Herefordshire civil servants join walkout (From Hereford Times)

Herefordshire civil servants join walkout

8:00am Thursday 11th March 2010

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COURT staff went on strike this week during a nationwide protest against changes to redundancy terms for civil servants.

Picket lines also formed outside Jobcentres, tax and government offices in opposition to a £500 million savings plan that involves not only job cuts but also reduced pay-offs for staff in the process.

Branch secretary for the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union, Anne Shuker, and colleagues from Hereford Magistrates Court were among those who took part on Monday and Tuesday morning.

“The deal has always been that you work in the civil service and you don’t earn a comparable salary to the private sector but as long as you keep your head down you can expect reasonable protection in your employment,” the court clerk said. “Now they are taking that away.”

The Government claims it has already compromised with unions but those representing the workforce say their members could still lose thousands of pounds.

The fear is that, with all main political parties planning deep spending cuts, tens of thousands of jobs are being lined up to go on the cheap.

PCS regional secretary Andrew Lloyd said: “The Government claims it cannot prevent bankers’ bonuses being paid because they are contractual but appears happy to rip up the rights of its own workforce and change the law to do so.”

Mrs Shuker said it had been suggested the bonuses of senior civil servants could be reduced to help but the idea had been declined.

“It’s the financial institutions and senior members of the Government that have caused this and it’s the public that is going to be penalised by what they are going to do.

“The last thing we want is people to remain incarcerated unneccessarily but withdrawing our labour is the only power we have,”

she said

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