{"id":38324,"date":"2025-04-21T12:40:10","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T12:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/38324\/"},"modified":"2025-04-21T12:40:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T12:40:10","slug":"birmingham-civil-servants-to-strike-over-office-closures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/38324\/","title":{"rendered":"Birmingham civil servants to strike over office closures"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) at the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/organisations\/ministry-of-housing-communities-local-government\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government<\/a> based in Newcastle will walk out from April 22 to May 2, while those working in<a href=\"https:\/\/www.expressandstar.com\/news\/local-hubs\/birmingham\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> Birmingham<\/a>, Exeter, Sheffield, Truro and Warrington will strike for four days.<\/p>\n<p>PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said: \u201cIt\u2019s high time the Government and the ministry began to listen to their staff and put an end to these reckless, regressive decisions to close local offices while rigidly enforcing mandatory office attendance.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/b36abac0-c05e-4dd8-8cd3-765b17d2bb9c.jpeg\"   alt=\"Birmingham City Council House. Taken by LDR Alexander Brock. Permission for use all LDRS partners.\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"w-full max-w-none\"\/>Birmingham City Council House. Taken by LDR Alexander Brock. Permission for use all LDRS partners.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey should start thinking strategically, considering the vital projects that local offices deliver for our communities, and enhancing flexibility to allow staff to choose how and where they perform their jobs in a manner that benefits both them and the communities we serve.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A Ministry of Housing, Communities and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.expressandstar.com\/news\/politics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Local Government<\/a> spokesperson said: \u201cWe have engaged with unions and staff about a number of proposals \u2013 including plans to expand five offices outside of London and close six offices over the next two years, as leases come to an end.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe department will continue to have offices in every English region as well as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and all staff affected will be able to continue in their roles.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,379,12,285,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-38324","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-local-hubs","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114376004330867251","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}