Civil servants in May Day strike

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Tens of thousands of civil servants are to strike over pay, job cuts and privatisation on 1 May - two days before local elections.

Driving tests, passport applications and job centres could all be hit.

The Public and Commercial Services Union, which has 270,000 members, is also urging other unions to co-ordinate its pay strikes with theirs.

The Cabinet Office has called the strike "unnecessary" and says it values the work of civil servants.

Confrontation

So far all attempts at peace talks have ended in deadlock.

Ministers will not meet the union until they call off the strike while the union says this approach provokes more confrontation.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka claimed that government departments and agencies are now cutting more jobs than the 100,000 announced by Chancellor Gordon Brown three years ago.

The union held a one-day strike, on 31 January, to coincide with the last day for returning tax self assessment forms.

And officials claimed that a subsequent two-week overtime ban saw the cancellation of the annual blitz by magistrate courts to recoup unpaid fines across England and Wales.

Timing

The union's campaign has also seen industrial action over pay involving staff at the Passport Service, Department of Health, Crown Prosecution Service and Learning and Skills Council.

Mr Serwotka said: "Services are suffering in the race to slash jobs at the same time as the government is using its own workforce as an anti-inflationary measure by insisting on capping pay at 2% as inflation creeps up to 5%."

The timing of the strike, just before local elections, is aimed at raising the political temperature of the dispute.

The Cabinet Office said it was making good progress talking to other unions about the future of the civil service but it said it could not hold constructive talks with the PCS while it was taking industrial action.