UK civil servants to stage fresh strike in pay row

(Alliance News) - Civil servants in the UK will stage a fresh strike on Wednesday in a long-running dispute over pay, jobs and redundancy terms.

Members of the Prospect union across Britain will walk out, mounting picket lines, following a previous strike in March.

The workers have been taking action short of a strike since mid-March, including working to rule and an overtime ban, in the largest industrial action Prospect has taken for more than a decade.

Prospect said the new strike follows the government's refusal to enter negotiations to resolve the current dispute, having instead imposed a pay rise of 4.5% which the union said will further erode living standards, with inflation still in double figures.

Civil servants have had some of the worst pay settlements in the public sector this year, with the pay of Prospect members falling by up to 26% since 2010 in real terms, said the union.

Prospect represents tens of thousands of specialist, technical, professional, managerial and scientific staff, working at a wide range of employers, including the Met Office, Health & Safety Executive, Intellectual Property Office, Animal & Plant Health Agency, Natural England and also UK Research & Innovation.

Mike Clancy, general secretary of Prospect, said: "Our members working across the civil service provide a vital service to the country, but they are being singled out by a government intent on leaving its own workers at the back of the pay queue.

"Why is this government treating its employees worse than anyone else in the public sector?

"For months we have been pressing ministers to put forward a serious offer that recognises the cost-of-living crisis facing our members, but instead of coming to the negotiating table, the government has published a pay control of 4.5% for 2023-24 – with nothing on the table for last year.

"This industrial action was entirely avoidable, but the failure by government to make a comparable offer to elsewhere in the public sector has made it inevitable."

Workers at HMRC will launch a series of strikes on Wednesday in the civil service dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.

Members of the Public and Commercial Services union in East Kilbride and Newcastle upon Tyne will be on strike from May 10-12, 15-19, 22-26, 29-31 and on June 1 and 2.

The Royal College of Nursing has announced the dates of a new ballot for strike action in its long-running dispute over pay.

Voting of RCN members in England will open on May 23 and close on June 23.

The new ballot will be aggregated, meaning the union is seeking a country-wide mandate.

The union said a yes vote would give it a mandate to strike in every NHS Trust in England where RCN members are employed.

BBC journalists will resume a work to rule and look set to announce strikes after rejecting plans aimed at resolving a row over cuts to local services.

Members of the National Union of Journalists working in TV, online and radio at BBC Local (England) voted by 56% against plans put forward by the corporation.

Unite has confirmed that around 1,200 contractors will strike from Wednesday until Friday in an increasingly bitter dispute over jobs, pay and conditions in the offshore sector.

The latest 48-hour strike action will hit oil and gas operators including Apache, BP PLC, Harbour Energy PLC, EnQuest PLC, Ithaca Energy PLC, Repsol SA, Shell PLC and TAQA.

– Workers on London's Elizabeth Line will take industrial action later this month on the first anniversary of its opening, in a long-running dispute over pay.

Members of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association will strike on May 24 and ban overtime from May 27 to June 4.

source: PA

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