MyCSP strike to be extended
PCS members in MyCSP are planning a further six weeks of strike action, as PCS writes to the Public Accounts Committee over MyCSP’s ‘misleading’ excuses for refusing to recognise the union.
Following the Cabinet Office’s plans to transfer the pensions administration work from MyCSP to Capita, and the ongoing refusal by MyCSP to meet PCS's demand for recognition and full consultation regarding the TUPE transfer of our members, PCS members in MyCSP have now been on strike for four weeks, as part of a six-week campaign of action.
Despite PCS's efforts to secure agreement with MyCSP, their deeply uncooperative attitude to industrial relations has meant that to maintain the pressure, we have informed MyCSP that we will be extending our industrial action for another six weeks.
This means that without any positive moves by MyCSP, the strike action is scheduled to continue until Friday 26 September.
Action brings some progress
The first four weeks of industrial action have already produced some success, with Capita, the planned new contractor for the civil service pension scheme, agreeing to meet PCS in early August to discuss recognising PCS from ‘day one’ of the new contract.
This development has been greeted positively by PCS members; and MyCSP chief executive, Duncan Watson, has been left with nowhere to hide, considering that when he was questioned by the Public Accounts Committee in early July, he blamed 'not wanting to force recognition on Capita' as the reason why he couldn’t recognise the union.
The fact that even after Capita agreed to a programme of talks with PCS to establish recognition, MyCSP are still refusing to recognise us, makes the MyCSP chief executive’s answer to the Public Accounts Committee look (at best) misleading. Given our concerns about the answers given by MyCSP at the committee, PCS has written directly to the chair of the public accounts committee to set the record straight.