DTI employees made redundant could have been given other jobs, PCS union insists

Public sector trade union the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) has demanded the reinstatement of 30 civil servants faced with compulsory redundancy, and warned of further job cuts.

The union insists that the 30 workers served redundancy notices on 22 June at the Sheffield and London offices of the DTI could have been employed elsewhere.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka, said: “There have been signs for some time that the precedent of  compulsory redundancies in both the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) earlier this year was an omen of more to come.”

Serwotka demaded that the notices were withdrawn and that ministers intervened.

He added: “Urgent meetings are taking place with the Cabinet Office to strengthen the protocols to ensure this does not happen again because there are very real additional threats in both the Department for Work and Pensions and DEFRA.”