Property transactions face potential new delays after the Land Registry and the Registers of Scotland were among the 125 government departments to vote for strike action this week amidst ongoing disputes over pay, pensions, jobs, and redundancy terms.
Strikes are set to begin next month and could last until mid-2023, with Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), which has coordinated the action, warning of a “prolonged programme of industrial action into every corner of public life” should ministers fail to meet their demands before the end of next week.
The current proposal of an average pay rise of 2% fails to match the 10% pay increase demanded by PCS.
The PCS general secretary urged the public to support the move.
Serwotka said: “The public themselves are going through a massive cost of living squeeze, worried about paying their mortgages and paying their rents and are therefore instinctively sympathetic to people who are clearly getting a raw deal.
“It’s clear that if you don’t have 100,000 workers on strike on one day, but you have a million, it makes a different political pressure on the government that is harder for them to ignore.”
A government spokesperson commented: “The public sector pay awards are a careful balance between delivering value for money for the taxpayer and recognising the importance of public sector workers.
“As the public would expect, we have plans in place to keep essential services running and minimise any potential disruption if strikes do go ahead.”
