PCS: Civil servants start voting in national strike ballot

Tuesday, 24 May 2011 12:00 AM

More than a quarter of a million civil and public servants in the Public and Commercial Services union will start voting this week in a national strike ballot over cuts to pensions, jobs and pay.

Ballot papers will start arriving from tomorrow (25) following a decision at the union's annual conference last week. The ballot closes on 15 June, with the first action possible later that month.

The union is working closely with education unions who are also balloting over pensions or have already voted and taken strike action, bringing the total considering industrial action to 750,000 union members.

Hundreds of thousands of public sector jobs are threatened, pay is being frozen or set below inflation and the government has made it clear it will implement Lord Hutton's proposals on public sector pensions, meaning civil and public servants will pay more and work longer for a lower pension.

The union's campaign calls for: no detrimental changes to pensions or the civil service redundancy scheme; a strengthening of the Cabinet Office-agreed measures to avoid compulsory redundancies; and an end to the pay freeze and a fair pay rise for all.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "Our members know that everything they have ever worked for is now under threat, and they are voting to say there is an alternative worth fighting for.

"The government is seeking to blame and punish public sector workers for an economic crisis that ministers and their advisers know was caused by greed and recklessness in the financial sector. "This ballot is about showing that, if we invested in our economy and tackled the real scroungers who dodge paying billions of pounds in taxes, we would not need to cut a single penny from public spending."

ENDS

Notes

- For information and interview requests contact PCS national press officer Richard Simcox on 020 7801 2747 or 07833 978216

- The Public and Commercial Services union represents civil and public servants in central government. It has more than 300,000 members in over 200 departments and agencies, and in parts of government transferred to the private sector. PCS is the UK's sixth largest union and is affiliated to the TUC. The general secretary is Mark Serwotka and the president is Janice Godrich - on Twitter @janicegodrich

- Follow PCS on Twitter @pcs_union

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