UK passport office workers launched a five-week stoppage, the latest walkout in strike-hit Britain as the country reels from the worst cost of living crisis in a generation.
The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) accused the government on Monday of failing to deal even-handedly with public sector workers.
The UK has been hit by a wave of industrial action across the economy in recent months ranging from ambulance staff and rail staff to doctors, teachers and dock workers.
Unions say their members have been hit by a combination of decades-high inflation and stagnating wages that has left them struggling to pay their bills.
Ministers had failed to “hold any meaningful talks” with civil servants despite negotiations having been opened with unions representing health workers and teachers, PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said.
“They’re treating their own workforce worse than anyone else. They’ve had six months to resolve this dispute but for six months have refused to improve their two percent imposed pay rise, and failed to address our members’ other issues of concern,” he said.
“They seem to think if they ignore our members, they’ll go away. But how can our members ignore the cost-of-living crisis when 40,000 civil servants are using foodbanks and 45,000 of them are claiming the benefits they administer themselves?” he added.
Demands rejected
The union wants talks about pay, jobs, pensions and conditions.
More than 1,000 members of the PCS civil servants union are due to take part in the walkout with picket lines mounted outside eight sites.
A nationwide walkout of more than 130,000 civil servants is also planned for April 28.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has rejected demands for big pay hikes in the public sector, saying they are unaffordable and will fuel inflation.
READ MORE: Hundreds of thousands of workers strike in UK over pay
Unacceptable offer
Teachers in England rejected the government’s latest pay offer on Monday, raising the spectre of more strikes and further disruptions for parents and children.
The walkouts are the latest in a wave of strikes that has disrupted Britons’ lives for months.
Public-sector workers including doctors, train and bus drivers, airport baggage handlers, border officers and postal workers are demanding pay increases to keep pace with inflation, which stands at 10.4 percent.
A cost-of-living crisis fueled by sharp rises in food and energy prices following Russia’s offensive on Ukraine has left many struggling to pay their bills.
Unions say wages, especially in the public sector, have fallen in real terms over the past decade.
The government had offered teachers an average 4.5 percent pay increase, plus a one-time payment of 1,000 pounds ($1,233), which it described as “fair and reasonable.”
But the offer was rejected by 98 percent of the teachers who took part in a ballot on the proposal.
The offer was unacceptable and did nothing to address the shortage of teachers in England, NEU Joint General Secretaries Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney said at the union’s annual conference.
“The offer shows an astounding lack of judgment and understanding of the desperate situation in the education system,” they said in a statement.
READ MORE:
UK unveils cost-of-living budget as mass strikes hit nation
Be First to Comment