Civil servants pile on strike agony

Up to 750,000 public sector workers will stage a 24-hour walkout on June 30, with civil servants then embarking on a month-long ban on overtime.

The action could spread later in the year to other parts of the public sector, including councils and the NHS, threatening an autumn of discontent involving more than 1.5 million workers.

Members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union voted by 61.1 per cent in favour of strikes, and by 83.6 per cent for other forms of industrial action, in a turnout of 32.4 per cent.

The union is protesting at planned changes to pensions as well as job cuts and a pay freeze for civil servants as part of the Government’s austerity measures.

PCS leader Mark Serwotka said: “This result shows that public servants, who provide vital services from the cradle to the grave, will not stand back while everything they have ever worked for is taken from them.”

In another development, members of public sector union Unison employed by Doncaster Council also voted yesterday to walk out over threatened compulsory redundancies and changes to staff terms and conditions at the authority.

Jim Board, the union’s branch secretary, said the ballot achieved a 31 per cent turnout, with 66 per cent of members voting in favour of strike action on June 30.

The union has around 3,500 members in departments across the council.

The news followed huge strike votes by members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) over pensions.

More than 300,000 teachers were balloted in total, and the walkout is set to be the biggest day of action by teachers in decades.

ATL has never taken national strike action in its 127-year history, and the last time it took national industrial action was in 1979, before current legislation on balloting, over changes to teachers’ pay.

Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude said it would be a “big mistake” for teachers and civil servants to go on strike while negotiations were still continuing, with fresh talks planned for later this month.

A spokesman for the Department for Education said a strike “will only damage pupils’ learning and inconvenience their busy working parents”.

The teaching unions say the Government’s proposed pension changes will see them working longer, paying in more and receiving less when they retire.

ATL president Andy Brown said: “We have carefully picked this date to avoid external exams and important school and college events so that any strike causes as little disruption as possible to children’s education.”

NUT general secretary Christine Blower said: “Teachers do not take strike action lightly but the overwhelming support for action by NUT members shows that teachers feel what is happening to their pensions is wrong.”

Results from the NUT’s ballot showed that 92 per cent were in favour of strike action.

Turnout was 40 per cent among state school members of the union and 27 per cent among private school members. Some 83 per cent of ATL members voted to strike, and overall turnout for the ballot was 35 per cent.

University lecturers will also take industrial action on June 30, while direct action group UK Uncut said it will stage protests on the same day to coincide with the strike.

Meanwhile, talks at conciliation service Acas aimed at averting a series of strikes by London Underground workers in protest at the sacking of a driver broke down yesterday.

The Rail Maritime and Transport union accused Tube bosses of refusing to discuss the reinstatement of the driver, Arwyn Thomas, who has taken a claim of unfair dismissal to an employment tribunal.

The tribunal result is due by the end of the month.

The union is planning a series of strikes, starting this Sunday evening, which will hit the Wimbledon tennis championships.