Civil service strike threat in run-up to election

The Government is facing a series of national strikes by hundreds of thousands of civil servants in the run-up to the general election in a bitter row over cuts to compensation payments, it was announced today.

The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) said it will ballot its 270,000 members, with walkouts by customs and immigration officers, jobcentre and benefit workers, museum staff and tax officers threatened from early March.

The union's leader, Mark Serwotka, launched an angry attack on Prime Minister Gordon Brown, accusing him of trying to look "macho" by slashing payouts to low paid public sector workers.

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The union will also launch legal action today, saying it had a good case to challenge what it believed was an illegal act by the Government in changing the civil service compensation scheme.

The Prime Minister last year personally announced the changes, which the union said would lead to voluntary and redundancy payments being cut by a third, leaving long-serving staff facing the loss of thousands of pounds.

A worker on a salary of 24,000 who has worked for the civil service for over 20 years would have redundancy pay cut by over 20,000, said the PCS.

Ballot papers will be issued shortly and voting will end on February 25, with the first action likely to be a two-day strike on March 8/9 or 11/12 if there is a yes vote. Action will continue throughout March and could stretch towards the election, with some disruption possible on polling day.

Talks with Government officials have broken down.

More than 130 MPs have signed a Commons motion opposing the changes, including 97 Labour MPs.