News and articles about work, policy and workers' struggles in the public and third, voluntary, or charity sectors. It includes housing, but does not include most nationalised industries like health, transport, three occasions or security forces.
A prolonged programme of industrial action, hitting civil and public services across the UK moved a step closer today, as PCS members backed strike action in a dispute over the government's 2% public sector pay cap.
80% of those balloted supported action short of strike, and 54% of those taking part in the ballot backed union plans for industrial action, which includes national civil service wide strikes, targeted strike action and overtime bans.
Industrial action by 450 workers at the Criminal Records Bureau in Liverpool is causing major backlogs in work according to managers.
It is understood that a report prepared for Home Office officials after the first week of a work-to-rule describes significant arrears in work which could considerably delay prospective nurses, teachers and social workers obtaining the necessary clearance to work with children and vulnerable adults.
More than 700 members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) working for the conciliation service ACAS took part in a one hour strike on Friday (26 Sep) in a dispute over pay.
The stoppage, between 10. 30am and 11. 30am hitting offices across the UK and the ACAS helpline, follows delays in settling this year’s pay and a pay offer of 2% which will result in real term pay cuts.
This year’s pay increase was due on 1 August and follows a 10-month hold up to last year’s 2007 pay increase.
Scotland faces more council strikes after local government employers refused to increase a 2.5% pay offer.
Union members had hoped local council body Cosla would offer a new one year deal taking inflation into account. However, Cosla said increasing the pay offer in the current economic climate would result in service and job cuts. Meanwhile, hundreds of other civil and public servants voted for strike action which could cause serious disruption to the justice system.
Office workers in the Maritime and Coastguard Agency strike over poor pay.
following the offer of a paltry 2.5% pay increase, well below inflation levels, 700 Rescue Co-ordinators backed by the Public and Commercial Sevices Union have taken strike action against real-terms cuts to already poor pay.
Tens of thousands of striking council workers disrupted public services across Scotland today while Scottish civil servants also struck for their own pay dispute.
Schools were closed, rubbish went uncollected, ferry services were disrupted, and services like libraries were closed. Union leaders said an estimated 150,000 workers took part in the one-day strike over pay. The pay row is over an offer of 2.5% for each of the next three years, an offer made "derisory" by the rising cost of living.
150,000 Scottish council employees in Unison, Unite and the GMB have set a date for their strike action over a sub-inflation pay offer which would see schools shut, rubbish uncollected and other frontline services hit.
They overwhelmingly agreed on Thursday to take strike action on 20th August after the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) refused to improve a pay offer of 2.5 per cent a year for the next three years.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed an executive order to sack 22,000 state workers and reduce 200,000 to the minimum wage.
California has one of the world's largest economies, but facing a budget deficit of more than $15bn (£7.6bn) Mr Schwarzenegger is seeking to shift the costs onto public sector workers.
Scottish civil servants have backed strike action in protest of the government's sub-inflation pay offer.
The PCS union expressed anger that the Scottish Government had proposed to cap pay rises at 2%. Three other public sector unions - Unison, Unite and the GMB - have also balloted for action over pay.
Union bosses claimed industrial action could hit policy delivery, ministerial visits, answers to Scottish parliamentary questions and operations at the Registers of Scotland.
