FCDO 2030 - PCS ballot for industrial action opens 16 March

Industrial action ballot, parliamentary concerns around Middle East crisis, and our staff survey results

PCS has informed FCDO leadership that we will be balloting members in FCDO for industrial action. 

We have been left with no alternative as we have exhausted the internal ‘disputes’ procedure, and FCDO has still not provided PCS with the assurances we require.

We will continue to engage in the consultation process with the department while at the same time preparing for industrial action should it become necessary.

This is a statutory ballot. Members must vote by posting your ballot paper to the independent scrutineers. We will need to get over 50% of all members voting, or we will not meet the legal minimum threshold to take action.

The union will be balloting all FCDO members except those working overseas (due to difficulties in ensuring ballot papers can be received and posted back within the ballot period).

Our demands

The PCS “trade dispute” (a legal term we must use to comply with UK industrial action laws) focuses on three areas of concern:

  1. FCDO’s failure to meaningfully consult PCS on a restructure resulting in job cuts, and failure to provide the following: an adequate rationale or business case for the restructure and job cuts, a work force plan in line with the 2016 Civil Service Job Protocols and an equality impact assessment which meets legal requirements.
  2. FCDO’s stated intention to make job cuts of up to 25% which is approximately 2,000 staff. (In autumn 2025, FCDO gave notice to the UK Insolvency Service of job cuts of up to 25%).
  3. FCDO’s failure to give a “no compulsory redundancies” guarantee.
Middle East crisis and parliamentary concerns

On 4 March, three MPs (Sarah Champion, Emily Thornberry and Sir John Whittingdale) raised concerns in parliament that the FCDO restructuring is continuing despite the escalation in the Middle East, a crisis in which more than 130,000 Britons have registered their presence in Gulf countries. 

The government has described the crisis, an emergency in which FCDO’s role is crucial, as the largest consular challenge since the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

Lack of trust in FCDO leadership – PCS survey results

Between 18 and 25 February, PCS ran a survey to understand staff attitudes towards FCDO 2030 restructuring. In that short period of time, we received over 1,400 responses from a wide cross-selection of FCDO staff. The vast majority told us they were somewhat or very unconfident that the proposed restructuring would be fair, transparent and accountable. Most doubted they have a professional future in the department.

Relevant in light of the department's ability to respond to the Middle East crisis is that:

  • 69% lacked confidence in the proposed changes' ability to prioritise the department’s core objectives.

And perhaps most damning of all:

  • 77% did not believe FCDO leadership could be trusted to present the results of its own consultation exercise in a fair, balanced and non-selective way.

PCS has sent the survey responses to the permanent under secretaries so they can see the strength of feeling and why they need to meet the demands set out in our trade dispute letter.