Civil servants announce 20 new strike days

Civil servants have announced 20 days’ strike action at the Department for Work and Pensions as shock figures reveal 25,000 of them will get a pay rise only because otherwise their salaries would fall below the National Minimum Wage.

PCS members at four Liverpool job centres will take action in February and March in an escalation of their dispute over pay, pensions, redundancy terms and job security. They will be joined on nine days by staff at the Stockport Contact Centre and Bolton Benefit Centre.

Today’s escalation at the DWP comes as 100,000 PCS members in 123 government departments prepare to walk out on February 1.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “It’s a scandal that the government pays its own workforce so little they have to rely on the National Minimum Wage uplift to get a pay rise.

“There was a time when it would have been unthinkable that civil servants would be scraping by on the minimum wage.

“That low pay blights some sectors of the civil service shows the contempt with which consecutive governments have treated their own workers, but this government is in a position to right that wrong and give our members a deserved 10% pay rise to help them through the cost-of-living crisis and beyond.”

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More than 100 members at Toxteth, Liverpool Duke Street, Liverpool City and Liverpool Innovation Park Jobcentres will take action on February 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27 and 28, and March 1, 2 and 3.

They will be joined by almost 500 members at Stockport Contact Centre and Bolton Benefit Centre on February 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18.