02 February 2007
Civil servants across the UK have begun a two-week overtime 'ban' after disrupting tax office, jobcentre and customs services this week with a 24-hour strike over job cuts, privatisations and pay.
Members of the Public and Commercial Services trade union will stick rigidly to their contracted hours until mid-February as the union intensifies its opposition to the government's civil service reforms.
The overtime withdrawal follows walk-outs by around 120,000 staff, almost a quarter of the civil service, on January 31. Although Cabinet Office sources described the strike as a 'damp squib', tax offices were closed, driving tests cancelled and court cases suspended because of staff shortages.
The PCS went ahead with the strike after talks between civil service trade unions and Chancellor Gordon Brown failed to produce a deal. Brown's team met the Trades Union Congress-led delegation on January 29, but sources told Public Finance that the Treasury and the PCS had merely reiterated their entrenched stances without making progress.
The meeting was set up to discuss wider civil service issues.
Trade union leaders are unhappy that ministers have dealt with their concerns separately, rather than trying to find a Whitehall-wide solution.
But Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden said: 'There is absolutely no need for this strike. We value civil servants highly. At a time when the government is increasing investment in public services, no organisation, including the civil service, can be immune from the need for change, both to ensure value for money for the public and to adapt to new technology.
'There is an established process through which unions can raise any issues of concern… without going on strike.'
The Cabinet Office acknowledged that around 47% of Revenue and Customs staff, and 32% of Department for Work and Pensions staff joined the strike. But picket lines were poorly supported elsewhere. Just 11% of Health and 8% of Home Office staff stayed away.
A PCS spokesman said: 'How can ministers say that the strike was a damp squib when we've seen office closures across regions, managers being frantically bussed around to other sites to open them for business, and court closures? That's the extent of staff dissatisfaction.'
PFfeb2007
