‘GORDON BROWN hear us say – our contracts are here to stay! shouted eighty Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) members and officials outside the High Court yesterday morning.
The demonstration marked the first day of a legal challenge by the union to have the government’s move to rip up negotiated agreements and impose cuts in civil service redundancy pay declared illegal.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka told News Line: ‘The legal action is part of our strategy.
‘We had three days of strike action in the run up to the election.
‘We have an overtime ban continuing and we are campaigning in marginal constituencies to keep up the political pressure.
‘We are doing what we said we would do, keeping up the pressure.
‘There will be more strike action if there is no change after the election.’
PCS national executive member Zita Holbourne added: ‘This is about our jobs being cut.
‘We are standing up defending our jobs and terms and conditions.
‘We’ve already lost thousands of jobs and have staff that are overworked and overstretched in pressured conditions.
‘It’s a disgrace. I never thought a Labour government would do this.
‘We are working with other public sector unions who are also facing cuts.
‘It makes sense to stand together and take action together, it will have a greater impact.
‘We are all facing similar attacks.
‘Trade unions are not treated with respect by this government.
‘This government should be putting people before profit.
‘They need to show us respect, make sure our terms and conditions are protected and our pay is fair.’
Asked if there will be further strike action, she replied: ‘We’ll have to see how this case goes.
‘In the meantime, we have a national overtime ban until May 14.
‘Groups are looking at what action short of strikes they can take in addition to the overtime ban.
‘We have our vote count campaign. We are asking all the main political parties to sign up to our five pledges on the public service concerns.’
Margo McCabe, GEC member for the Revenue and Customs Group, told News Line: It’s completely unacceptable that the government are going to change our redundancy pay unilaterally.
‘The reason this has inflamed such anger and such passion is people accepted that the wage wasn’t the best but they were getting an overall employment package.
‘Part of that was the compensation scheme.
‘That gave a decent severance payment, should it come to it.’
‘We are here because this is a point of law, that the change was made unilaterally.
‘Secondly, the reduction in the compensation payment makes it much easier to sack people.
‘So this is as much about job security as the money.
‘I think we are in for a prolonged struggle.’