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Week of strike action over public sector pay cuts

14 July 2008

Tens of thousands of members of the Public and Commercial Services union will join public sector colleagues across the country in a week of action over pay.

Driving tests, immigration control, issuing of passports and coastguard services will be among the areas most affected. This latest wave of action will see civil and public servants uniting in opposition to the government’s policy of capping public sector pay below the rate of inflation.

PCS is taking action alongside Unison and Unite, whose members in local government will be on strike on 16 and 17 July, and Unite members in the health service who are holding a day of action on 18 July.

It follows the massively supported strike co-ordinated by PCS, NUT and UCU members on 24 April.

PCS members will be involved in the following strikes and action:

  • 16 July: Driving Standards Agency – one-day strike
  • 16 and 17 July: Valuation Office Agency – walkouts and action short of a strike
  • 18 July: Home Office – one-day strike
  • 18 July: Land Registry – two-hour strike
  • 18 to 20 July: Maritime and Coastguard Agency – 48-hour strike commencing 7pm
  • Identity and Passport Service – balloting for industrial action.

In addition, the Scottish Government and the Registers of Scotland are currently being balloted for action over pay.

The 48-hour strike at the weekend by Maritime and Coastguard Agency members is expected to seriously disrupt operations run from the UK’s 19 rescue co-ordination centres around our coastline. And members of the public are advised that action by our members in the Identity and Passport Service would delay the issuing of passports.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "This will prove to be a determined week of solidarity among public sector workers facing a brutal attack on their living standards from a government desperate to cling to a widely discredited pay policy.

"With food and energy prices rising even faster than inflation, millions of workers are struggling more than ever to pay their bills. The government has lost all credibility in its attempts to portray low-paid public servants as the causes of inflation, rather than its victims. We will continue to press for serious negotiations with ministers but we are prepared and determined to fight alongside our public sector colleagues if that is what is required."

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