RPA copes with second staff strike

ONE thousand staff at the Rural Payments Agency are on strike today (Wednesday, March 24) in a dispute over cuts to redundancy terms.

The Agency said the action would be ‘most keenly felt’ by farmers using RPA frontline services, primarily when calling the Customer Service Centre.

However, it assured farmers it would focus resources on dealing with outstanding single farm payments. 

The strike, organised by the Public and Commercial Services Union, has gained support across the Civil Service and follows a two day strike earlier this month.

An RPA statement read: “While we have plans to try and limit the impact on farmers, it is inevitable that there will be some disruption to normal services.

“Cattle farmers who use the BCMS will still be able to use the CTS Online service to apply for cattle passports and report movements.”

Staff will return to work tomorrow (Thursday, March 25) when a normal service should resume.

Readers' comments (1)

  • don't think we will miss them. Its the worst dept ever, but after saying that the people i have spoken to have been fantastic, its not their fault they have been recruited into such a feckless organisation. Defra is a blot on the landscape. bring back Maff. That was bad enough but isn't a patch on the stupidity of this lot.
    Aye, strike away.

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