By a PCS activist
A ballot for industrial action has opened at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Staff at Angela Rayner’s department are fighting closures, mandated attendance and restricted promotion opportunities.
Birmingham, Newcastle, Truro, Exeter, Sheffield and Warrington offices will shut, with no guarantee that others are safe in the longer term.
Members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) in the Land Registry, civilian Met Police staff, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, and Office for National Statistics (ONS) are already taking industrial action against arbitrary targets.
A PCS union rep told the BBC’s Panorama, ‘We’ve never been told by senior leaders at the ONS that there is a problem with productivity, there’s a problem with quality, there’s a problem with meeting deadlines.’
Rayner’s Employment Rights Bill is facing fierce resistance from employers. That she is now aping Elon Musk shows how little faith we can have in her standing firm, without bringing to bear significant pressure of our own.
