In the same week that the Home Secretary Teresa May is due to be hauled in front of the Home Affairs Select Committee to be questioned over her failure with the UK Border Agency (UKBA) and the failure to deal with the backlogs of immigration cases, she will also have to deal with the fallout from union members’ action in her department as PCS call a week-long of strikes.
In the same week that the Home Secretary Teresa May is due to be hauled in front of the Home Affairs Select Committee to be questioned over her failure with the UK Border Agency (UKBA) and the failure to deal with the backlogs of immigration cases, she will also have to deal with the fallout from union members’ action in her department as PCS call a week-long of strikes.
This strike action was announced by PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka at a packed rally outside the Cabinet Office in London as civil servants across the country staged a half day walk out on Friday 5th April. The announcement was greeted with massive cheers from the crowd.
PCS members in the Home Office will be taking this week-long of strikes as part of the union’s national campaign over jobs, pay and conditions, as the PCS Home Office group now take the lead role in this national dispute.
Last Friday (5th April) saw Identity and Passport Service (IPS) staff (part of the Home Office group) participating in a half day walk-out alongside civil servants in most other government departments. This action was followed by a half-day strike involving PCS members working for Revenue and Customs on Monday 8th April. These were joined on strike by the non-departmental public body (NDPB) Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS), whose members are part of the PCS Home Office group and took a full day of successful strike action.
PCS members in DBS at the Darlington and Liverpool offices – formerly the Criminal Records Bureau and Independent Safeguarding Authority – held firm in their 24 hour strike.
In Liverpool there was a 30-strong picket line with only about five staff going into work.
Liverpool branch rep Lawrence Dunne said: “The action was very solidly supported. We had more people on the picket line than ever before and the sun even came out.
“The tactics of the management in trying to block people from striking by docking a full day’s pay for a half day walkout has clearly backfired. The attacks on our jobs by the government and management have energised members. They see the devastating effect it will have on their lives.
“The message this action sends to the government is if you come for our terms and conditions we’re going to be there to fight you all the way.”
For other parts of the Home Office, the planned strike on the 5th April was suspended when management announced they would be refusing to pay people for hours worked (with a whole day’s pay to be deducted) for the planned half-day walkout. In effect, the management were looking to enforce a lockout. The Home Office employee relations (ER) team behind this were a lone wolf in taking this decision. All other government departments did not take this stance against their staff. Even management within other areas of the Home Office refused to go along with the plan, as IPS management and UKBA Public Enquiries Office management said they would not penalise their staff in this way.
Home Office ER team openly mocked by peers
It has been reported that senior managers in other major government departments have been openly mocking the Home Office ER team for their stance. They have rightly been pointing out that the PCS national dispute is with the Cabinet Office because of the government’s refusal to negotiate with the union over attacks to jobs, pay and conditions. This is not a local departmental dispute, but the Home Office ER team appear to want to make it one.
The actions of the Home Office ER team surrounding the 5th April action, and their threat to take a High Court injunction out on PCS over members’ right to take strike action on the 8th April, amount to a naked attempt to bully PCS members out of taking action to defend their interests. PCS senior reps have vowed not give into bullying. As part of the rolling programme of action across the civil service, and in pursuit of national demands, the PCS Home Office group will now be escalating their action to a week of strikes across the Home Office. This will involve different areas of the Home Office taking action on different days consecutively.
Staff in the UK border force who control the borders at ports, railways and airports will be called on to take strike action at a later date to be announced.
Rationale behind weeklong of strike action
During the period of strike action members will be only asked to sacrifice a day’s pay. The decision for this course of action has been endorsed by senior elected reps who believe this will cause maximum disruption coupled with a work to rule and the ongoing national overtime ban.
The week of action from Tuesday 16th April to Friday 19th April has been chosen for a number of reasons.
Firstly, a Channel 4 Dispatches programme is scheduled to go out on TV on Monday 15th April at 8pm. This is likely to cause much embarrassment to the department as it will show an investigation into the failings of ministers and senior managers within the UK Border Agency. It will expose their failure to deal with the massive backlogs of immigration casework that has got out of control. There will be a focus on the reason for this; primarily the lack of resources given to staff as reductions in jobs set by the government (and carried out by senior managers) has had terrible consequences. It will likely support the union’s view that chronic understaffing has been a major factor in preventing immigration cases being dealt with. A lack of adequate staffing numbers is causing major backlogs and also giving immigration and asylum applicants a disservice by not getting their cases dealt with in a reasonable amount of time. On enforcement the problems are just the same, with cases being passed on, but they are unable to deal with them due to a lack of staff and resources.
Secondly, the Home Secretary will be in front of the Home Affairs Select Committee on 18th April. For PCS to be taking part in a week of strikes during this will make it an extremely uncomfortable experience for the minister and her officials. It will demonstrate a department in disarray. The Home Affairs Select Committee and the wider public will see that PCS members are prepared to take disruptive strike action to demonstrate the effects the damaging job cuts are having on staff within the Home Office.
Thirdly, the Home Office Employee Relations team will be brought under serious scrutiny for their appalling actions towards PCS members as part of the national dispute over pay, jobs and conditions. Their aggressive and misinformed actions will have caused PCS members to take strike action that will see different parts of the department and its agencies taking seven separate days of strike action (5th April, 8th April and 16th-19th April with Border Force to take strike action at a later date) when the original plan from PCS was to hold a half-day walk out on just the 5th April.
United front
Staff in the civil service are coming under relentless pressure and attacks from both the government and Home Office senior management. The action proposed by PCS union demonstrates that members should not back down to management aggression. This is a time when members need to show a united front and stick together to take on their employer.
