The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) is the sixth largest trade union in the United Kingdom. Most of its members work in UK government departments and other

public bodies A statutory corporation is a government entity created as a statutory body by statute. Their precise nature varies by jurisdiction, thus, they are statutes owned by a government or controlled by national or sub-national government to the (in so ...

History

The union was founded in 1998 by the merger of the

Public Services, Tax and Commerce Union The Public Services, Tax and Commerce Union (PTC) was a short-lived trade union in the United Kingdom. The union was formed in January 1996, when the Inland Revenue Staff Federation merged with the National Union of Civil and Public Servants. ...

(which mostly represented the executive grades of the Civil Service) and the

Civil and Public Services Association The Civil and Public Services Association (CPSA) was a trade union in the United Kingdom, representing civil servants. History The union was founded in 1921, when the Civil Service Clerical Union and the Clerical Officers' Association merged ...

(mostly representing the clerical grades). The General Secretaries of the two unions, John Sheldon and

Barry Reamsbottom Barry Arthur Reamsbottom (born 4 April 1949) is a former Scottish civil servant and trade union General Secretary. He was General Secretary of the Civil and Public Services Association (1992–1998) and its successor the Public and Commercial ...

respectively, became Joint General Secretaries of the new union. In 2000,

Mark Serwotka Mark Henryk Serwotka (; born 26 April 1963) is General Secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), the largest trade union representing British civil servants. He was President of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) for 2019. Early ...

was elected General Secretary and has held the position since: he was elected unopposed in 2005 (no other candidate received enough valid nominations from PCS branches); he was re-elected in 2009 for a five-year term, and in 2014 was re-elected for a further five years. In 2018, the union won £3 million in damages from the

Department for Work and Pensions , type = Department , seal = , logo = Department for Work and Pensions logo.svg , logo_width = 166px , formed = , preceding1 = , jurisdiction = Government of the United Kingdom , headquarters = Caxton House7th Floor6–12 Tothill Stree ...

, after a legal challenge against the withdrawal of the "check off" system of paying union subscriptions.

Membership and organisation

The union had 195,901 members at the end of 2015 and is the largest trade union representing civil servants in the UK. PCS is organised into groups that deal with different bargaining units such as

Revenue and Customs , patch = , patchcaption = , logo = HM Revenue & Customs.svg , logocaption = , badge = , badgecaption = , flag = , flagcaption = , image_size = , co ...

, Work and Pensions and

Law and Justice Law and Justice ( pl, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość , PiS) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Poland. Its chairman is Jarosław Kaczyński. It was founded in 2001 by Jarosław and Lech Kaczyński as a direct su ...

. Two factions compete in elections to the National Executive Committee of the PCS, its governing body: the ruling Left Unity faction, which stands candidates as part of the Democracy Alliance, and an opposing Independent Left faction.

PCS Credit Union

PCS Credit Union Limited is a savings and loans co-operative established by the trade union for its members in 2011. It is a member of the

Association of British Credit Unions The Association of British Credit Unions Limited, commonly known as ABCUL, is the leading trade association for credit unions in Great Britain. ABCUL represents around 70% of credit unions who in turn provide services to 85% of the British credit ...

Limited, authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the

Financial Conduct Authority The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is a financial regulation, financial regulatory body in the United Kingdom, but operates independently of the UK Government, and is financed by charging fees to members of the financial services industry. The ...

and the PRA. Ultimately, like the banks and building societies, members’ savings are protected against business failure by the

Financial Services Compensation Scheme The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) is the UK's statutory deposit insurance and investors compensation scheme for customers of authorised financial services firms. This means that FSCS can pay compensation if a firm is unable, or li ...

Affiliations

Organisations to which PCS is affiliated include

Abortion Rights Abortion-rights movements, also referred to as pro-choice movements, advocate for the right to have legal access to induced abortion services including elective abortion. They seek to represent and support women who wish to terminate their pre ...

Amnesty international Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

and the Cuba Solidarity Campaign.

Strikes and protests involving PCS members

2008

*In conjunction with Prospect, members at the

Science Museum A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in mu ...

went on strike over pay.

2010

*On 8 March 2010, 270,000 civil servants began a 48-hour strike over government changes to redundancy payments.

2011

*The union voted for a one-day strike on 30 June 2011.

2013

*Strike action was organised for New Year's Eve 2013 for all

Metropolitan Police Service The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

Civil Staff due to a pay dispute. Taking strike action on this day was deemed to be most effective because of the busy nature of the day for police. The MPS offered a below inflation wage increase of 1%. Another strike ballot was announced on 6 February 2014 for strike action on 12 and 13 February 2014. *As part of the union's budget day strikes, a series of protests took place across branches in the Culture Group, including

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

and

National Museums Liverpool National Museums Liverpool, formerly National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside, comprises several museums and art galleries in and around Liverpool, England. All the museums and galleries in the group have free admission. The museum is a non ...

to highlight the effect of government cuts to arts funding.

2014

*PCS announced they would be joining a national strike alongside other unions on

Budget Day Budget Day is the day that a government presents its budget to a legislature for approval, in a ceremonial fashion. It only exists in some countries of the world. India The Union Budget of India, referred to as the Annual Financial Statement i ...

- 10 July, over pay restraint and austerity in the public sector.

2015

*From 11 August 2015, PCS members at the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...

took indefinite strike action against a proposed privatisation of the security staff at the gallery. The strike lasted for over 100 days. *At the

National Museum Wales National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

branch, members voted for strike action after proposals to end their weekend pay premiums. *Members of the Royal Household branch, including staff at

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original c ...

, voted for action short of a strike in an effort to achieve the

Living Wage A living wage is defined as the minimum income necessary for a worker to meet their basic needs. This is not the same as a subsistence wage, which refers to a biological minimum, or a solidarity wage, which refers to a minimum wage tracking labor ...

. *Another of the union's Culture Group branches went on strike in December 2015 against the removal of weekend allowances. The dispute at the

National Museum of Scotland The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, and the adjacent Royal Scottish Museum (opened in ...

branch was eventually ended when funding from the Scottish Government enabled a buy out of the allowances.

2016

*Cleaners in

HMRC , patch = , patchcaption = , logo = HM Revenue & Customs.svg , logocaption = , badge = , badgecaption = , flag = , flagcaption = , image_size = , co ...

went on strike as their outsourced employer,

ISS The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (J ...

, claimed it couldn't afford the Government's new

National Living Wage The National Living Wage is an obligatory minimum wage payable to workers in the United Kingdom aged 23 and over which came into effect on 1 April 2016. it is £9.50 per hour and it is set to rise to £10.42 in April 2023. It was implemented at a ...

2017

*Strike action of Driving Examiners was organised for 4 and 5 December to coincide with the introduction of new driving tests in order to protest against the introduction of Satellite Navigation to the test on 4 December. Examiners also voted started work to rule on 23 November.

2019

*In conjunction with GMB, PCS members at

Historic Royal Palaces Historic Royal Palaces is an independent charity that manages some of the United Kingdom's unoccupied royal palaces. These are: * Tower of London * Hampton Court Palace * Kensington Palace (State Apartments and Orangery) * The Banqueting Hous ...

took strike action against proposed changes to their pensions. This was the first time the

Beefeaters The Yeomen Warders of His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London, and Members of the Sovereign's Body Guard of the Yeoman Guard Extraordinary, popularly known as the Beefeaters, are ceremonial guardians of the Tower of London. ...

had been on strike in 55 years. *Outsourced workers at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) went on strike to demand the London Living Wage in a coordinated action with United Voices of the World (UVW) union members at the nearby Ministry of Justice. *In December 2019, Security Guards and Front of House workers at

Wallace Collection The Wallace Collection is a museum in London occupying Hertford House in Manchester Square, the former townhouse of the Seymour family, Marquesses of Hertford. It is named after Sir Richard Wallace, who built the extensive collection, along w ...

successfully protested outside an exhibition opening to secure the London Living Wage.

2020

*Following mass redundancies in the arts and culture sector caused by the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

lockdown, PCS members working for the commercial arm of

galleries in London took 42 days strike action against mass redundancies. A further 300 redundancies were also announced at

Southbank Centre Southbank Centre is a complex of artistic venues in London, England, on the South Bank of the River Thames (between Hungerford Bridge and Waterloo Bridge). It comprises three main performance venues (the Royal Festival Hall including the Nat ...

, leading to mass protests by PCS members outside the venues.

2021

*After a large, and in several cases fatal, COVID-19 outbreak in the offices of the Drivers and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), PCS members took multiple days of strike action in June and July to highlight the lack of adequate health and safety protection.

Leadership

General Secretaries

:1998: John Sheldon and

:2000:

Assistant General Secretaries

:2000: Hugh Lanning :2004: Chris Baugh and Hugh Lanning :2013: Chris Baugh :2019: John Moloney

References

External links

PCS website

PCS Young Members Website

PCS Proud

PCS family tree

Catalogue of the PCS archives
held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
Summary of the PCS Prison Service equal pay papers
held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick {{Authority control Trade unions in the United Kingdom Civil service trade unions 1998 establishments in the United Kingdom Trade unions established in 1998 Credit unions of the United Kingdom London Borough of Wandsworth Trade unions based in London Trade unions affiliated with the Trades Union Congress