Civil servants set to strike over imposed pay deals

Civil servants in the Department for Work and Pensions and the Prison Service were set to strike for two days over pay as Labour Research went to press, while staff in three other government agencies were considering what action to take.

Industrial action ballots covering a total of over 100,000 civil servants recorded majorities for strike action last month. The other groups voting for industrial action were in the Home Office, the Department for Constitutional Affairs and the Treasury Solicitors.

The dispute arises from a series of pay rises which were imposed on these departments last summer. Their union, the PCS, described them as "below inflation". It says they are worth 2.8% in the Department for Constitutional Affairs down to 1.3% at the Home Office. In the Prison Service an offer described by the union as being worth 1% has been rejected more recently.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "This is not a step we have taken lightly and we still hope there is an opportunity to sort out the deepening pay crisis".

But he also said that management had become "increasingly belligerent" and had refused to deal with the "endemic problem of low pay in the civil service".

A statement from the Department for Work and Pensions said: "Despite union suggestions, the department does not have any more money available to spend on salaries".