The People Bulletin

Industrial action was back with a vengeance when civil servants began a 48-hour strike on 8 March 2010, leaving crown and county court hearings postponed, driving tests cancelled and job centres operating a reduced service.

The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) whose members also include civil servants in the Metropolitan Police, House of Commons security staff and workers at HRMC claim that more than 200,000 of them refused to cross picket lines. The government said the figure was only around 80,000.

The row centres upon redundancy payments under a new compensation scheme which takes effect in April and set to save the Exchequer around £500m.  Those earning  £30,000 or less will be entitled to a maximum of three years’ pay or £60,000, whichever is lower.  The current basis of redundancy pay calculation is on length of service with a month’s pay for each year worked.  The PCS has argued that an employee with 20 years’ service earning £24,000 would be £20,000 worse off under the new arrangements.

Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary clarified that the fight is not just about the actual change in redundancy terms, but rather a paving of the way for cheaper widespread public sector job cuts which have yet to happen. He said  ‘Not only do these changes rob civil servants of tens of thousands of pounds if they are forced out of their jobs, but it will make it easier to slash jobs which will affect the services we all rely on.’

Matters took a turn a turn for the bizarre in Carlisle when DWP workers who had chosen not to strike told The Guardian[1] they had to pretend to be answering machines:

‘The staff said their fake-robot message was issued for peak lunchtime, between midday and 2pm. The script read: "Due to the high volume of enquiries we are currently experiencing we are unable to take your call. Please call back later.'

The clerical worker said: "I believe the idea was that we would have difficulty coping because of the strike, but it just seems like a silly way to handle the problem. We were asking why they didn't just prepare a proper answering message saying we couldn't answer calls because of the industrial action. It just seemed wrong to hang up on people."’

The chancellor announced in his 2009 budget that public spending growth will be cut from 1.1% next year to 0.7% from 2011-12. Alongside this real term spending cut, the government also announced further ‘efficiency savings’ of £9bn across the public sector in addition to the £5bn announced in November. The UK’s 5^th largest union has expressed concerns that over 80,000 civil and public service jobs have already been cut, with offices closed in their hundreds and outsourcing and privatisation  remaining ‘a continual threat’.

[1] www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/mar/09/civil-servants-imitate-answering-machines The Guardian, 9 March 2010-03-17