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PCS Wales media release: Welsh civil and public servants in Budget day strike

23 March 2010

Civil and public servants across Wales will be walking out for a third day of strike action on budget day, 24 March, in an ongoing dispute over cuts to their redundancy terms.

The strike, called by the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS), follows a strongly supported two day strike earlier in March which saw up to 200,000 civil and public servants stay away from work over changes to the civil service compensation scheme. The budget day stoppage involves Jobcentre staff, tax workers, courts staff, driving examiners and staff from the DVLA, the ONS, the Passport Office and the Welsh Assembly Government, among many others. 

A giant advertising trailer will be hitting the streets of Cardiff, visiting picket lines on the strike day, and from 12.00 noon until 4.00 pm, strikers will be holding a rally outside the Senedd in Cardiff Bay, to coincide with the Chancellor’s budget speech.

The imposed changes to the compensation scheme will see staff robbed of up to a third of their entitlements and lead to loyal civil and public servants losing tens of thousands of pounds if they are forced out of a job.

The earlier action on 8 and 9 March led to the cancellation of an Assembly plenary session, along with disruption to court sittings, the cancellation of an estimated 4,000 driving tests and jobcentres offering little or no service to the public. Call centres dealing with taxes and benefits were also hit, with members of the public being asked to call back another day. The union estimated that approximately 80,000 passports were delayed because of the industrial action and warned that backlogs elsewhere could develop as a result of an overtime ban.

Commenting, PCS Wales Secretary, Peter Harris, said: “Civil and public servants do a vital job in keeping this country running. Making it easier and cheaper for whoever forms the next government to slash civil servants will damage the services we all rely on. It is disgraceful that the government says it can do nothing about bankers’ bonuses because their contracts have to be honoured, yet tears up the contracts of its own workforce. The people striking on budget day are proud of the services they deliver. It is time the government honoured their contracts and reached an agreement that protects existing members’ entitlements.”
 

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