**Up to 270,000 civil servants are to strike for 48 hours over redundancy pay, in what will be the biggest unrest by the sector in more than two decades.**Courts, ports, job and tax centres and emergency police call centres will be hit by the walkout by members of the Public and Commercial Services Union.
The union says civil servants will lose up to a third of their entitlements, worth thousands of pounds.
The government said other civil service unions agreed the changes were fair.
The PCS union said its striking members will include staff at government departments, as well as workers in Parliament, museums and the Royal Courts of Justice.
‘Incredible anger’
The walkout is set to be the biggest show of industrial unrest in the civil service since 1987 and more action is planned ahead of the general election.
General secretary Mark Serwotka said: "There is incredible anger among hard-working public servants who are seeing their terms ripped up.
"The strike will show how vital these people are to the running of our society. Those on strike today deliver services that touch our everyday lives from the cradle to the grave.
"Under these imposed changes, they face losing up to a third of their entitlements and tens of thousands of pounds if they are forced out of their job.
“The changes to the civil service compensation scheme were agreed with five of the six civil service unions after 18 months of negotiation and consultation”
Tessa Jowell
Cabinet Office minister
“The government is tearing up the contracts of low-paid civil and public servants whilst it claims it can do nothing about bankers’ bonuses because of contractual obligations.”
Cabinet Office minister Tessa Jowell said the decision to strike was “very disappointing”, particularly as “less than one in five” of PCS members voted in favour of the action, representing “only around 10% of the total civil service workforce”.
She said: "The changes to the civil service compensation scheme were agreed with five of the six civil service unions after 18 months of negotiation and consultation. These unions all agree with us that the resulting deal is fair for staff and taxpayers.
"During the negotiating process, we responded to union concerns by ensuring additional protection for lower paid staff.
"Those earning £30,000 or less - 80% of all staff - will still get up to between two and three years salary, while civil servants earning over £30,000 will have redundancy pay capped at two times salary.
“This package brings the civil service more into line with the rest of the public sector and still offers more generous terms than much of the private sector.”