Campaign over jobs and pay continues

Around 20,000 workers in the Ministry of Defence and the Identity and Passport Service have been called out on a one-day strike on 30 March as part of the PCS union's campaign on pay and jobs that was launched with a two-day national strike in January. Around 230,000 civil servants will be taking action short of a strike on 30 March while a further 20,000 in a number of different departments will begin a month of working to rule. [Read more at > PCS (EN)-> http://www.pcs.org.uk/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID=908761

The unions organising in the prisons sector - FSC-CCOO, ACAIP, FeSP-UGT and CSIF - continue to press the government to honour its original commitment to increase funding to the service. The unions organised a demonstration outside the General Directorate of Public Services on 18 February. They are particularly angry that the government withdrew its offer of EUR 123 million to cover pay rises for the 23000 workers in the sector over the period 2019-2021.

The PCS civil service union will be taking the next step in its campaign to defend jobs by organising a day of action on 23 February. This follows the national strike on 31 January and two weeks of a ban on overtime. The day of action will consist of workers sticking strictly to their hours, taking full breaks and not doing any overtime. It coincides with a campaign by the TUC union confederation for all workers to work their normal hours. [Read more at > PCS (EN)->http://www.pcs.org.uk/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID=907745] [And at > TUC (EN)->http://www.worksmart.org.uk/workyourproperhoursday