09 January 2004
The prospect of strike action by 100,000 civil servants at five government departments loomed large this week after members of Whitehall's biggest union began voting on what they described as 'derisory' pay deals.
Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have two weeks to decide whether to take co-ordinated industrial action that would disrupt work across the Department for Work and Pensions, Home Office, Department for Constitutional Affairs, the Treasury Solicitor's Department and the Prison Service.
PCS insiders told Public Finance it was 'highly likely' that members would vote in favour of strike action following their 'absolute disgust' at below-inflation pay offers, as low as 0.5% for some Whitehall staff.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka blamed the likelihood of strike action on the 'belligerent' attitude of departments and claimed the ballot was a 'last resort', aimed at solving the 'pay crisis' confronting frontline staff. 'The people being balloted… are not your bowler hat-wearing Sir Humphreys. These are people who are low paid, delivering key frontline services and, in many cases, in receipt of the very benefits that they hand out.'
The results of the ballots will be announced on January 22. Under government rules, unions must give seven days notice before strike action, and the PCS has stated its intention to begin strikes on January 29 and 30.
According to the PCS, Prison Service staff have rejected an offer to increase basic salaries by 1% after pay progression, while staff at the Treasury Solicitor's Department have been offered a rise of just 0.5%.
The union claims that cost of living increases at the Department for Constitutional Affairs and the Home Office – estimated at 1% and 1.3% respectively – fall below the recently revised inflation rate.
The PCS also believes that the DWP, which employs 85,000 of its members, has exaggerated the extent of wage rises by including previous commitments to move staff up the pay scale. The union values the average cost of living increase at the DWP at just 2.6%.
But a spokeswoman for the department dismissed the union's figures as misleading. 'Just 14% of staff will get 2.6% this year, while 84,000 employees, most of them frontline staff, will receive rises of 5% or more,' she said. 'Some 34,000 staff have been offered over 7%–8% and 24,000 workers have been offered 6%–7%.'
PFjan2004
