PCS HMRC Group supporting the strikers!

Having already had support from (amongst others) the PCS National President Martin Cavanagh; senior PCS reps from the DWP Group, including DWP Group President Angela Grant; senior PCS reps from the Home Office Group, including Home Office Group President James Cox; and the PCS Associate and Retired Members Section, today we had senior PCS reps from HMRC Group visiting our picket line to show their support, including HMRC Group President Hector Wesley.

As our action nears the end of its fourth week, it’s great to see that we’ve retained a healthy picket line throughout the strike; and we’ve had a regular stream of supporters, visiting the strikers throughout the dispute.

Our members have already indicated that they would be prepared to continue beyond the six weeks, if it were to become necessary, and we’ll keep everyone informed of any developments there. 

PCS Challenges MyCSP in Parliament

Following MyCSP’s appearance at Parliament’s ‘Public Accounts Committee’ earlier in July, the union’s Head of Bargaining has written to the Chair of the Select Committee, to raise some serious concerns about the responses given to the Committee by MyCSP.

In the letter, the union said:

“it is apparent then, that the response given to Chris Kane’s question by Duncan Watson – that it is concern for Capita’s position that is preventing MyCSP/Equiniti recognising PCS – holds no water whatsoever; and it should be a matter of grave concern that a response given to a Select Committee appears to be (at best) misleading”

The letter goes on to say:

“PCS considers that a critical function affecting 1.7 million scheme members, has been failed by the outsourcing model; and we think that the current chaos that MyCSP/Equiniti is creating provides an opportunity for serious consideration being given to bringing the work back under direct government control.”

You can read the letter in full, by going to the MyCSP Strike Update page in PCS Knowledge or by downloading the letter from the PCS Resource Library.

Fact-checking for beginners

We’ve had a bit of a whinge from MyCSP about one of our earlier Blog articles, where we said that “about half” of quotes that the Cabinet Office had requested for a Voluntary Exit scheme were late. MyCSP went on to claim that the strike was having no real effect; and said that our statement was inaccurate, suggesting that in future, we checked our facts before publishing.

We asked PCS Headquarters to respond on our behalf, who have replied directly to MyCSP, saying:

“For the avoidance of doubt, PCS can confirm that we were directly and officially emailed by the Cabinet Office on 21 July 2025 at 15:15, in precisely the following terms:

“I am writing to provide an update on the VE Tranche one and some delays that have occurred.

The department has received 269 quotes, however outstanding are 228 quotes that we are awaiting from MyCSP. We have been informed by MYCSP that all the quotes will be with the department by Thursday 24 July and that the delays have been due to internal strikes impacting resources.

A list was provided of those who had not yet received their quotes and the team emailed everyone on Friday, additionally comms were put onto the intranet. We have subsequently been informed that there were some errors and not everyone was captured in this correspondence, we have received a number of communications from staff and managers due to not having received their quotes  - the team is responding to them. 

We will be looking to write to all staff again either tonight or tomorrow to provide a further update; we are providing assurance that they will still have 10 working days to review the quotes, also the exit date will remain 31 October.”

The email was also sent simultaneously to our sister unions, Prospect and FDA.

The Blog article you refer to mirrored our report to members in the meeting, in the reference to “almost half” of the Voluntary Exit quotes being delayed. By our calculations 269 quotes being received by the deadline and 228 quotes being delayed, gives you a figure of 228 out of 497, or 45.87%. We would respectfully suggest that in most circles, describing 45.87% as “almost half” would be viewed as entirely reasonable. Likewise, the statement “the delays have been due to internal strikes impacting resources” is not supposition by PCS, but a direct quote, from information officially received from the employer.

In conclusion, PCS look forward with unbridled enthusiasm, to news of MyCSP’s complaint to the Cabinet Office; given the information we cited came directly from them.

We’ll obviously copy this response to our members in dispute; who, since MyCSP have publicly challenged our reports, may wish to give it similarly wide circulation.”

So we know directly from the Cabinet Office that our facts were fine, thank you very much; and that the stand we're taking is having a real effect, however MyCSP want to spin it.

Capita Breakthrough!

Today (25 July) PCS received a letter from Capita, confirming the beginning of formal union recognition talks from the start of August; with the aim of recognition beginning on ‘Day One’ of Capita’s Civil Service Pension Scheme contract.

It’s the strength of feeling that we’ve demonstrated in the first three weeks of the strike, that’s sent a signal to both our current employer and our prospective employer, that we want to be a trade union workplace.

At the recent Public Accounts Committee meeting, the MyCSP CEO said:

“if I recognise the union now, there will then be an assumption that the union will be recognised by Capita. I need to make sure that Capita is comfortable.”

It’s obvious that Capita are “comfortable” with the idea of recognition, so there’s no excuse for MyCSP not recognising the union as well.

The letter from Capita is great news for the future; but with the TUPE transfer talks already underway, we still need to fight for the present. Following a discussion at today’s members’ meeting, we’ve asked our PCS HQ Officer to ask the union’s national leadership for permission to extend the strike, if we need to. Hopefully we won’t need to, but having the option at such a crucial time in the transfer, will mean our hand is even stronger.

Out and about

A new member has spoken to us this week about their decision to join PCS and support the strike. We were told:

“I joined PCS to support the picket lines. I have never been on strike before so I was a little scared but knew it was for the right reasons. It didn’t feel right for me to be performing high standards in the workplace when I wanted to support the strikes.

Now that I have signed up and joined the picket lines, I am proud of my decision and knew it was the correct decision.”

It's great news that as the dispute goes on, workers are coming to the view that the best way to defend everyone is for us all to stand together.

MyCSP Strike: Two weeks in, and going strong

We're now two weeks into the MyCSP strike and we've had great picket lines at both our Tithebarn Street, Liverpool and Landmark House, Cheadle sites.

Throughout that time, the support we've had has been tremendous; not just from the PCS members working in MyCSP, but we've also had regular visits to the picket line from a wide range of supporters.

During the last fortnight, amongst others, we've had support from:

• Kim Johnson, Member of Parliament for Liverpool Riverside
• Paul Nowak, General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress
• PCS National President Martin Cavanagh and PCS DWP Group President Angela Grant
• Mary Doolin, PCS North West Regional Secretary and other staff from the PCS North West Office
• Members of the PCS Home Office Group Executive Committee
• Members from the PCS Disclosure and Barring Service Branch
• Members of the PCS Associate and Retired Members section

We'd particularly like to thank Dave Hardman from the Lion Tavern in Moorfields, close to our Liverpool picket line, who as well as supporting the picket line, has been happy to look after us when the picket line finished!

Pressing the Cabinet Office

PCS meet regularly with the Cabinet Office to discuss all issues related to the Civil Service Pension Scheme; and during those meetings, every opportunity has been taken by the union's national negotiators to raise the subject of our dispute, in an effort to get the Cabinet Office to intervene so we can reach a peaceful resolution.

In separate negotiations, PCS has already been told by the Cabinet Office that MyCSP weren't able to deliver almost half of the Voluntary Exit Scheme quotes they were due to provide to the department by its deadline of Thursday 17 July; before going on to say that MyCSP advised the Cabinet Office that this was as a result of "internal strikes impacting resources".

We're now getting closer and closer to the planned date of the transfer of the work, and the Cabinet Office is well aware of the impact we're making, and how the action we're taking is affecting the possibility of any kind of smooth transfer of the administration taking place.

MyCSP in the Parliamentary 'dock'

It's not just on the picket line and with the Cabinet Office where MyCSP have been under pressure. On Monday 7 July 2025, MyCSP's Chief Executive was called to give evidence to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, where he was asked by MPs 'why he was picking a fight with his own employees?' and 'why is he resistant to recognising unions?'. The transcript of the Public Accounts Committee hearing is here, with Questions 21-38 covering our issues.

Now we have a Labour Government, and we're told that Labour are committed to defending employment rights and trade union rights, we remain hopeful that it will dawn on someone in authority that 1980s-style anti-union tactics should be well out of fashion by now.

Keeping everyone informed

It's more than disappointing that we've been pressed into this position by our employer. We're conscious that our action affects around a million and a half pension scheme members, but we're sure everyone will understand that ordinary working people defending our rights at such an absolutely crucial time, is only fair. 

 

About our Dispute

We’re all members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) who are working for a company called “MyCSP Ltd”, which itself is primarily owned by “Equiniti Group”. We administer the pensions of around one and a half million members of the Civil Service Pension Scheme.

When we first transferred into MyCSP from the Civil Service, we had ‘trade union recognition’, which meant that PCS could negotiate on our behalf both as individuals and as a workforce as a whole.

Despite our union rights transferring to our employment by MyCSP under the ‘TUPE Regulations’, MyCSP have refused to recognise the union as representing us collectively. TUPE is supposed to protect the rights of staff transferring from one company to another, when work changes hands.

MyCSP has now lost the contract for administering the Pension Scheme and the work is being transferred to another private company, “Capita Plc”. Once again TUPE talks have begun, but MyCSP have refused to allow our trade union to be fully involved in the negotiations – even though these talks will determine our terms and conditions of service under the new employer.

When all reasonable attempts to persuade MyCSP to allow us to be represented by our independent trade union failed, we were forced to ballot for industrial action. We were balloted by our union and following the majority of members voting for action, we began a six-week strike, with the aim of our union being able to represent us collectively.

Remember; this isn’t a strike about increasing our pay; it’s a strike about protecting our terms and conditions with the new employer and defending our trade union rights.