Public service staff to stop work

Monday, 16 February 2004 4:00 AM

Thousands of public service workers across the country start a 48-hour walkout today.

Up to 85,000 civil servants at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in England, Wales and Scotland could stop work over a proposed 2.6 per cent pay rise.

Job centres and benefit offices are expected to run a skeleton service over the period after talks ended in stalemate.

The Public and Commercial Service (PCS) union said jobseekers, pensions and child support agency cases could be disrupted.

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS, said civil servants were no longer prepared to accept "poverty wages".

He said DWP managers were the worst in the public sector and had deliberately inflamed the dispute.

The union boss is still spitting feathers after top civil servants received pay rises of up to £50,000, taking annual earnings beyond £300,000.

On Tuesday, aggrieved driving test examiners take industrial action in a separate pay row.

Up to 5,000 driving tests in England, Wales and Scotland could be cancelled in the stoppage by administrative staff at the Driving Standards Agency.

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