33,000 more members to join national dispute

PCS members in 9 more employers are now able to take strike action and members in 4 groups have also voted to take action short of strike.

In our record-breaking ballot results announced in November we broke through the 50% legal strike threshold in 124 employers. Nine groups of members where the turnout was just below 50% were asked again through a postal ballot, which ended yesterday (27), if they support strike action in support of our campaign for a pay rise of at least 10%, pensions justice, job security and no cuts to civil service redundancy pay.

All 9 of those ballots passed the 50% threshold and 32,033 members will now join the all-member action on 15 March. These votes in favour of action also represent a significant escalation of the dispute as these members are also now able to join targeted strike action when called, which has had a big impact over the past few month and demonstrated to the government that it needs to take our demands seriously. We are determined to keep the pressure on until the government improves its offer to members.

Members in the following groups passed the threshold:

Care Quality Commission, Companies House, HMRC, Information Commissioner's Office, National Museum of Wales, Office of Rail & Road, UK Export Finance, Valuation Office Agency and Welsh Government.

Read the ballot results in full.

Members in the following employers have also voted to take action short of strike:

DEFRA, Forestry Commission, Marine Maritime Organisation and Rural Payments Agency.

Read the ballot results in full.

Fresh ballots in other employers

On Friday, our national executive committee, decided to launch fresh postal strike ballots from 20 March in employers across the civil service and public sector so our members can continue to fight for fair pay, pensions justice and job security as part of our national campaign. Our current 6-month legal mandate for strike action in 124 groups expires on 6 May, so to continue our industrial action campaign our national executive committee agreed we need to ballot members again.

The new postal ballots run from 20 March until 9 May. The levy of members, which supports those taking strategic action, will remain in place for the duration of the dispute.