Met Police staff announce two-week strike

Civilian staff working for the Metropolitan Police are to strike for two weeks after heavy-handed bosses threatened to dock their wages.

Public and Commercial Services (PCS) members had voted to take action short of a strike, refusing to return to the office for additional unnecessary days while continuing to work from home.

But when senior managers threatened to dock their pay as if they were taking full strike action, PCS has announced more than 300 members in reference and vetting will stop work from February 4 – 17.

PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said: “This hardline approach by Met Police managers has been completely counter-productive, effectively escalating the dispute.

“Our members take their jobs very seriously and didn’t want to disrupt the important work they do, but now they feel their hands have been forced because if they’ll lose pay when they’re not striking, they felt they might as well lose pay for striking.

Instead of pouring fuel on the fire by punishing our members for exercising their democratic right to take industrial action, managers should talk to us and try to resolve the issue.”

The flexible working row is likely to cause major disruption in the backroom functions of the force, specifically updating the National Crime Database and clearing people through vetting, because only people who have been vetted can carry out the work.