50p taxFictionGeorge Osborne said: “The 50p rate of tax is going because it wasn’t working.”Fact It would have if it had been allowed to continue. Large companies brought forward dividend payments so high earners could avoid paying the 50p rate.Tax avoidance of this sort, which is legal but immoral costs our economy £25 billion every year.We … Continue reading Fact and fiction

The following has been supplied by PCS HQ:An equality landmark has been reached as same-sex marriage has become law. The historic legislation was the result of a strong campaign run by equality groups and trade unions, including PCS, and passionate speeches in parliament. The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, passed its final stage in parliament … Continue reading Same-sex marriage becomes law

The following details have been supplied by the PCS HQ:Earlier this year PCS Commercial Sector members fed responses into an internal PCS consultation which in turn informed a submission via the TUC as a response to Coalition plans to weaken TUPE protection.PCS Commercial Sector members have considerable practical experience in dealing with TUPE and the … Continue reading Attack on TUPE

Colleagues,We have received the details below from the PCS HP North West Branch Secretary detailing his plight as a fellow PCS member and activist. John has been suspended for 8 weeks now by HP, after he sent to branch members a list of the 584 redundancies which were announced by the company in May. They … Continue reading Local PCS Activist Suspended

One of our Branch Trades Council delegates has advised us that the Unemployment Bus is in town to-morrow (Wednesday 3rd July), it will be parked near the Winter Gardens.On Friday 5th July it is the NHS's 65th Birthday, members of the Trades Council will be outside the Drop-in Centre on Whitegate Drive from 1pm to … Continue reading Info from the Trades Council: Blackpool Events

<!--[if !mso]>st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } <![endif]--> PCS HQ has supplied the following:PCS is campaigning to keep a fair and just welfare state and oppose the government’s brutal welfare changes that penalise the poor. We know from pay surveys that many members claim tax credits, child benefit, disability living allowance and other benefits that supplement their income. The … Continue reading Hands off our Welfare State

The following has been supplied by PCS HQ:The Department for Education has been in the news a lot recently, and not necessarily for the reasons secretary of state Michael Gove would have wanted.Gove’s U-turn on scrapping GCSEs coincided with revelations about a substantial financial settlement following a long-running grievance that involved some of Gove’s closest … Continue reading Politicising the civil service

A national overtime ban comes into force on Monday in support of our campaign against the cuts.The ban, which runs until 31 August, is an essential part of ongoing industrial action to keep up pressure on ministers to agree to national talks on vital issues, including pay, terms and conditions and job security.This is an … Continue reading Back the overtime ban to fight the cuts

Defend jobs, pensions and conditions of service                                                                     BackgroundOur pay is frozen or cut, our pensions attacked, our terms and conditions attacked and our jobs are getting more stressful, redundancies are one more straw that we will not accept. There are TEN good reasons why members are angry and should support the action:1) Pay: Pay in … Continue reading Ten Reasons to Support the PCS Action

The PCS DWP Group has issued the following guidance on action short of a strike. The Branch thought this would be useful to members. A .pdf version is available here.IntroductionAction short of a strike is an effective way of hurting the employer simply by only doing your job and no more. We are asking members … Continue reading DWP Group – Action Short of a Strike