Bolton: PCS workers walkout over pay and conditions

Members of The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) previously voted to undertake an all-out strike on April 28.

More than 130,000 civil servants are estimated to have gone on strike nationwide, as workers in 132 Government departments walked out in a long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.

Members are currently being balloted on whether to strike in future, with results expected by early May.

Benefits workers in Bolton were part of the strike on Friday, which comes after walkouts in February.

Jo Knight, branch chair of PCS Bolton and Bury, and a case manager at the centre, said: “Because of where we were on Great Moor Street, we got a lot of traffic going past beeping their horns and giving us support.

“A GMB member came to visit us and brought us chocolate. It was considerably better than February, when we were all freezing to death.

“Today was a national strike, several unions were involved to commemorate Worker’s Memorial Day.

“Many of us in the Civil Service are at the AO pay grade, that’s minimum wage. For what we do, we can get paid more.

The strike in February (Image: PCS)

“The Government aren’t respecting us at all.”

She continued: “The grades above us are asked to conduct interviews every 10 minutes. "If you’re going through a jobseekers claim with someone, by the time you’ve done security checks, you only have five minutes to have a conversation.

“This Government rhetoric about helping people back to work, they’re just ticking boxes.

“Workload is routinely 50 per cent above capacity. In February, it was 34 per cent above.”

Speaking about the potential for future strikes, Jo said: “It depends on the ongoing ballot. By the end of May 9, we should be able to see if it meets the requirement threshold.

“Hopefully then we’ll get another mandate, then we’ll take it from there.”

The leader of the PCS accused the Government of waging an “ideological war” on its own workforce as the row remains deadlocked.

General secretary Mark Serwotka said ministers were “bullying” civil servants.

“When you look at how badly ministers treat their own staff, it’s impossible not to think this is an ideological war on civil servants.

“The evidence stacks up – ministers bullying their staff, giving our members the worst pay rise in the country, refusing to give them a back-dated pay claim or lump sum like they’ve given everyone else, failing even to negotiate with us – so how else do you explain it?

“How else do you explain the incessant attacks by Government ministers on their own workforce, if it’s not a point of principle?

“We were lauded throughout the pandemic, including by the Prime Minister when he was chancellor, yet now we’re treated worse than anyone else, so it’s no wonder our members’ anger is growing.

“Ministers should be setting an example to employers, paying their own staff a fair wage, not leading the race to the bottom.”