DWP staff to strike over pay

Up to 80,000 staff at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will walk out on December 6 and 7 after union leaders accused management of walking away from last minute talks aimed at averting industrial action.

The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union said the strike was in protest at plans to impose a three-year pay deal which would see 40% of workers receive no wage rise next year.

The two day strike at the DWP, the Government's biggest department, will be followed by a ban on overtime.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "The department has provoked conflict and the inevitable disruption that strike action brings by walking away from last minute talks.

"This insulting pay offer that will see low paid staff receive a pay cut in real terms has provoked anger amongst people who have borne the brunt of job cuts. Imposing a pay offer that averages out at 1% a year will do little for the morale of staff who have seen job cuts and services suffer.

"The Government has got to start realising that its policies of cuts and driving down pay are not only damaging staff morale and services, but creating the conditions for systemic failure across the civil service.

"If the Government and the department want to avoid damaging industrial action, then they need to re-start talks quickly on a fair pay deal for staff."

The union said the pay offer averaged 1% a year over the next three years, taking the wages of the lowest paid staff to just 24p an hour above the national minimum wage.

DWP workers have already taken strike action this year in protest at job cuts.