Serwotka condemns “radio silence” from government as passport officers strike

Public and Commercial Services union general secretary Mark Serwotka has said there has been “radio silence” from the government over strikes in the Passport Office after staff represented by the union began five weeks of industrial action.

Strikes over pay and pensions took place today at passport offices in London, Durham, Liverpool, Peterborough, Glasgow, Newport and Southport, with an estimated 1,000 workers walking out.

Speaking to Sky News this morning, Serwotka said there would be “huge” disruption and declared that it was “inevitable” that over the strike period “delays will increase, queues will increase”.

The PCS general secretary added: “If the passport officers were given more than a 2% pay rise and given the resources they need, we would have a far better service in normal times, let alone the disruption we’re going to see over this five weeks.”

Serwotka said there has “not been one minute of negotiations with the government”, adding: “Therefore, this strike is a significant escalation, because the government’s own workforce are living in in-work poverty.”

He said he wants the media to ask ministers a “simple question”, saying: “The people you clapped in the pandemic, who delivered the furlough scheme, who delivered three million payments to Universal Credit, delivered passports and driving licenses, kept our borders safe and our prisons running.

“Why did you clap them in the pandemic, now you’re giving them less than any other public sector worker?”

PCS has previously warned that the strikes in the Passport Office – which are due to run until May 5th – will likely have a “significant impact” on the delivery of passports ahead of the summer holidays.

The Home Office confirmed today that there has been an increase in applications but said the total “remains close to forecasted volumes”.

PCS announced last week that as many as 130,000 members across the civil service and public sector will strike on April 28th, in the union’s latest one-day action. Members were last involved in walkouts on March 15th, the day of the Budget.

Serwotka wrote to cabinet minister Jeremy Quin following last week’s announcement, urging him to “redress the insulting approach of the government to PCS members” by starting negotiations.

The union leader wrote in his letter that the minister has the “capability” to stop further strikes by entering talks with PCS, adding: “When we met, you led us to believe, as have your officials in the weeks since then, that serious negotiations to resolve this dispute would take place but, weeks later, they still have not begun.”

Serwotka denounced talks held with Quin back in January as a “total farce” and accused the minister of having “nothing to offer”.

“He didn’t deny our members were being offered less than anyone else. He didn’t deny tens of thousands of our members only get a pay rise because of the rise in the national minimum wage, but he refused to give us a pay rise now,” Serwotka said.

The PCS union announced in November last year that its ballot for strike action in the civil service received an average ‘yes’ vote of 86.2% across the areas balloted – the highest in the union’s history.

A total of 126 employer areas voted in favour of strikes and met the 50% turnout threshold legally required for industrial action. The average turnout across all balloted areas was 51.6%.