As the government prepares to cut civil service jobs, a crisis in the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) has left it unable to respond. Union branches are pushing for a Special Delegate Conference to resolve the leadership deadlock, but in the meantime no strikes or campaigns are initiated, allowing Labour’s attacks to continue unchallenged.  […]

The defeat of PCS’s cost-of-living pay strikes dominated the election.

By PCS activists Members of the civil servants’ union PCS will vote to elect their general secretary and assistant general secretary in November. The contest is between the ruling Left Unity faction candidates Fran Heathcote for general secretary and Paul O’Conner for assistant general secretary, and Marion Lloyd (Socialist Party) and incumbent AGS John Moloney […]

PCS members follow the nurses' lead

By Rebecca Anderson UNLIKE OTHER public sector workers, the government’s 2022/23 pay offer to civil servants has not been improved by the wave of industrial action. Despite double-digit inflation, the government has refused to negotiate anything above the 2–3% pay rise that has already been imposed, not even offering the derisory one-off payments recently rejected […]

Branches have called on the NEC to bring all members out in January.

Civil servants are being balloted over pay, pensions and job cuts until 7 November

Nurses, refuse collectors, youth workers, teachers, lecturers and civil servants are being balloted.

By Jeremy Dewar “A new deal for working people, a new social settlement for the UK” A LONDON TUC rally for the 18 June national demonstration heard speakers from a variety of disputes and strikes. Rail workers, teachers and lecturers, caterers and cleaners, civil servants were all represented. The eve-of-rally meeting, held at Congress House […]

By a PCS member WITHOUT WARNING, let alone consultation, Boris Johnson has announced over 90,000 job cuts in the civil service. To add insult to injury he did so through the pages of the virulently anti-worker Daily Mail, while suggesting the resultant savings would be used to cut taxes, benefiting the rich most. One in […]

PCS is deciding whether to ballot its members for strike action.

The Civil Servants’ union PCS will hold a consultative ballot on pay and pensions between 14 February and 21 March.

In the DWP we should veto work that sanctions or penalises claimants and demand Universal Credit is paid on the first day, in advance, not six weeks in arrears. In the Home Office – end deportations and close the detention centres

Differences within Left Unity, the ruling faction of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), have prompted the Socialist Party to launch a faction within that faction, the Broad Left Network. At the same time, the PCS Rank and File Network is being launched. This raises the question of how best to organise in the unions – rank and file or broad left?

We can halt the union's decline by fighting for members' control of disputes and strategy

PCS strike is part of a growing movement by low paid workers fighting for a living wage

The PCS is embarking on another pay ballot due to run from 18 March until 29 April. All civil servants deserve a decent pay rise – if the MPs can have one why can’t we?

By a PCS activist THE Public and Commercial Services union’s annual conference in May voted by a huge majority to ballot for industrial action over pay. After a two-year freeze and five-year one per cent cap, many members’ pay has only risen 5 per cent in seven years, inflation has stormed ahead at 20 per […]

By Jeremy Dewar TORY CHANCELLOR Philip Hammond is a modern man. He believes that driving a train is so easy that “even a woman could do it”. He also believes that 5 million public sector workers are “overpaid”. And he certainly believes that the 1 per cent public sector pay cap should be retained. He’s […]

By a PCS Rep ON 6 SEPTEMBER, the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) announced a major campaign to scrap the 1% pay cap, which has hit all civil servants and other public sector workers, including nurses, firefighters and council workers. In the Civil Service, the cap has been combined with increases in pension and […]

By Rebecca Anderson The Annual Delegate Conference (ADC) of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) took two important votes on the Labour Party this week. In one, it decided to review its political strategy and consider the possibility of affiliation to the Labour Party with further decisions to be taken next year. In the […]

By Rebecca Anderson For years, it has been the policy of the Public and Commercial Services Union that the threat compulsory redundancies will trigger a national-wide, civil-service wide ballot for industrial action. Today the union’s leadership, dominated by the Socialist Party, asked the Annual Delegate Conference to vote against a motion reaffirming this policy and […]

By Rebecca Anderson The Public and Commercial Services union’s Department of Work and Pensions conference has narrowly voted to accept a pay deal that will mean working worse hours for a pay rise of only one per cent for most members. Sixty per cent of members will receive the smaller pay rise and others will […]

By Sarah Barden A new pay deal has been agreed between Department for Works and Pensions (DWP) and the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), but it is unclear whether the union’s conference and membership will accept the deal. The offer sees new starters getting a 5% pay rise over the next five years but […]

The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) has announced the closure of 86 courts and tribunals across England and Wales. These closures threaten people’s access to justice in towns and rural areas, and the jobs of thousands of workers. The civil service trade union PCS is opposing the closures, alongside MPs, solicitors’ firms, magistrates and the Citizens […]

National Gallery staff have ended their indefinite strike having won serious concessions after 100 days of action. Originally opposing moves to privatise the security and visitor services, PCS members also demanded the London Living Wage and later the reinstatement of Candy Udwin, a senior union rep who was sacked on trumped up charges early on in […]

By Rebecca Anderson, 30 January 2015 The National Executive Committee of the Public and Commercial Services union has made the outrageous decision to cancel annual elections for both their own committee and the Group Executive Committees that lead the various departmental unions, like the DWP. Ironically the current leadership of PCS took the leadership of […]

As the Autumn’s coordinated strike action stalls, Jeremy Dewar reviews the unions’ record and asks how we can stop the retreat Up to 150,000 marched in London, Glasgow and Belfast in October in response to the TUC’s call, “Britain needs a pay rise”. There was wild applause in Hyde Park for our leaders’ speeches, none […]

By Rebecca On 16 January the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) NEC decided to ballot a quarter of a million civil and public servants for strike action over sustained government attacks. Increased pension contributions and four years of pay freezes and caps mean that civil servants will have seen their income cut by 16 per […]

Rebecca Anderson asks why the left has covered up the latest sellout by so-called ‘left’ trade union PCS On 26 June, members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) were due to strike over the cuts and privatisation. They face the threat of 8,500 job cuts, 5,300 of them to UK Border Agency (UKBA) […]