Belated Christmas gift awaits The Pensions Regulator: fresh strikes in the new year
PCS members working for The Pensions Regulator will strike for 12 days in the new year, escalating a dispute over the offer and imposition of a 3% pay rise.
Following 36 days of excellently supported strike action, the over 300 PCS members working for The Pensions Regulator (TPR), which protects workplace pensions in the UK, will strike again on 10, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18, 24, 25, 26, 30 and 31 January and 1 February.
This latest phase of action comes after members voted in a ballot for more action by a margin of 95.70% on a turnout of 75%.
TPR is only offering a pay rise of 3% while other civil service employers are paying a minimum of 4.5%, with an additional 0.5% of the overall pay pot to be targeted at the worst-paid staff.
Members are frustrated with the continued intransigence of TPR and their insistence on imposing an unagreed pay offer.
PCS has had numerous meetings with TPR management, but they have refused to concede anything and have doubled down on their original position of not meeting the terms of the civil service pay remit guidance.
Mark Serwotka, PCS General Secretary, said: “We know that The Pensions Regulator (TPR) can afford to pay our members the same as hundreds of thousands of their civil service colleagues.
“The fact that they refuse to do so during a cost-of-living crisis continues to infuriate our members, who have again voted in huge numbers for strike action.
“A belated Christmas gift awaits TPR in the new year: the end of this dispute. All the employer has to do is treat staff fairly by paying them the same as everyone else in the civil service.”