THOUSANDS of Merseyside members of the country’s biggest civil service union went out on strike yesterday in a dispute over redundancy pay cuts.
The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) called the two-day action in response to the Government’s decision to cut up to a third from compensation packages for those who lose their jobs.
The cuts proposed would see a worker earning an average of £24,000 a year over 20 years’ service stand to lose around £20,000 of their final redundancy package – equivalent to around a third of the total pay-out.
Members picketed outside the passport office on Old Hall Street, Liverpool, throughout the day, as well as at Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs at King’s Dock.
One union member claimed that security staff at the Dock were attempting to tell strikers they would have to move off the site, but it is understood the dispute passed off without incident.
Liverpool PCS spokesman Paul O’Connor said the dispute had passed off peacefully.
He said members feared that the cuts to the compensation package – which the Government says is an out-of-date system and has created a system of “perverse incentives” for members to try to leave, rather than stay – would pave the way for job cuts.
He added the reduction of the redundancy packages would only save the Government £500m towards a £1.5bn savings and efficiency programme, leading to fears the rest would have to come from further staffing reductions.
