Civil servants vote in favour of strike

Civil servants have voted in favour of strikes in a dispute over pay, pensions and working conditions and could plan to target budget day, the PCS union has said.

Some 61% of those who voted in the national ballot opted to strike, with turnout among the union's 250,000 members who were balloted at 28%.

The union said that since the onset of the recession in 2008, the real value of wages in the public and private sectors had fallen by 7%. Median pay in the civil service was 4.4% lower than similar jobs in private firms, rising to 10% for some grades, it said.

The PCS general secretary, Mark Serwotka, said: "Civil and public servants are working harder than ever to provide the services we all rely on but, instead of rewarding them, the government is cutting their pay, raiding their pensions and trying to rip up their basic working conditions.

"We said more than two years ago that austerity wouldn't work and we have been proved right. Under this Tory-led government, our economy has flatlined, we are heading for a triple-dip recession and the chancellor has lost his prized AAA credit rating.

"We urgently need to invest our way out of recession, with an end to the economically disastrous pay freeze and job cuts and with a serious clampdown on tax avoidance and evasion."

The union has called for a 5% pay rise for civil servants and is campaigning against plans to change terms and conditions.

PCS officials said the government had refused to negotiate on issues affecting civil servants.

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: "It is disappointing that yet again the PCS insist on pushing for futile action which benefits no one, and damages the services they deliver to the public. The result from today's ballot shows that the PCS leadership couldn't even convince large swaths of its own membership of the benefits of walkouts."

On the 28% turnout figure, a PCS spokesman said: "No one wants to see low turnouts but government ministers and their supporters are content that police and crime commissioners have a mandate on a 15% turnout, so it would be rank hypocrisy for them to say otherwise about our ballot."