Met Police threatened staff with docked pay over industrial action

Public and Commercial Services (PCS) members working for the Metropolitan Police (MPS) were threatened with docked pay and disciplinary action over their refusal to comply with a return to the office directive.

From 6 January, PCS members who work as civilian staff for MPS will, in an action short of strike, refuse managers’ instructions to go into the office for additional unnecessary days.

After working for two years under a flexible blended working policy, members were furious in 2023 when MPS management announced a new hybrid working policy, which mandates staff to be in an office workplace for 60% or more.

After PCS announced industrial action at MPS last December, the employer responded by threatening to dock members’ pay and take disciplinary action.

They also wrote to PCS to say that a recent Supreme Court ruling, which stated that UK trade law was incompatible with Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights, is not applicable in this case.

PCS has written to Sir Mark Rowley, the Commissioner of MPS, to express their shock that a public body would look to violate its own workers’ human rights and to inform him that they intend to make a formal complaint to the Mayor of London and the Home Secretary.

PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said:

“This dispute is easy to resolve. But the employer must be willing to work with PCS to find a resolution that benefits everyone, instead of threatening its own workers with docked pay and disciplinary action.

Our members have demonstrated that their current blended approach works effectively and has had a positive impact on productivity. No evidence to the contrary has been provided by the employer.

To seek to change that approach without proper engagement with their own staff is shortsighted. We urge MPS to ditch the threats and talk to PCS to end this dispute.”