To tell you that Passport Office staff will strike for 5 weeks?

[Workyworky]

I support them.

Just thought I'd let people know to get their applications in ASAP.

I don't support them. Their refusal to come back to work to the office after Covid caused the backlog and a lot of problems for people. Now they want more money.

Everyone is going to rush. You won't be able to stop that!

The advice on the news is to renew now!

Ah you’re not at work

no intention to do work related “stuff”. Does “work related stuff” include providing figures to provide a bit of substance to the op you started?

We just did dd’s passport tg

How do people afford such a long time without pay

If they are paid well in the first place!

Please do not rush to renew if you don’t actually need to. This is stupid advice. As Simon Calder said this morning, the panic this will trigger will cause a huge problem at the passport office

It looks like as well as inconveniencing the public. They've gone an inconvenienced themselves by announcing the strike!

Couldn't make this shit up.

If they can afford no pay for over a month they must be on easy street

OK then.

Not that I have to justify myself to you but I have epilepsy which means I have no short term memory. When I say I don't have the figures in my head, I literally mean I don't have the figures in my head. My notebooks are at work. You are clearly after a fight and without the figures to back my argument up I really can't be bothered with you.

@Workyworky I have epilepsy too. Please don't give us all a bad name 🙏

I'm not planning on going away until august - it'll be fine by that point won't it ??

In that case, you'll know that it affects different people differently. I'm lucky and I don't have many seizures these days but boy my memory has been destroyed.

Or that worried about the backlog.

There are no queues outside my local passport office today, either.

This

pure nonsense to raise it

I was reading yesterday that Macron and the French Gov intend to push ahead with an extended pension age to 64. The workers are not impressed!

I'd be surprised if the ATC (and maybe border control) don't strike in the holiday season now, so between that and the passport issue, well....

This function is very vulnerable to being hived off to a private Agency. You better be very careful. It's an admin job not driving a train. If no passports are being issued they will give it to someone else, not give you a 10 percent pay rise or reduce your workloads. The rest of the public sector won't come out in support. You have no deep seated support in the Country at the moment. There is going to have to be a good PR campaign for this to work and it hasn't started well. Good Luck.

I applied to renew all four of ours this time last years. DH's was back in 3 weeks, mine and DH1 took about 6 and DS2 took about 10 weeks.

On the flip side, I helped my parents with theirs last autumn and they were both back within a week.

It's only going to get busier as holiday season approaches. Strike or no strike.

Ever heard of a strike fund?

What are you implying?

It's literally the law that people don't get paid if they strike

I think it’s about time the Government said ok you can have your pay rise, however we are going to take all your public sector privileges off you and you can be on par with the private sector. So no final salary pension, no 6 months full pay, 6 months half pay after 5 years sick leave and only basic holiday entitlement, I currently get 32 days plus bank holidays. My husband who is private sector gets 25 days. I personally am very happy with my lot, do not subscribe to the union and do not agree with strikes. What annoys me is that only union members are balloted on pay and non union members get no say at all.

Sigh.

Do you think I enjoy having to say constantly "let me check my notes" or "I'll just get my diary", professionally and personally? It is never ending and exhausting. It doesn't reflect well on me, undermines me and creates real issues. I see people roll their eyes at me. It has stopped me getting a promotion because my manager thought I didn't know stuff because I kept having to refer to my pointers. It frustrates the hell out of my husband and regularly brings me to tears. I left my diary on the bus a few months ago. I was panicking because my life is in there. My pin is something stupidly hackable because it's the only way I can remember it. I currently have seven alarms on my phone to remind me to do things.

This is my life and it is absolutely relevant when you challenge me and suggest I don't have a clue because I can't remember something.

At no point did I say everyone with epilepsy has this however in my case (and it's a well documented issue) it affects my everyday life.

I'm done. I posted to try and help people plan for their holidays and have ended up having to explain myself to someone who comes accross as an angry and not very nice person TBH.

It’s very obvious.

A perfect Catch 22:

If workers are underpaid, they can't strike
If workers can't strike, they stay underpaid

Will people notice any difference?

How can they afford to have no pay for five weeks? I know the RMT has a bottomless war chest but I didn't think other unions had.

The basic workers are not well paid, they have moderate wages.

Why in this country do some want their fellow countryfolk on the bare minimum?

I want a strong economy with decent pay. Is that really so strange?