PCS

Public & Commercial Services Union - trade union for civil servants

PCS calls off 31 January strikes

The civil service workers' union PCS has called off strikes set for 31 January. The PCS website reports: "The Group Executive Committee (GEC) [in the Department of Work and Pensions] met on Thursday 24th January and agreed to suspend the strike planned for 31st January because the DWP had agreed at the last minute to have more talks to try to find a negotiated settlement in our pay dispute." And: "The threat of a one day strike on 31 January by revenue and customs staff, which would have disrupted self assessment tax deadline day, has been lifted PCS announced today." The DWP has already...

Draft motions on pay for PCS conference

Draft motions on pay, multi-year pay deals, and public sector alliance for PCS conference 2008. PAY 2008 1) This conference notes that: a) in 2006 and 2007 many of our civil and public sector members suffered a real cut in pay as a result of Gordon Brown’s sub inflation pay policy for the public sector; b) the inequalities in pay between civil and public sector members of the same grade but in different bargaining units remain as wide and as arbitrary as ever; c) the number of bargaining units in the civil and public sector remains extreme by any standard and is a deliberate divide and rule...

Brown says: billions for shareholders, pennies for workers

For the shareholders and potential buyers of Northern Rock, the Government is all smiles and graces. Another few billion pounds? Yes, sir, of course! For millions of public sector workers, it is a different story. The Government is insisting not only on a limit of around 2% on pay rises - which, with inflation at 4%, means cuts in real wages - but also on locking that in with settlements lasting three years. A first blow against that policy is possible on 31 January, when members of the PCS civil service union in the Department of Work and Pensions may strike against a three-year below...

Three groups of workers set to strike on 31 January

Civil service workers in the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) will strike on 31 January over pay. They are likely to be joined by workers in HMRC (Revenue and Customs), striking over job losses, and workers in the Home Office (striking over pay). Next in line are workers in the Department for Transport, who will be balloting from 25 January to 15 February. The union in DfT plans a one-day strike on 29 February, followed by a six-month plan of selective action designed for maximum impact. The DWP action is over a three-year pay settlement imposed by the employer in November 2007. DWP...

Calling off Action: Where is the SWP Going?

A key factor in trashing the possibility of a united public-sector fightback this year against Gordon Brown’s 2% limit has been the decision by the civil service union PCS, although it already had a live ballot mandate for action, to withdraw into prolonged “consultations” of its membership while the POA and CWU strikes and the Unison health and local government ballots came and went. Having “consulted” and announced that PCS members supported further national strike action, the PCS leadership then... decided to call off any further national action, at least for the time being. The main force...

Department of Work and Pensions: New tactics needed

A two day strike has called for 6 and 7 December in the Department of Work and Pensions by the civil service union, PCS. The PCS leadership in DWP have rightly called for all members to receive at least the rate of inflation (currently 4.2%) as an increase in year 1 and want talks about years 2 and 3. Under current arrangements 40% of DWP staff will get no consolidated increase in year 2 and 74% will 1% in the final year. Unfortunately the necessary preparatory work for the dispute has not happened. Two days before the strike started branches learnt there was to be a two week overtime ban...

DWP pay: how to win

Workers' Liberty leaflet for the PCS strike action in the Department of Work and Pensions (Job Centres, benefit offices, etc.) on Thursday and Friday 6 and 7 December. Download pdf here (see "attachment").

What is the SWP doing in the unions?

What is the SWP doing in the trade unions? A key factor in trashing the possibility of a united public-sector fightback this year against Gordon Brown's 2% limit has been the decision by the civil service union PCS, although it already had a live ballot mandate for action, to withdraw into prolonged "consultations" of its membership while the POA and CWU strikes and the Unison health and local government ballots came and went. Having "consulted" and announced that PCS members supported further national strike action, the PCS leadership then... decided to call off any further national action...

PCS: Strike action halted by executive

PCS members have voted 67.6%, on a turnout of 33.6%, in favour of continuing the campaign of industrial action, but action is being frustrated by the union’s national leadership. This ballot results comes as senior civil service management offer the union talks on better procedures for dealing with “surplus staff”. In addition, they have indicated that they may agree that issues such as hours and leave be determined at a civil service-wide level rather than locally as at present. On 1 November, PCS’s Socialist Party-dominated National Executive decided that in light of the talks no national...

PCS votes yes for more action, but Exec says "not yet"

The "consultative ballot" called by the civil service union PCS about more action on pay and jobs has returned a 68% yes vote. The union Executive Committee met on 1 November but decided to call no further action for now. PCS already has a legal ballot mandate for strike action, but the supposedly left-wing PCS leadership has limited itself to two one-day strikes, 31 January and 1 May, and busied itself with "consulting" while the prison officers' action, the CWU dispute, and the Unison local government ballot came and went. The Exec's reason for calling no further action even now is: After...

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