PCS: 270,000 civil servants begin strike vote over pay

PCS: 270,000 civil servants begin strike vote over pay

PCS: 270,000 civil servants begin strike vote over pay

The ballot started today of 270,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) for a programme of national industrial action over the government’s policy to cap public sector pay to below inflation.

The strike ballot, involving civil and public servants working across the UK, comes as anger mounts over the government’s public sector pay policy which is disproportionately hitting some of the lowest paid in the public sector. This year has already seen pay strikes hit jobcentres, passports, immigration and coastguards across the UK and follows this week’s strike in the Scottish courts service, museums and sportscotland.

This year has also seen PCS members co-ordinating their industrial action over pay with other public sector unions, including NUT, UCU and Unison.

In the strike ballot running to 17 October, members will be asked to back plans for a national civil service wide strike followed by a programme of targeted industrial action that will extend into the new year. The union will also step up its work with other unions in co-ordinating campaigning and industrial action where appropriate.

With a quarter of the civil service earning less than £16,500 and thousands earning just above the minimum wage, the government’s policy of capping public sector pay has hit some of the lowest paid in the public sector the hardest and led to real terms pay cuts and pay freezes.

Pay in the civil service is worse than other parts of the public sector because ‘progression’ (moving from the minimum to the maximum of the pay range) is included in the government’s pay cap. Hence there is less money available to fund basic pay awards.

Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, said: “The government profess to be on the side of hard pressed families at a time of an economic downturn, yet are plunging ten of thousands of hardworking public servants into financial misery through their discredited and draconian pay policy. Low paid civil and public servants aren’t the causes of inflation but the victims of inflation who are facing soaring food, fuel and housing costs at the same time as pay cuts and pay freezes.

“It is disgraceful that a government who are supposedly on the side of fairness should pursue a pay policy that sees 40% of staff in the Department for Work and Pensions and 30% of staff in the Identity and Passport Service receive no pay rise this year whatsoever. Added to this you have coastguard watch assistants receiving a special pay rise to keep their pay above the minimum wage. The government can avoid damaging industrial action by recognising the hardship it is causing and by reviewing its unjust and unfair policy of below inflation pay.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

For further information, interviews and comment please contact Alex Flynn PCS national press officer on 07833 978216.

PCS, the Public and Commercial Services Union is the union representing civil and public servants in central government. It has more than 300,000 members in over 200 departments and agencies. It also represents workers in parts of government transferred to the private sector. PCS is the UK’s sixth largest union and is affiliated to the TUC. The general secretary is Mark Serwotka and the president is Janice Godrich.

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