PCS has announced the dates its members at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office will strike over the department’s restructuring programme.
The union set four full days of strike action on 16, 22, 29 and 30 July. Members will also walk out on 23 July from 1pm. Action short of a strike will run from 17 to 30 July.
There will be picket lines outside the FCDO building in King Charles Street from 8am to 10am on every full strike day, and from 1pm on 23 July.
PCS, which is the civil service’s biggest union, said it served notice of industrial action following unsuccessful talks with the permanent under-secretary and senior HR officials on Tuesday this week.
Members of PCS who work at FCDO voted for strike action in a recent ballot that registered 53% turnout, according to the union. A previous ballot fell 19 votes short of securing the 50% turnout required for industrial action to be legal.
The strike is a response to the controversial FCDO 2030 restructure plan, which follows a 17% cut to the department’s administrative funding in last year’s Spending Review.
By some estimates, around 2,000 jobs could be lost. A voluntary exit scheme for FCDO staff was also launched last year.
PCS said management rejected proposals to avoid compulsory redundancies and refused to provide core information about staffing levels, vacancies and the number of employees still at risk in the restructure.
The union said its members demand that all “stage 3” posts be reserved for internal applicants only and the introduction of a binding no-compulsory-redundancy agreement.
It said they also want a review of matching decisions across the department, urgent discussions on inconsistencies between directorates and assurance that equality impacts and potential discriminatory outcomes have been fully assessed and mitigated.
PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said: “Our members are standing up not only for their own jobs, but for the future of a public service that is already stretched by years of underinvestment and workforce reductions.
“FCDO staff deserve transparency, respect and a guarantee that they will not be forced out of their jobs through compulsory redundancy. This action sends a clear message that workers will not accept being kept in the dark while jobs and public services are threatened. Management still has time to return to meaningful negotiations and avoid further disruption.”