Hundreds walk out in civil service dispute
HUNDREDS of civil servants walked out on strike yesterday in protest at cuts to redundancy pay.
Picket lines were formed at the Land Registry in Bruton Way and at the Ministry of Defence building at Cedar House, Spa Road, yesterday.
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important protest: Hugo Wilson was on the picket line at the Land Registry building in Gloucester.
The strike will continue today after the Public and Commercial Services union called the action. The union is protesting changes to the civil service compensation scheme, which it says will "rob" civil servants of up to a third of their entitlements worth thousands.
John Ross, the PCS Gloucestershire Branch Secretary, said: "This action has been a last resort – we have been very close to reaching an agreement, we are not far off, but we need to ensure we are protecting our members.
"They need the security, especially when the sector is facing cuts next year that will inevitably lead to redundancies."
Hugo Wilson was on the picket line at the Land Registry building in Gloucester.
He said: "We have had some very good support for the strike here today, it is a really important subject for us.
"The Government is trying to steamroller these changes through and we can't let them do that."
The Government has hit out at the strike. Cabinet Office minister Tessa Jowell said: "The changes to the civil service compensation scheme were agreed with five of the six civil service unions after 18 months of negotiation and consultation.
"Those earning £30,000 or less – 80 per cent of all staff – will still get up to between two and three years' salary, while civil servants earning over £30,000 will have redundancy pay capped at two times salary."
Gloucester MP Parmjit Dhanda has signed an early day motion in Parliament calling for further investigation. He said: "I am pleased the Government has managed to forge an agreement with all the other trade unions, but the next step needs to be to gain agreement with the PCS as well."
Stroud MP David Drew said: "This is an outrageous intervention by Government relying on misinformation and spite rather than a fair policy on how we treat some of the lower paid members of the civil service who have given their life to public duty."
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by BMW Sales Executive, Cheltenham
Wednesday, March 10 2010, 3:06PM
“Why are these public sector workers moaning again. If you dont like it, just get out. Easy!
I work as a sales executive for Cotswold BMW (although I'm not saying which branch for obvious reasons).
I earn year on year £40k+ pa as a norm selling 12 cars a month. The highest qualification that I have are GCSE's. My business manager 2 years ago earned over £100k that financial year. He is up to A Level standard. The main bosses, which I havent got a clue about, logically is on more than that. If you want to graft and earn the money, get a proper job and stop whinging about how hard done by you are.
Somebody on another blog mentioned that the public sector are lower paid as an average than the private sector. So why go into a market knowing that it doesnt pay, then complain about it?
We are all in charge of our destinies so we can only hold responsibility for ourselves!”
by Seymour Bridges, Glos
Wednesday, March 10 2010, 8:55AM
“Paul D, Gloucester
'Civil Servants are paid on average 5k less than their private sector counterparts.'
Same nonsense trotted out, time after time.
Prove it!”
by Paul D, Gloucester
Tuesday, March 09 2010, 6:50PM
“The government are saying that civil servants redundancy pay needs to mirror that of the private sector. Civil Servants are paid on average 5k less than their private sector counterparts. Does that mean a proper pay rise then for civil servants???
Instead of printing pictures of David Drew holding babies, why dosent the Citizen interview him and ask him for the reasons why he supports the strike, or are they turning into Hello magazine??”
by Ian, Gloucester
Tuesday, March 09 2010, 5:46PM
“Sorry, I've no sympathy whatsoever - over protected jobs worths.
Countries in chaos - no wonder they're frightened of trying to survive in the real world”
by M, Glos
Tuesday, March 09 2010, 4:25PM
“1) The PCS union represents mostly the lower paid grades in the Civil Service, more than 50% of whom do not earn more than the average national salary of £23,000 per year.
2)Statutory redundancy legislation specifically does NOT include the Civil Service.
3) Most Civil Service Departments have effectively taken pay cuts for several years (through accepting below inflation pay rises).
4) There have been over 70,000 redundancies in the Civil Service over the last 4 years and Gordon Brown is planning £500,000,000 cuts to the public serviices.
5) The proposed changes to the Civil Service Compensation Scheme have been discussed by all the main Civil Service Unions. Only PCS and NIPSA (in Northern Ireland) have balloted their members on the changes. Perhaps if the other unions such as Prospect (representing highly-paid Government Scientists) or the FDA (representing 'Mandarins' in Whitehall amongst other highly-paid Civil Servants) or any of the other representative bodies had balloted, their members may have voted for strike action too!
6) The Government plan to change the terms and conditions of over 260,000 staff without allowing any debate in Parliament.
Good on the PCS Strikers. No-one wants their terms and conditions changed without any say in it.”
by Dynamite, Hartpury
Tuesday, March 09 2010, 4:00PM
“The last time the civil service went on strike nobody noticed.”
by Rob, Abbeymead
Tuesday, March 09 2010, 3:25PM
“Gloucester MP Parmjit Dhanda has signed an early day motion in Parliament calling for further investigation. He said: "I am pleased the Government has managed to forge an agreement with all the other trade unions, but the next step needs to be to gain agreement with the PCS as well."
I wonder how many of the other trade unions also donate money to the Labour Party, whereas the PCS doesn't?”
by PCS MEMBER, GLOS
Tuesday, March 09 2010, 3:24PM
“Lillibet - A civil servant with ten years service would get 15 months pay,not two years pay.”
by oggy oggy oop, Gloucs
Tuesday, March 09 2010, 3:08PM
“public sector should be closed down now especially the branch at westminster”
by public sector worker, chelt
Tuesday, March 09 2010, 2:53PM
“As a PCS member I am bitterly disappointed that our Union is not making more of an effort to correct the disgustingly incorrect comments on here re. public sector pensions. They are not free. I have payed into the pension scheme since the day I started. We are taxed at source and do not employ accountants to help us avoid paying our dues. If it wasn't for PAYE taxes there would be no money in the pension/benefits pot. Many Public Sector workers do vital jobs for a wage which is less than they could claim in benefits. The figures quoted on here are at the higher end of the scale and are not the norm. When the majority of staff sign up for a public sector job they are signing up for security rather than financial reward. It is only when things are going badly in the private sector that people turn on us. We made a choice when we signed our contracts same as you did and now you want the goalposts moving.”