Hope you’ve checked your passport!
July 23, 2008
Today sees yet another strike in a long list of recent industrial disputes, this time in the passport service. Almost 3,000 workers in offices across the UK will stage a three day walk out, which may affect up to 60,000 people waiting for passports to be processed. So if you’re waiting for your new passport to be delivered so that you can go on holiday, I hope you’ve sent it off in good time.
The passport office workers are protesting about a poor pay deal and proposed cutbacks to the service which will see the closure of at least the Glasgow office and possibly three more. Staff were offered a 2.5% increase, but not all employees were included in the deal, which meant that some of the longest serving employees have not had a pay rise in 5 years; a move that Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union that represents the workers, has described as ‘disgraceful’. However a spokesperson for the passport service said that the employer was keeping within government guidelines and felt the offer was fair. Of course, I don’t know the full details of how the deal was worked out, but 5 years without a pay rise doesn’t sound that fair to me.
This is just another example of the kind of problems the UK will probably see more and more in the next few years. The worsening state of the economy will mean that employers have to cut back in many areas, and pay increases are likely to one of the first areas feeling this effect, so it’s likely that more and more industrial action will take place in response to this as employees feel the pinch at both ends of their finances.
Things to consider:www.bearingmaster.co.uk
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