Civil servants and public service workers in Nottinghamshire say morale is at an "all time low" as they went on strike for improved pay. Workers at the British Geological Survey (BGS), which is the biggest employer in Rushcliffe, set up a picket line outside its base in Keyworth during the industrial action on Wednesday, March 15.
They joined thousands of members of the Prospect union across almost 40 public sector employers in England for the one-day strike, which was organised to coincide with the day the Budget is announced. The union says its members have suffered a real-term pay cut of 26 percent over the last 13 years and is calling on the Government to make a "meaningful" pay offer.
Marcus Dobbs, head of engineering geology at BGS said the body was losing and struggling to recruit staff. "Morale is at an all-time low," he said.
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"The UK government is failing to address the existential threat posed by climate change by failing to invest in the very people whose job it is to find solutions to this problem." Oliver Byers, a support staff member at BGS, added: "From April this year my wage will essentially be minimum wage.
"Because of this I went to get a bike on the cycle-to-work scheme and that was declined because it would take me below that minimum wage margin. We should be moving up the bands and there should be some pay progression which there isn't at the moment."
Workers at the Health and Safety Executive, based at the BGS offices, joined the strike. Ian Weekes, an officer for the body, said: "We don't want to strike but we've been left with no choice due to more than a decade of real term pay cuts.
"The effective operations of the civil service and its agencies are at risk if we lose vital skills to the private sector and organisations won't be able to recruit the skilled staff that we need. This was the last straw, the government have said they want to cut jobs at the same time and have threatened to cut our redundancy terms and we've had enough."
BGS is a partly publicly funded body focused on public-good science for government and research to understand earth and environmental processes. Mike Clancy, Prospect general secretary, said: "Our members in BGS, UKRI and the rest of the public sector have seen their incomes decline by up to 26 percent over the past 13 years and their work taken for granted – they have had enough.
"Bills are rocketing and pay is falling ever further behind the private sector, leaving our members with no option but to take industrial action. We will continue our campaign until the government comes up with a meaningful offer. If it doesn’t do so soon, we may be left with no Civil Service to protect.”
A Government spokesperson said: "Industrial action should always be a last resort, and discussions continue at official level with civil service unions. We urge them to recognise what is reasonable and affordable, as the whole country faces these cost of living challenges."
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