At the very last minute on the 7th November the National Executive Committee of PCS decided to suspend the national strike due on the 10th. This difficult decision was taken after talks were offered from Sir Gus O’Donnell, head of the civil service. In a letter to general secretary Mark Serwotka he agreed that discussions should take place to address the concerns that form the basis of the national pay campaign.

The demands of PCS are:

·         Consolidated basic pay increases at least equal to the retail price index

·         Remove pay progression costs from budgets for increases

·         National pay bargaining - Fewer pay bargaining units

·         Funding to remedy equal pay problems

·         No link between pay and performance appraisal

·         An end to pressure for regional rates of pay

Importantly he also agreed that the period during which the PCS can legally take strike action would be extended by 28 days. This means that there will be no requirement to re-ballot the members if the talks fail and action is resumed. 

The decision to enter talks and suspend the strike must be seen as a victory to the hard work of reps and the commitment of members in preparing for the strike. The government would not be offering talks if the strike were not seen as being strongly supported by members from across the whole civil service. However, it remains to be seen whether enough progress will be made to form the basis of an acceptable settlement.

The NEC must keep members fully informed of everything that is discussed during the talks and if there are no concrete offers PCS must immediately reinstate the strike. The talks do present a real opportunity to achieve a settlement over low pay and lack of progression within pay scales for civil servants but if by the next NEC meeting on the 27th November no concrete offer has been made, with real figures for members to see, we must insist a new strike date is set. 

PCS members who were ready to take strike action in difficult times will be even more ready to show their anger and determination if they see that the government had only offered talks in a vain hope that they could stop 270,000 worker taking to the streets and demanding pay rises in line with the retail price index of 4.8%.