Portsmouth Magistrates Court staff launch nine-day strike in dispute over controversial case management system

The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) said its members working as legal advisers and court associates will stage a nine-day walkout starting today.

The workers, who postponed last month’s planned strike after The Queen’s death, are locked in a row over the use of the so-called Common Platform system.

Their employer, His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS), has said the scheme is key to modernising the court system.

But the PCS says ‘teething problems’ that staff were warned of when the scheme was introduced two years ago have persisted, forcing them to work longer hours and negatively impacting the justice system.

Industrial action will take place from October 22-30.

The union’s general secretary, Mark Serwotka, said: ‘Our members in courts feel a huge amount of resentment and resolve because their voices are being ignored by managers.

‘We’ve asked managers to stop the roll-out of the scheme and they haven’t. They haven’t even paused for negotiations to take place. They talk a lot about feedback, but they’re not listening. They’re just ploughing on, regardless of the consequences.

‘This is not a new scheme. When it was introduced two years ago, we were told there would be teething problems and that once it’s embedded it’ll get better.

‘It hasn’t. Our members are working longer hours, it adversely impacts on their family lives and, importantly, on their ability to deliver justice.’

When the union’s ballot result first came in, an HMCTS spokesperson called it ‘a disappointing outcome’.