No, Minister... top mandarins to join strike

SENIOR Whitehall mandarins will join millions of other civil servants and public sector workers for what looks set to be one of the biggest day of strike action the UK has seen in recent times.

Senior civil servants have voted by four-to-one in favour of action over the Government’s controversial pension reforms which have provoked plans for a nationwide “day of action” on November 30.

The FDA union, which represents 18,000 senior civil and public servants – including tax inspectors, special advisers, Government lawyers, crown prosecutors and diplomats – said the Government needed to reflect why such senior staff felt driven to vote to strike.

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Lower-scale civil servants also look set to strike after Prospect, which represents 30,000 staff in more than 120 Government departments, said its members had also voted for action by an “overwhelming majority” of three to one.

Public sector workers are furious that in addition to extended pay freezes at a time of high inflation, pension contributions are being hiked while their actual values will drop sharply.

“This is a decisive vote for industrial action,” said Jonathan Baume, general secretary of the FDA. “The FDA has only once before held a national strike ballot.”

Prospect said the high turn-out in its ballot reflected the “deep anger” among its members.

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The dispute has worsened after unions attacked a Government Minister for suggesting public sector workers should go on strike for just 15 minutes. Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude said the Government was willing to accommodate such “token action”.

But the GMB’s Brian Strutton said it was a “daft idea”, adding: “We are asking members to vote for a strike, not a tea break.”

The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy said last night its members had also voted in favour of action, for just the second time in its 117-year-old history.

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