Threat of strike action in business and education departments

Staff at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Department for Education have begun to vote on whether they want to take part in a strike over pay.

The Public and Commercial Services Union’s pay ballot, which opened on 18 March, will see 125,000 members in the civil service voting on whether they are prepared to take part in strike action or action short of strike. 

“The gap between our pay and the rest of the public sector is increasing, and we need to act now if we want to catch up,” the union said in a statement on 18 March.