Passport workers strike

Passport workers across the country are striking today over a pay dispute, with the workforce also engaged in an ongoing work to rule.

Submitted by Sorry. on October 13, 2006

Up to 2,500 members of PCS working for the Identity and Passports Service (IPS) across the UK will be on strike today (13 Oct), causing severe disruption to passport processing in a dispute over pay.

The one day stoppage followed by a discontinuous work to rule will hit all seven IPS offices based in London, Peterborough, Newport, Durham, Belfast, Liverpool and Glasgow. Staff are angry at IPS management's failure to deliver on the union's pay claim despite giving an undertaking when it was submitted in June to deal the claim for 2006- 2007 as quickly as possible. The settlement date for this year's pay was August and with no pay offer in the foreseeable future, staff fear a repeat of last year when management dragged out the pay settlement for over a year.

Staff are also angry that whilst the cost of a passport has gone up by 50% in the last twelve months many have seen their pay rise below the cost inflation by just 1%.

Commenting Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary said: "The staff on strike today have grown increasingly frustrated by the inaction of the employer and are growing increasingly concerned of a repeat of last year's experience when it took management over a year to make a formal pay offer."

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