REDDITCH Magistrates Court is one of 68 courts in England and Wales affected by staff strikes over a controversial case management system.

The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) said its members working as legal advisers and court associates are staging a nine-day walkout which began on Saturday, October 22.

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

Their employer, His Majesty’s Courts, and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) 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.

The union previously said 180 of its members were involved in the row, which will see industrial action take place until October 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.

“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 their family lives and, importantly, on their ability to deliver justice.”

An HMCTS spokesperson said when the union’s ballot result first came in: “This is a disappointing outcome as 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.”