PCS members at the Ministry of Justice in Manchester staged a well supported two hour walkout last week.
The action was in response to government plans to privatise the court fines collection service. The government is attempting to dress up its plans as “mutualisation” given the negative way in which the majority of the public view anything with the word “privatisation” attached to it.
Union members in the MoJ have seen through this though and recognise that the government’s plans are an attempt to hand over a vital and sensitive service to the notorious private bailiff operations.
Research done by PCS shows that there were over 25,000 complaints made against such firms in the last year.
The idea that replacing a publicly accountable service with an unaccountable private one will offer “value for money” is viewed as a sick joke by most MoJ PCS members.
The campaign against the privatisation measures within the crime and courts bill will continue and judging from the determined mood of the members on the Manchester picket line the government is in for one hell of a fight.
