Tens of thousands of civil servants across 200 government departments, agencies and non-departmental bodies are taking part in a second one-day national strike today (1 May) in an escalation of a dispute over job cuts, pay and privatisation.
The May Day strike called by the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) aims to hit a range of services including courts, passports, tax, jobcentres, galleries and driving tests.
May Day has been designated a ‘defend public services day’ by the TUC, which is supporting the PCS action.
The PCS wants a guarantee that the government will not make any compulsory redundancies, as well as fair national pay, decent working conditions and agreements to protect workforces in outsourcing.
The second stoppage follows an earlier civil service-wide strike held on 31 January.
Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, said: “The government and civil service management have point blank refused our offer to resolve this dispute through negotiation and [conciliation service] Acas.
“The government and civil service management need to recognise that this isn’t a problem that will go away, and need to start negotiating with the union to resolve the dispute.”
