Merseyside ARMs Secretary, Dave Owens provides an update as the strike enters it's ninth week.
PCS union members who administer Civil Service Pensions began their 9th week on strike at the start of September in a dispute over union recognition.
The contract to deliver the work transfers from current owners Equiniti to Capita this year from 1 December.
Equiniti are insistent that the union has never been recognised at MyCSP but this is contradicted by the former Branch Secretary of the Liverpool Home Office Branch from where the work was transferred in 2012.
The latest management wheeze in the dispute is to hold an internal ‘poll’ organised by them on recognition. This is rather than a legal ballot in which the union would have a chance to put our case.
Instead management alone will decide who takes part in the poll. PCS has no input to the polling process, strikers are excluded from the poll and there is no independent scrutiny of the result.
One picket described the poll as being ”like a Russian election”. Quite why Equiniti are digging their heels in is open to interpretation as they lose the contract at the end of November while the backlog of work piles up and nearly 50% of Civil Service pensioners await their McCloud decision letters months after the deadline for issue has passed. This is to the detriment not only of the workforce but also of Civil Service pensioners.
Why the Government is allowing this situation to persist has also to be questioned.
Picket lines are Monday to Friday as follows:
Liverpool, 40 Tithebarn Street, 07.30 to 10.00; Cheadle, Landmark House, Station Road, Bird Hall Lane, 08.00 to 10.00.
Supporters are welcome to join the pickets.
Messages of support can be sent via laura@pcs.org.uk.
Click here to find out more and to email the CEO demanding MyCSP recognise PCS
September 2025