Office for National Statistics union members to vote whether to continue industrial action

More than 1,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) have been refusing to go into the office two days a week since May despite an instruction from the company. The 1,179 workers based in Newport in South Wales, Titchfield in Hampshire, London, Darlington, Manchester and Edinburgh, recently refused to work overtime as a result

With their six-month strike mandate running out next month, the union is balloting members for a new mandate to allow their action to continue.

Fran Heathcote, PCS general secretary, said: “Management’s mandatory workplace attendance regime does nothing to improve productivity but everything to disrupt the lives of ONS staff, who were led to believe they could continue to work from home indefinitely.

“Our ongoing action has allowed our members to continue those flexible arrangements without damaging the organisation’s outputs.

“The employer’s continuing refusal to talk to us, however, means we need to ballot members again to increase the pressure for a sensible, negotiated outcome.”

The ballot will end on October 1 with the outcome expected to be announced shortly after.

For more information about the Office for National Statistics industrial action, click here.