The Government is facing months of industrial action by hundreds of thousands of its own employees in a bitter dispute over pay, fuelled by the multibillion-pound banking bail-out, it was announced.
The Public and Commercial Services union said up to 260,000 workers in jobcentres, benefit offices, courts, museums, driving test centres and Coastguard sites across the UK will take part in a nationwide strike on November 10.
The walkout will be followed by a rolling programme of strikes which will hit different Whitehall departments and agencies aimed at causing "maximum" disruption to Government services.
General secretary Mark Serwotka said the multibillion-pound bail-out of banks by the Government had caused "large-scale anger" among civil servants embroiled in long-running rows over pay.
"The Government has been able to find whatever funds it takes to help the banks but is not having a proper dialogue with its own workers, who face rising bills and below-inflation pay rises."
The November 10 stoppage will be followed by a nationwide ban on overtime which will last for at least three months and will cause "significant disruption" to services, including jobcentres, at a time of rising unemployment said the union.
The action is in protest at a series of below-inflation pay deals and imposed wage rises involving staff in the Department for Work and Pensions, Home Office, Coastguard Agency, museums, Immigration and Inland Revenue and other Government department and agencies.
The union said that as well as below-inflation pay deals, civil servants were being denied increases when they reached the top of their pay grade.
"Our members are significantly worse off because money for pay grades is being taken out of the total pay pot," claimed Mr Serwotka.
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"This treatment is being meted out even though pay rates are extraordinarily low, with one in four of our members earning less than £16,500 a year. We have three weeks now to try to resolve this dispute - but we have been talking with the Government for five years and they haven't delivered anything."
