PCS

Public & Commercial Services Union - trade union for civil servants

Go for action, not a pause (John Moloney's column)

We’re now into the last week of our national industrial action ballot campaign (closing 7 November). We’re confident of getting over the line in many areas, whilst falling short in some, and we need to look at the practicalities of re-ballots where that happens. My view is that we should re-ballot as soon as possible in any area where we get over, say, 40%. There’s also an ongoing discussion about what to do with the mandates we do win. Some argue for a pause, and using the mandate as a kind of ultimatum to the employer — “if you don’t negotiate with us, we’ll call strikes.” Personally I think...

PCS ballot ends 7 November (John Moloney's column)

Monday 7 November is the last day for our national ballots. Effectively though, votes will not be counted if members don’t send them off by the the previous Friday at latest. We know from information recorded by branches that in many areas we are getting close to the 50%, in some we are over, but in others, we still have a way to go. Over the coming days we have to redouble our efforts to get members to vote. We are running a disaggregated ballot in over 200 areas. This means that by the end of the ballots, we may have a patchwork of positive ballots, but others where we did not get to the...

A sense of confidence (John Moloney's column)

Our members working for His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) in 65 magistrates’ courts across England and Wales will strike 22-30 October. They’re fighting for the removal of a computer system that’s been introduced for organising their work, called “Common Platform”. The system increases workload whilst also opening the door to job cuts, the worst of all worlds. It’s important that, while our national ballot continues (26 September to 7 November), local and departmental disputes continue to be fought, and that we keep a focus on them. We have a number of such disputes which are...

John Moloney's column: More young workers joining

The ballot of UK civil service and other members of PCS for industrial action began on 26 September, with a closing date of 7 November. The reports I’m getting are very encouraging, and I feel we’ve gotten off to a good, solid start. One objective measure of how we’re doing is that we’re recruiting new members at a much faster rate than we’ve done for years. We’ve gone through a period of sharp membership decline following the end of check off, followed by slow growth, but now, hundreds of new members are joining every week. That shows there’s an appetite to organise. People want to join the...

PCS ballots go out soon

We are rapidly approaching the beginning of our national ballot over the cost of living (which includes pension costs), protecting jobs and redundancy pay. The votes will start going out on 26 September and the ballot will run from then for six weeks. The ballot is unusual in that our members are not all in one voting block. Instead the voting is disaggregated by what we call the employer. This means there will be over 200 ballots, ranging from very small voting blocks, all the way up to the tens of thousands of members in the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and Revenue and Customs (HMRC...

Preparing for Truss' attacks (John Moloney's column)

The first round of strikes by our outsourced worker members at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), planned for 5-6 September, has been suspended. Local reps felt managers for the contractor ISS were making concessions in talks that were sufficient to call the strikes off. Further strikes, planned for 13-14 September, remain on, and that action will take place if those concessions don’t turn into concrete guarantees. Our members at the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) centre in Liverpool, run by Hinduja Global Systems, are on strike between 5 to 10 September...

Preparing for 26 September (John Moloney's column)

Our outsourced worker members at the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) will strike again on 5-6 and 13-14 September. It’s part of their long-running fight for workplace justice. They’re striking to win improved pay and terms and conditions. The outsourced contracts at BEIS are due to be re-tendered next year. The employer plans to take a number of outsourced contracts and consolidate them into a smaller number of regional contracts, with one for security and a separate one for cleaning, reception, and catering. We’re mounting a legal challenge to that, as we don’t...

Part of a wider movement (John Moloney's column)

We’ve been holding members’ meetings to build for our national ballot starting on 26 September. The ones I’ve been to have been well attended, and there’s a clear mood amongst members for taking action. This mood is undoubtedly helped by all the other strikes taking place and a real understanding that PCS is part of a wider movement. People are talking about what other unions are doing, and taking confidence from that. We’re getting people signed up as activists, committing to take responsibility for getting the vote out. A lot of them are younger members, under 30, so hopefully this can be...

PCS to ballot from 26 September (John Moloney's column)

The PCS National Executive (NEC) has decided to begin a national ballot over the cost of living crisis, threats to redundancy payments and job security on 26 September. This ballot will last six weeks and will cover all members in the UK Civil Service. Separately, ballots over pay could be held for members in the Scottish Civil Service. The union is also encouraging areas such as Museums and Galleries and our members in the Metropolitan police to also be balloted. We all recognise that to win over 50% will be a difficult task given that the last two statutory national ballots and the...

Preparing for battle (John Moloney's column)

The PCS National Executive (NEC) meets on 13-14 July, and will decide on the tactical nuances for our upcoming ballot over pay and conditions, including the timetable and exact form of the ballot. There’s a clear majority on the NEC for disaggregating the ballot by department, which many feel is the best way to guarantee the maximum number of members being able to take action. Historically I’ve always favoured singular, aggregated ballots for national pay and conditions disputes, but this is a tactical question rather than a matter of principle. One message I’m hearing strongly from rank-and...

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