Over half of public sector workers don’t believe that striking will make any difference to the government’s decision to reform pensions, says a survey by Badenoch & Clark.
While fewer than 34 per cent of workers agreed that pensions were worth striking over, 61.6 per cent thought the government wouldn’t amend its legislation on account of the industrial action.
The researchers asked public sector employees to rate morale in their department and 73.3 per cent said it was either average or poor.
Nicola Linkleter, managing director of Badenoch & Clark, said: “Our research over the past year has consistently highlighted morale as being low in the public sector. Not only have workers had a lack of job security, reduced resources and longer working hours, but their benefits packages are now under scrutiny too.
“The public sector has been able to compete with the private sector for top talent, traditionally by offering attractive benefit packages. Pensions are a key component of this package, which is why public sector workers are so impassioned about the proposed reforms. Resolution of this pensions issue is vital to ensure that a career in the public sector remains a positive and rewarding career choice.”
However, the strike has been well supported across the UK with many courts, airports, jobcentres and tax offices closed or severely disrupted, the Public and Commercial Services union has said.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “This is the best supported strike we’ve ever had. The government made a lot of the fact that after the strike ballot it was clear civil servants didn’t support strike action, but today we can see that they have voted with their feet and sent a clear message to the government that they will not tolerate these attacks on their hard-earned pensions rights and will fight the cuts that threaten to devastate our communities and jobs.
“It’s time for the government to engage properly; it has shown it is unwilling to move on any of the central issues that public sector workers will have to work up to eight years longer, thousands of jobs are at stake, lower pensions are set to cost three times as much, and pay is frozen while inflation soars. There should not be an equality of misery when it comes to pensions, the government is involved in a race to the bottom.”
