Mayor's policing office staff to strike over pay

Staff at the Mayor's Office for Police and Crime (Mopac) are responsible for the London equivalent of a regional police and crime commission

Staff at the London Mayor's Office for Police and Crime (Mopac) are set to strike in a dispute over pay.

Almost 100 members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union say they will walk out on 20-22 and 25-26 September.

The union said the workers had received a 7% pay rise but were angry not to be given a £1,500 one-off cost-of-living crisis payment offered to civil servants.

A spokesperson for Mopac said the strike action was "disappointing" and urged PCS to call it off.

Mopac staff are responsible for the London equivalent of a regional police and crime commission, overseeing financial scrutiny of the London Metropolitan Police.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said they were going through the same cost-of-living crisis as other government workers "so they deserve the same payment to help them through it".

The government offered the £1,500 lump sum to civil servants below senior grades in June after strike action was held.

A Mopac spokesperson said its Board was "committed to supporting all staff during the cost-of-living crisis" and, from April 2023, all employees received a 7% pay uplift.

Its senior leadership team was open to meeting the PCS union again to "continue discussions on further aspects of the pay award" and had been expecting to discuss it at a meeting in early October, the spokesperson said.

"It is disappointing that PCS members have taken the decision to strike ahead of that meeting," they added.

"The Mopac senior leadership team would urge PCS to call off the strike action and resume ongoing discussions."

Mopac said, in the event of a strike going ahead, its core business would continue unaffected.