Staff to walk out over plans to move 250 Sheffield jobs to London

More strike action over plans to move Sheffield jobs to London
The Business, Innovation and Skills office in SheffieldThe Business, Innovation and Skills office in Sheffield
The Business, Innovation and Skills office in Sheffield

Civil servants are to walk out for 48 hours from today over plans to move 250 jobs from Sheffield to London.

The Government wants to close its Department for Business, Innovation and Skills office in Sheffield, which is responsible for implementing the Government’s ‘Northern Powerhouse’ concept, and move the jobs to London.

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If the plan goes ahead the Sheffield base will close by January 2018.

The Government said the move would ‘reduce operating costs’ with a combined central HQ and policy centre being created in London.

Public and Commercial Services union branch secretary Marion Lloyd said: "How can you claim to support a Northern Powerhouse, while at the same time send 250 policy jobs responsible for its delivery back to Whitehall?

"We will continue this campaign until senior management agree a no compulsory redundancy guarantee and to keep the Sheffield site open."