More than 1,000 Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union members at eight locations will be stepping down from their jobs as a long-running dispute.
Pickets were organised outside offices in Glasgow, Durham, Liverpool, Southport, Peterborough, London, Belfast and Newport in Wales. The trade union declared that those participating in the action would be supported by the strike fund.
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PCS Secretary General Mark Serwotka sent a letter to the government appealing for immediate talks to resolve the dispute, accusing ministers of treating his staff differently from other public sector employees after the government negotiated with trade unions representing health professionals and teachers.
He said, „This escalation of our action has come about because, in sharp contrast with other parts of the public sector, ministers have failed to hold any meaningful talks with us, despite two massive strikes and sustained, targeted action lasting 6 months.”
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There are currently no plans to change official guidance, which states that it takes up to 10 weeks to get a passport.
At the moment, the Passport Office has already processed more than 2.7 million applications this year, adding over 99.7 per cent of standard applications are being processed within 10 weeks, with the majority of those delivered to customers well under this timescale.
The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) said they expect delays to increase due to the industrial action, claiming around 1,800 passport workers involved in the processing and renewing passports have joined the strike, so holidaymakers may face disruption this summer.
“These strikes will only add to the delays people have already been facing and will impact the delivery of passports as summer approaches” – said Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive of the Advantage Travel Partnership, the UK’s largest network of independent travel agents.
„We urge the Government and the union to find a way of dealing with this dispute that doesn’t affect British travellers and impact the outbound travel industry.”
Author: Patrycja Bodzek-Kurzyńska
Photo: Twitter @pcs_union
