Magistrates' court staff have voted in favour of strike action over the rollout of HM Courts & Tribunals Service’s Common Platform.

Legal advisers and court associates working in magistrates court ‘voted overwhelmingly’ in favour of industrial action and action short of a strike, the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union said yesterday.

The union balloted 180 members last month and 93% voted in support of strike action, with 97% voting in support of action short of a strike, on a turnout of 61%.

The government spent £236m implementing the Common Platform programme as at 31 March 2021 and HMCTS says the platform – which has dealt with nearly 158,000 criminal cases and is currently live in more than 100 courts – is ‘key to modernising the court system’.

But the Common Platform has been beset by problems since its launch in September 2020: the lord chief justice revealed last year that its rollout had to be paused before the Gazette reported that criminal defence lawyers had regularly flagged up a problem with its case management system.

PCS has described the platform as ‘fundamentally flawed’ and said after a consultative ballot in December that its rollout has sent work-related stress and anxiety levels among its members in HMCTS ‘through the roof’.

The union is demanding that no new cases are inputted onto the Common Platform, that HMCTS undertakes a suitable and sufficient risk assessment for the system and assurances that there will be no further job losses arising from the system.

It announced the ‘decisive’ vote for action yesterday, which PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said ‘sends the clearest message to HMCTS they must now act to address the serious and significant issues our members face as a result of the fundamentally flawed Common Platform’.

He added: ‘Our members are the people who pick up the pieces when Common Platform fails and they’ve had enough. Either HMCTS management fixes the problems or they face significant, targeted and sustained industrial action.’

A HMCTS spokesperson said: ‘We have been working with staff and unions on the rollout of the Common Platform since September 2020 and it has already dealt with over 158,000 criminal cases. The Common Platform is key to modernising the court system, making it more efficient and fit for purpose.’

 

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