Civil service bosses attempt to supress trade union rights

national | worker & community struggles and protests | opinion/analysis Friday November 05, 2004 11:05 by madge

Senior Management in the NICS attempt to bully staff to prevent them exercising their democratic rights to protest.

Senior Management in the NI Civil service have attempted to threaten and intimidate staff who choose to exercise their rights and freedoms to join with colleagues from PCS (UK Public Services union) at a lunchtime rally today which NIPSA has called for members and branches to support. The rally is to support the PCS against the massive job cuts Gordon Brown has forced the Civil service to make. Here in NI we face the prospect of losing around 4000 posts including the water service. Senior Managment obviously can't face the prospect that while at the moment NIPSA is not in dipsute (watch that space) members may wish to make public their disgust at the Government's policy and exercise their right to attend this rally and protest.

The actions of senior managment to attempt to try and control what people can do in their own time and whom they are permitted to associate with on an issue like this is clearly an abuse of the rights of staff and should not be tolerated.

I hope that any staff wishing to attend the rally in Transport House today will do so anyway and that if management do attempt to deduct pay that they will be flooded with unlawful deductions cases.