Tens of thousands of public sector workers to strike on 15 March over pay

theguardian.com:

Tens of thousands of public sector workers will strike on 15 March and work to rule indefinitely after voting overwhelmingly for industrial action over pay.

The civil service members of Prospect union work for organisations such as the Met Office, Health and Safety Executive and Natural England.

At least 80% of members voted for strike action and 92% were in favour of action short of a strike, on a turnout of 72% – well over the legal threshold of 50%.

Their action on 15 March, which is budget day, is likely to coincide with a strike by PCS union members in the civil service and other public sector workers, taking the number of civil servants participating in industrial action that day to more than 100,000.

Teachers represented by the National Education Union (NEU), junior doctors in England represented by the British Medical Association (BMA), and London Underground drivers represented by Aslef are also set to strike that day.

It comes after a wave of strikes over the winter in the public and private sector with many workers protesting against real terms pay cuts at a time when inflation has been running in double digits.

Prospect members are taking action in relation to pay, the threats of job losses, and proposed cuts to redundancy terms, and the strike constitutes the union’s largest industrial action in more than a decade.

Mike Clancy, general secretary of Prospect, said his union’s members in the public sector have seen their incomes declined by up to 26% over the past 13 years and said their work had been “taken for granted” and they had “had enough”.

“Poor pay and declining morale represent an existential threat to the civil service’s ability to function, and to our ability to regulate and deliver on the government’s