PCS

Public & Commercial Services Union - trade union for civil servants

DWP strike

Nearly 3,000 civil servants in the Department for Work and Pensions across seven sites struck on Thursday 20 and Friday 21 January. Some of the offices in Bristol, the Chorlton district of Manchester, Glasgow, Makerfield near Wigan, Newport in south Wales, Norwich, and Sheffield, have already been set up as call centres. Others are due to transform to call centres in the near future. The workers are demanding that they are given a mixture of duties, rather than just answering telephone calls. This work is very stressful. This, coupled with the harsh management regime, means that “Contact...

Support Jobcentre Contact Centre strikes

3,500 civil servants in the Department for Work and Pensions will strike on Thursday 20 and Friday 21 January against dramatic changes to their work conditions. The workers, members of the PCS union, are based at seven sites across the country — Bristol, the Chorlton district of Manchester, Glasgow, Makerfield, Newport, Norwich and Sheffield. The offices currently process benefit claims and deal with enquiries on the phone. Now management are “transforming” these sites into call centres. DWP has been moving to a call centre model of working for a number of years. PCS advocates dealing with...

Jobcentre Plus benefits workers to strike against casualisation

After over a year of prevaricating, the PCS leadership have finally called strike days around the Jobcentre Plus (DWP) “TPIP” (Telephony and Processing Implementation Project) on 20th and 21st January. This affects seven “TPIP” sites across the country, in Sheffield, Springburn, Newport, Norwich, Chorlton, Makerfield and Bristol, which were compulsorily transferred from October 2009 (some sites have yet to “transform”) which has led to a huge reduction in terms and conditions for hundreds, even thousands, of low-paid, largely grades A-C*, staff. In Sheffield, 450 staff were compulsorily...

Civil service compensation scheme: fight for levelling-up!

PCS members are balloting against Coalition threats to the Civil Service Compensation Scheme, defended from the Labour government with strike action as recently as March 2010. The ballot period ends on January 14. This is not a ballot for industrial action; it is merely a ballot to reaffirm support for the union’s existing opposition to Government plans. This is hardly the approach one might hope for from what is allegedly one of Britain’s “fighting unions.” AWL and Independent Left are voting yes, but are critical of the Left Unity leadership’s slack attitude to the “NUVOS” pension scheme...

Strikes in April? Good. But now?

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the civil service union PCS, announced his “April Thesis” in an article in the Guardian on 30 December and an interview with the Times the same day. His plan is that “by March 26, the date of the big TUC march with a million people on the streets... unions [will] have balloted or [be] balloting for industrial action... followed by mass industrial action” around the time of the royal wedding at the end of April. Although “a general strike is illegal”, said Serwotka, there is no legal ban on unions coordinating action for the same day. The train drivers’ union...

Jobs are vital too!

In the first half of 2011 we face mass compulsory redundancies. Our union cannot sit through these attacks. Our slogan has to be: defend pensions and employment. It now seems likely that the leadership of the PCS civil service workers' union is gearing itself up for a ballot on pensions in April next year. How that fits in with the plan of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) to have strike action in March 2011 we shall see. It would not be the first time if the two unions failed to co-ordinate action at roughly the same time over the same issue. Assume, though, that NUT and PCS will agree on...

Jobcentre Plus strike ballot: vote for action

Meetings have been held to consult over strike action among Jobcentre Plus Contact Centre Directorate (CCD) staff. Action will be over conditions. The use of call centres in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has expanded gradually over the past few years and is now the primary form of contact. And call centres involved in the Pensions, Disability and Carers’ Service have been outsourced to Ventura, where the management are strongly anti-union. Staff terms and conditions are similar to those in private sector call centres. The Telephony Implementation Project of October 2009 sees more...

Government gears up to sack civil servants

The Lib/Tory government has broken off talks with the unions about the redundancy pay entitlements of civil service workers. The government plans to "cap" redundancy payments for those sacked at a maximum of 12 months' pay, and for redundancy-volunteers at 15 months'. This will make it cheaper for the government to make the vast job cuts - maybe one-third of total staff - which they plan for the civil service. The Labour government introduced milder plans to reduce severance pay. In May the PCS union won a legal ruling that the change was illegal. The new government has introduced legislation...

Unison and PCS declare anti-cuts alliance

The civil service union PCS and Unison, which is strongest in local government and health, have announced an alliance. The union leaders declare: Two of the UK’s biggest public sector unions, UNISON and PCS, representing 1.7 million workers, have pledged to forge a powerful alliance to fight back against the coalition government's cuts to jobs and services. The unions are joining forces to campaign, co-ordinate and, where possible, take action in unity and support of each other. The government’s assault on the public sector threatens the livelihoods of 750,000 public sector workers. Job losses...

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