Civil service strike ballot due

Friday, 22 October 2004 2:05 PM

The civil service could be facing its biggest staff walkout in years, if a ballot of members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) comes out in favour of industrial action.

The result of the ballot is expected today and if it succeeds thousands of staff from most Government departments will walk out on November 5th in what would be the largest civil service strike for ten years.

PCS is enraged by the Government's plans to cut thousands of civil services jobs, particularly in the Department for Work and Pensions, which were announced in the Budget earlier this year.

Gordon Brown said that 104,000 civil service jobs would be cut, and additional jobs would be relocated outside London.

In September, the Government announced that 37 social security offices and job centres would close across the UK in the first wave of cuts.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka declared: "We are not against doing things more efficiently, but cutting over 100,000 jobs will decimate service delivery, meaning poorer services for everyone and damaging the very services the Government has sought to improve."

The union is also angered by relocation plans and about proposals to increase the retirement age.

Speaking earlier this month, Mr Serwotka warned: "Cuts on this massive scale will damage services we all rely on, from your tax credit to your car tax and from your child benefit to your pension credit."

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