Union officials have threatened strike action ahead of Thurdsay’s showdown meeting with the Cabinet Office as they ramp up their campaign against Civil Service job cuts and pay levels.
The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union said it would use the 1 March meeting to demand that any privatisation of services would allow an in-house bid.
It announced a provisional date of 1 May for another national strike by civil servants unless negotiations were successful before then.
The PCS revealed the next steps in its campaign today as its members took part in another day of ‘action short of a strike’. They are working only their contracted hours, holding member meetings and campaigning in public. Today is also the TUC’s ‘Work Your Proper Hours Day’.
“We continue to work hard for a negotiated settlement to this dispute,” said a PCS statement to members. “There are signs of some movement by the employer, but we are not yet in substantive talks in any formal sense and our campaigning must continue with that as its aim.”
The PCS is angry about the government’s massive programme of public sector reforms following the Gershon review.
In July 2004, it set out how the government aimed to make £20bn savings over four years by slashing 80,000 jobs, relocating 20,000 roles from the South East and making many other efficiency gains.
The union campaign kicked off on 31 January with a one-day strike involving up to 200,000 civil servants. There was then a two-week ban on overtime.
