Letter to Mark Serwotka General Secretary PCS (Updated)

The continuing refusal of the PCS leadership to publish the ballot result raises further concerns about transparency and accountability in the union. I sent the following letter to Mark Serwotka, the PCS General Secretary today asking for full disclosure of the ballot details. This has been copied to hundreds of PCS Reps and members across the country.

Dear Mark,

I am perplexed and puzzled by the unwillingness of the union to publish the full result of the recent ballot on whether we should take strike action on July 10th.

At first we were told "73% of those who voted" were in favour. Only after a little pushing on the PCS members Face Book page was this amended to include the figure of a "24%" turnout.

However this as you are well aware does not give us the full picture. Of the approx 243,000 members of this some thousands in the commercial sector would not have been balloted since this is about public sector pay.

I don't think it unreasonable to request that you publish (or reply to this e-mail) the full ballot result giving the following information:

The number of ballot papers issued

The number of ballot papers returned.

The number of votes cast on-line

The number of spoilt ballot papers

The number of those voting in favour (as a percentage of the whole ballot)

The number of those voting against

Who was responsible for overseeing and checking the ballot

As a subscription paying member I consider this to be a reasonable request that neither I nor anyone else should actually have to ask for, but should be readily available to members when known.

This request has been made public as will any reply.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Shalom,

Howard Fuller.

I will publish any response with relevant analysis when received.

Friday 4th July: Response Received.

Dave Watson replies on behalf of Mark Serwotka. The result has been published in the report dated 30th June, so is somewhat buried! However it can be found here:

http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/pcs_comment/index.cfm/nec-to-discuss-coordinated-strikes-after-yes-vote

I'm told it "had to wait until the NEC met (which was three days ago and before I wrote!!) but shows that less than 1:5 members voted in favour, just 17%.

The membership of PCS in the Civil Service has shrunk to just 207,000.