The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) will seek a judicial review on civil servants' pensions after it accused the government of “robbing” its members.

The union argued that its members are contributing 2 per cent more for their pension per month than the independent valuation says that they should.

PCS said it had been informed by the government that they intend to ask parliament for the authority to make civil servants continue paying pension contributions at the current rate.

Having met with representatives from the Fire Brigades Union, PCS said the two parties will now jointly pursue a judicial review to force the government to give members the additional pension contributions back.

In December, an employment tribunal backed the Fire Brigades Union as it declared that changes to firefighters’ pensions constituted to unlawful age discrimination, earning 6,000 firefighters the right to return to their pre-2015 pension schemes.

This followed a December 2018 ruling from the Court of Appeal which stated the ruling should be applied across all public sector pensions.

As well as legal action, the PCS general secretary, Mark Serwotka, said the union wanted to kick-start a “major national campaign” over the issue and urged members to join if the government fails to cut contributions by 2 per cent “immediately”.

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