National Highways members to be balloted for strike action

Over 650 National Highways members at 36 workplaces across England are to be balloted on whether they are prepared to take strike action as part of our national campaign on pay, jobs and pensions; and following their employer’s refusal to pay the £1,500 cost-of-living payment.

The £1,500 payment was part of the government’s pay offer for 2022/23 and comes after successful national strike action by PCS members resulted in the original 2023/24 offer being doubled to at least 4.5%. 

Planned strike action by PCS members has already changed the decisions of four other employers, the Welsh National Library and Welsh Museums, Care Quality Commission and British Museum that had planned to with-hold the £1,500.

The ballot of National Highways members opens on 10 August and closes on 31 August. Voting in the postal ballot will need to exceed the statutory threshold of 50% turnout.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “PCS members at National Highways are furious at being excluded from this cost-of-living-crisis payment. 

 “All other employers have paid up so far, so we’d like to know why National Highways has decided, against government advice, that our hard-working members, who have kept the roads running during the summer, don’t deserve the money. 

 “Our members at National Highways have taken strike action before and they won’t shy away from taking action again if their bosses don’t do the decent thing and pay up.”