Civil servants start nine days of strike action

CIVIL servants working for a Government department have begun nine days of strike action.

- By DANIEL HALL

Members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, based in Newcastle, started two working weeks of industrial action yesterday morning.

A picket line was in place at Citygate, where branch rep Joe Dale told The Chronicle that though primarily striking to save the Newcastle office, it was also to force management to reconsider attendance mandates and central changes to recruitment principles.

Mr Dale said: “We're serious about protecting members and our terms and conditions, and this is a line in the sand. We've got mandates for strike action and action short of strike for all offices on all our issues.