Trade unions say that hundreds of thousands of civil servants across the UK will be staying away from work today in a one-day strike organised in protest against government plans to axe 100,000 civil and public service jobs.
The strike is said to be the biggest in over a decade, 160 government departments and agencies are involved in total.
A huge range of services across the UK will be hit by the strike ranging from, driving licences, Jobcentres and benefit offices, to tax credits, tax collection and imports controls, as well museums, galleries and the court service.
The strike also comes as civil servants face having to work longer to receive their pension as well proposals to change sick absence arrangements.
Commenting Mark Serwotka PCS general secretary said:
“Hundreds of thousands of members are today taking a stand against arbitrary cuts which will decimate services we all rely on from the cradle to the grave. The people on strike today are not faceless bureaucrats or your bowler hatted Sir Humphrey’s but people, who collect the taxes to build hospitals and schools, get the unemployed in to work and protect our shores from illegal contraband.
“Cuts on this scale will do nothing to improve service delivery and mean people will have to travel further to access services. Decent public services need civil servants to deliver them.”
Serwotka is expected to address a rally today in London’s Westminster Cathedral Hall. He will be joined by Dave Prentis the general secretary of UNISON, John McDonnell MP, Paul Mackney general secretary of NATFE, Andy Gilchrist general secretary FBU, Kay Carberry TUC assistant general secretary, Bob Crow general secretary of the RMT and Wendy Caird of Public Services International.
Ben Willmott, CIPD Employee Relations adviser told HRZone:
“Redundancy is one of the most traumatic events an employee can experience. Announcement of redundancies will invariably have an adverse impact on morale, motivation and productivity. The negative effects can be reduced by sensitive handling of redundant employees and those remaining.
“Civil service employers and unions will need to work together to ensure that as many jobs losses as possible can be managed through voluntary redundancy, voluntary relocation into front-line services and natural attrition. One of the biggest problems faced within the civil service is the uncertainty over exactly who will be affected.”
Wilmott went onto say that information is the key and urged the government to provide help with better advice, relocation and retraining to smooth the path of change.
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