shelter office on Old St, London, was good. On the workers' third day of strike action - after a long pause, a lot of pressure from management, and a lot of foot-dragging or worse from full-time union officials - picket numbers were still buoyant, and the mood was defiant. Old Street is the base for Shelter's top management, and employs a lot of agency workers, so some people did go into work. But, during the time I was on the picket line, only similar numbers to those on the 5 and 10 March strikes. I hear that there was some weakening of the strike in other areas. That...

Workers' Liberty PCS bulletin for 24th April

Not just one-off actions To win: an ongoing strategy with selective strikes It is to be welcomed that a number of Groups within PCS are on strike alongside the Teachers (NUT) and Lecturers (UCU). We are all suffering from the same pay squeeze policy initiated by New Labour; we are all suffering from the effects of inflation; to varying degrees we are threatened by encroachment of the private sector into our work areas; in other words we are bound together by common material interests. The problem though is that only part of the PCS is on strike even though the problems listed above e.g the pay...

In Brief: Northern Rock, Shelter, Tube, Driving examiners strike

Driving examiners strike The pay and jobs disputes in the Department for Transport (DfT) continue. Following a one day strike on 29 February by seven of the eight bargaining units within DfT, staff in the Maritime Coastguard Agency (MCA) took a day of action on 6 March. The union in DfT has followed this up with targeted action in the Driving Standards Agency. This targeted action will mean that administrative staff take a half day’s strike on 20 March. Driving examiners take a 2.5 hour strike on the 20th and a 1.5 hour strike on the 25th. The union calculates that this action will nearly have...

Fighting low and unequal pay

On the 29 February members of the PCS union in the Department for Transport (DfT) took strike action over low and unequal pay, jobs and privatisation. The strike had a great impact: • Picket lines were in operation across Britain; • MPs joined the pickets in Stockton, Northampton and in London; • At the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) the support was very strong, with the huge main office in Swansea making top billing on BBC Wales at lunchtime. Local activists believe that it was the best supported action held in Swansea for years; • In the local DVLA office network members managed...

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.