PCS halts action to allow talks to go ahead

The PCS civil service union suspended its national industrial action planned to run for 28 days from 10 November to allow talks over the government’s 2% public sector pay cap to take place. The suspension also applied to the overtime ban due to start on 11 November, following an agreement by the employer to extend the union’s industrial action mandate to midnight 11 December.

Commenting on the suspension of action, general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “I welcome the dialogue and hope an agreement is possible.”

But in a separate move, the executive of the NUT teachers’ union decided not to press ahead with further strike action over pay at this time, following a 51.7% vote in favour of strike action. Announcing the decision, Christine Blower, acting general secretary, said: “The case for fair pay for teachers has not gone away. We will continue to work with the TUC on the public sector pay campaign across the board.” The turnout in the ballot was 29.7%.