UK: Public Service National Strike

Civil servants said today that they will walk out for a week in a dispute with the government over pay, jobs and terms and conditions.

Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) general secretary Mark Serwotka said the union's members at the Home Office would stage the strike starting on April 15.

It was announced as tens of thousands of workers held a half-day strike today at government departments, jobcentres, courts and driving test centres.

A strike on Monday by Home Office and Border Agency staff was called off after a legal challenge by the government, though about 55,000 HM Revenue and Customs workers will still hold a half-day walkout.

Mr Serwotka told a rally outside the Cabinet Office in Westminster that a week of strikes will begin at the Home Office from a week on Monday, with different groups of workers taking action at different times.

The strikes are part of a three-month campaign of industrial action that began with a national strike on Budget day last month.

Mr Serwotka said the government had refused to meet for talks and called on Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude to resign.

Today's half-day walkout hit most government departments and agencies, except HMRC, the Home Office and the Border Agency.

"We are taking action to oppose and shine a light on what are deeply unfair and unnecessary cuts to the living standards of hard-working public servants," said Mr Serwotka said.

PCS president Janice Godrich addressed a mass rally in Glasgow after 800 civil servants walked out of the Northgate processing centre at 1pm today.

She said: "I'm really proud of the action you have taken here against the government attacks. We know our people are angry and we're not prepared to pay the price."

Leanne Marshall, a PCS member at Northgate, told the Morning Star: "I'm a benefits processor. I've walked out on strike with hundreds of colleagues to fight for my rights.

"The government is attacking our terms and conditions, our pay, our pensions, our jobs, everything.

"We're here to defend ourselves."

PCS Scottish secretary Lynn Henderson added: "This long weekend of walkouts is the next step in a series of strikes to put pressure on a government that is refusing to talk to us."