Inform your workforce of disruptions throughout UK strike action

From postal to railway workers, workers in a variety of industries are planning more walkouts in the upcoming weeks due to the dramatic rise of inflation and pay not reflecting economic changes. With the increase in strike action, many commuters will face delays, disruption, and possible heightened unrest in the form of protests or demonstrations.

With all the disruption it’s important that organizations are ensuring their employees are safe and communicated with. Our Locate Global platform provides a solution to employee safety, giving users the means to raise alerts in emergency situations. More importantly, it provides companies with the means they need to regularly communicate with staff and key stakeholders. Our mass communication features alert users immediately of escalating situations, and planned walkouts or can be scheduled to ensure routine communications are maintained.

It’s also key to keep your workforce informed of the periods in which the heaviest strike action occurs, to minimize disruption or delays. So, when are the next strikes planned?

Railway Workers
After the rail strikes at the beginning of November were called off “after securing intensive negotiations with rail bosses”, further industrial action has been announced by the RMT union leading up to Christmas and after. Over 40,000 RMT members will participate in the action, along with an overtime ban from 18 December until 2 January. Strikes are set to take place on:
• 13-14 December
• 16-17 December
• 24-27 December
• 3-4 January
• 6-7 January

Postal Workers
Following postal strikes in October and November, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) is set to undertake industrial action again. The CWU has said that the strikes are taking place because Royal Mail has imposed a 2% pay increase without agreement “at a time when RPI inflation is currently running at 11.8 per cent and when Royal Mail has announced Group profits of £758 million”. They will occur on the following dates:
• Wednesday 14 December
• Thursday 15 December
• Friday 23 December
• Saturday 24 December

Nurses
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has decided to organise a mass walkout for the first time in 106 years. This occurred after the RCN demanded a 5% pay increase over the RPI inflation rate, which is now roughly 12%. Since 2010, an experienced nurse’s real-terms compensation has dropped by 20%. The RCN is set to strike on Thursday 15 and Tuesday 20 December. Nurses working in chemotherapy, dialysis, critical care units, neonatal and paediatric intensive care will be exempt, but all other services will be reduced to a “Christmas day” level.

Ambulance workers
In addition to the combined strike with nurses and hospital staff, the GMB, Unison and Unite unions have confirmed that ambulance workers will take coordinated action on 21 and 28 December. Life-preserving care, such as that for heart attacks and massive trauma, will still be delivered as per union rules. The strikes will affect the following NHS trusts:
• South West Ambulance Service
• South East Coast Ambulance Service
• North West Ambulance Service
• South Central Ambulance Service
• North East Ambulance Service
• East Midlands Ambulance Service
• West Midlands Ambulance Service
• Welsh Ambulance Service
• Yorkshire Ambulance Service

Teachers
The National Education Union (NEU) is currently planning to strike on 10 and 11 January after the government has offered pay increases equating to around 5%. The NAHT and NASUWT teaching unions have also announced plans to ballot members.

Civil Service
The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) has announced the first in a wave of strikes to take place in December and last “well into 2023”. Some 124 government departments have voted to strike in total, citing “a 10% pay rise, pensions justice, job security and no cuts to redundancy terms” as motivation. So far, strike dates have only been announced for specific locations of the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), Rural Payments Agency (RPA) and Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

Locate Global can help!

Keep your organization well informed and avoid disruptions to your daily operations. Find out more here.