The Department for Work and Pensions will be hit with a wave of walkouts
Civil servants’ union PCS has announced a further series of strike dates in its ongoing dispute over pay. The union has confirmed that civil servants at the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) will be escalating their campaign.
Four job centres in Liverpool will be hit with 20 days of strikes throughout February and March. Civil servants will be striking on February 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27 and 28, as well as on March 1, 2 and 3.
Alongside the walkouts in Liverpool, 500 PCS members in Stockport and Bolton will take nine days of strike action on February 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18.
The new dates are in addition to the already announced strikes on February 1, which will see 100,000 PCS members in 123 government departments take strike action. February 1 will also see teachers, academics and rail workers on strike.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “That low pay blights some sectors of the civil service shows the contempt with which consecutive governments have treated their own workers, but this government is in a position to right that wrong and give our members a deserved 10% pay rise to help them through the cost-of-living crisis and beyond.”
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
Image credit: TUC Livestream
Left Foot Forward’s trade union reporting is supported by the Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust
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