UK passport office staff launch five-week strike over long-running pay dispute

Passport Office workers in the UK are launching a five-week strike in the long-running dispute with the government over pay and conditions, as the cost-of-living crisis is weighing on Britons’ lives.

Over 1,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) at eight sites will walk out of their jobs on Monday, joining thousands of other civil servants who have been demanding higher wages in face of the skyrocketing inflation across the UK.

The PSC has warned of picket lines outside offices in Glasgow, Durham, Liverpool, Southport, Peterborough, London, Belfast and Newport in Wales, adding that those walking out will be supported by a strike fund.

PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka has called on the government to hold talks urgently in a bid to resolve the dispute, as the strikes are causing serious disruptions.

He has charged the government with   discrimination across the public sector after negotiations were held with other trade unions leading to improved pay offers.

Today’s strikes are not supposed to be the end of the story as the PCS is stepping up strikes, with a nationwide walkout of more than 130,000 civil servants planned for 28 April.

The current strike by PCS members comes on the heels of a bigger industrial action by UK’s Heathrow Airport staff, in which, around 1,400 security guards walked out of their jobs in a demand for higher wages.

A majority of the UK industries are grappling with industrial actions, with hundreds of thousands of workers holding strikes for better pay and conditions as the prices of commodities soar.

Unions say wages, especially in the public sector, have fallen in real terms over the past decade, and a cost-of-living crisis fueled by sharply rising food and energy prices has left many struggling to pay their bills.

Britain’s annual inflation rate was 10.1 percent in January. The Conservative government argues that pay increases would drive inflation even higher.