Bolton: PCS civil service union members to launch strikes

Staff at the job centre on Blackhorse Street are set to join those in Liverpool and Stockport in a series of walkouts between February 9 and March 3.

Around 100,000 Public and Commercial Services Union members are already set to strike all over the country on February 1.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “It’s a scandal that the government pays its own workforce so little they have to rely on the national minimum wage uplift to get a pay rise.

“There was a time when it would have been unthinkable that civil servants would be scraping by on the minimum wage.”

Mr Serwotka says thousands of its members at the DWP will be getting a pay rise only because their salaries would otherwise fall below the statutory national minimum wage.

He claims that this shows just how much they have been struggling in recent years.

Mr Serwotka said: “That low pay blights some sectors of the civil service shows the contempt with which consecutive governments have treated their own workers.

Members of the Public and Commercial Services Union will be staging a series of strikes (Image: PA)

"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.”

Job Centre workers in Bolton, along with their colleagues in Stockport, are set to strike on February 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18.

Job centre staff in Toxteth, Liverpool Duke Street, Liverpool City and Liverpool Innovation Park Jobcentres will take action on February 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27 and 28, and March 1, 2 and 3.

This Wednesday’s action, which will see PCS members across 123 government departments take to picket lines will also involve workers across all kinds of different sectors.

Teachers, university lecturers, train drivers and security guards are also striking on the same day.

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But Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has urged unions to draw back from their first planned day of strike action this week.

His official spokesperson said: “We still believe there is time for unions to step back and to call on their members not to strike and avoid the sort of disruption we are expecting to see this week, particularly on Wednesday.

“We think the continuing discussions are the right approach and we’d like to see them continue.”