Public and Commercial Services Union

Equal pay?

Whilst members continue to suffer from a below inflation pay rise, it was revealed this week that Senior Managers within the Home Office have been paid huge bonuses totaling a whopping £1,458,305.

This revelation must cast doubt on the credibility of claims by Home Office senior management that the imposed 3 year pay settlement is a good deal. Members will be rightly angry that Senior Managers are living it up at a time of hardship for us.

Meeting with management

PCS met Home Office management on 1 July 2008 as part of our continued commitment to reach a negotiated settlement on pay.

Despite PCS tabling a number of proposals aimed at moving the dispute towards an acceptable settlement, the talks were unproductive.

Management failed to table a single proposal of their own and refused to go back to the Treasury to seek further funds on behalf of their own staff, claiming that this would not be a productive use of their time!

PCS wonder what better use of management’s time there can be than attempting to secure a decent pay rise for their hard working employees.

Further strike action

In light of management’s refusal to seriously negotiate on pay, PCS has served notice on the employer that we are calling a further strike of members in the PCS Home Office group on 18 July 2008.

NEC ballots for national action

The national executive committee plans to ballot the entire PCS membership affected by the Treasury pay cap on a campaign of industrial action across the civil service to secure decent pay rises.

We are now moving towards a situation where we could be joined in our campaign by the entire public sector trade union movement. It is vital we keep up the momentum.

Week of action

Our strike on 18 July 2008 will form part of a week of strike action involving other unions and groups in PCS who are currently in dispute over pay. The timetable is as follows:

• PCS members in the Driving Standards Agency on strike 16 July 2008
• Local government workers in Unison and Unite on strike on 16/17 July 2008.
• PCS members in the Home Office Group on strike 18 July 2008.
• PCS members in the Coastguards Agency on strike 18/19/20 July 2008

In addition, PCS members in the Identity and Passport Service, Scottish Government and Registers of Scotland are currently being balloted for action.

There is rising anger among workers across the public sector about the cuts in our living standards. Public sector workers are the victims of inflation, not the cause of it.

Fight for fair pay – All out - 18 July 2008!

Paul O’Connor, group secretary