Public and Commercial Services Union
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| Public and Commercial Services Union | |
| Members | 320,000 |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Affiliation | TUC, STUC |
| Key people | Mark Serwotka, general secretary Janice Godrich, president |
| Office location | London, England |
| Website | www.pcs.org.uk |
The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) is the sixth largest union trade union in the United Kingdom. Most of its members work in positions in government departments and public bodies, although some work in information technology for private companies.
The union was founded in 1998 by the merger of the Public Services, Tax and Commerce Union (which mostly represented the executive 'managerial' grades of the Civil Service) and the Civil and Public Services Association (mostly representing the administrative grades). The Union's national executive committee, and group committees, still reserve seats based on the old split between the two unions.
The union has over 320,000 members and is the largest active trade union representing Civil Servants in the UK. PCS is the fastest growing union in the UK, at a time when union membership is generally on the decline. Its current general secretary is Mark Serwotka. PCS is affiliated to both the Trades Union Congress and the Scottish TUC but not to the Labour Party.
Day to day management of PCS is organised into bargaining units, that deal with different areas in Public Service. The main bargaining units are: Revenue and Customs, Law and Justice, Civil Service General (CSG) and the commercial sector.
The construction of the union is based on employment groups. Each group will have regional branches, then local representatives in the workplace.
In November 2004, PCS workers across government departments undertook a one day strike in protest against government plans to cut the Civil Service by 20%. This was the biggest strike of it kind in a generation, with well over 200,000 taking part.
In March 2005, a threatened strike against detrimental changes to pension conditions was called off at the last moment when the government agreed to re-enter negotiations. This strike action, which was supported by other public sector unions was forecast to include over 1.2 million workers.
