Courts staff set date for strike

Members of two unions voted to hold a 24-hour strike

Up to 8,000 workers in magistrates' courts are set to go on strike next Tuesday in a long-running pay dispute.

The 24-hour walk-out from courts in England and Wales involves staff at all levels and is the first national strike in the service for 800 years.

Some 80% of 7,800 staff in the Public and Commercial Services Union voted to strike over what they said was a below-inflation pay offer of 2.2%.

Government officials said the offer was worth an average of 3.7%.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Constitutional Affairs said individuals at the top of their scale would get 2.2% and those who were not - 50% of those affected - would receive 5.2 %.

The action is set to involve staff who run courts and provide advice to magistrates, including clerks and ushers.

'Low pay'

Some 120 members of Prospect, which represents staff at senior levels of the service, were also balloted over the pay offer.

Alan Leighton, National Secretary of Prospect, said his staff did not want to "disrupt the smooth running of the service".

"But (they) feel forced into tacking action because they are having to bear the brunt if a lack of funding to cover the start-up costs of Her Majesty's Court Service."

He warned of further strike dates ahead, and added that the strike marked the beginning of a campaign of industrial action and will continue with a "work-to-rule".

But both unions have agreed a series of exemptions so as to avoid risks to public safety.

Nick McCarthy, a senior official with the Public and Commercial Service Union (PCS) which represents more junior workers, said members were angry about the latest government offer.

"These are low paid staff and they go into an organisation where they see other civil servants getting paid, in virtually every situation, more than them," he said.

"And all they can see with this pay settlement is their pay getting worse by comparison.

Contingency plans

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said 51% of administration staff working in magistrates' courts outside London earned less than £14,000 annually.

Mr McCarthy added: "This is not a militant group of members and what we really want is a settlement and we want the department to start talking to us and to go back to Treasury and get some more money to improve these low pay levels. "

The Department of Constitutional Affairs said it had "robust contingency plans" in place to enable essential services to be delivered if industrial action was called.