Britain's Public and Commercial Services union has said that 100,000 of its members across 124 government departments would take strike action on February 1 in a dispute over pay, pensions and job security.
"We warned the government our dispute would escalate if they did not listen, and we're as good as our word," PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said on Wednesday. Serwotka said he was meeting with a government minister on Thursday and the dispute could be resolved if more money was offered to its members. The PCS union has been carrying out a rolling programme of strikes across different government departments and other public sector bodies over the last month, which has included driving test examiners, border force staff and road traffic officers.
The PCS also said it would next week ballot a further 33,000 members in five more departments, including HM Revenue and Customs, over whether to join the national strike action.Thousands of ambulance workers held a second day of strikes on Wednesday, while many schools in Scotland were closed by a teacher walkout.