Up to 270,000 civil servants have begun a 48-hour strike over redundancy pay, in what is the biggest unrest by the sector in more than two decades.

Courts, ports, job and tax centres and emergency police call centres are being affected by the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) walkout.

It says members could lose a third of their entitlement over cuts under the civil service compensation scheme.

The government said other civil service unions agreed the changes were fair.

'Destabilising'

Under the new system - which takes effect in April and will save about £500m - those laid off and taking voluntary redundancy will have their pay-offs capped at £60,000.

Redundancy is currently calculated on length of service, with a month's pay for every year worked.

Mark Serwotka, General Secretary of the PCS, explains why the union is taking action

The PCS said an employee with 20 years' service earning £24,000 could lose £20,000 as a result of new caps.

But the government said those earning £30,000 or less - 80% of all staff - would still get up to between two and three years' salary.

The PCS union said its striking members include staff at government departments, as well as workers in Parliament, museums and the Royal Courts of Justice.

The walkout is 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 the government had ripped up already low-paid workers' contractual entitlements to redundancy pay, meaning they could be sacked on the cheap.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It's very destabilising for our members, some of whom have worked for over 30 years for the public service, to suddenly realise they could lose their job and actually a large amount of money they would have depended on.

"People over the years have accepted that pay isn't what it should be but they felt their job was secure and their pension was decent.

"Now in the last few years, 100,000 jobs have gone, and many more are likely to go after the election, so people feel very vulnerable."

Cabinet Office minister Tessa Jowell said the decision to strike was very disappointing, "especially given that less than one in five of their own members voted in favour of strike action, and that, overall, this figure represents 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."

I think that some people who have worked their whole lives in the public sector need to wake up and realise just how hard it can be in the private sector

Well that'll save about £13m in wages per day.

I work in what is technically the public sector.

Last year we had 25% of our staff 'made redundant' (i.e. got off the wage bill) with no obvious reduction in the work we're required to do. This year we've had our pay cut and there are distinct rumblings that the employee pension scheme may be in for a major kicking.

So yeah, dead easy.

Jon

SWMBO works in the building trade - 60% redundacies in her office, Statutory Redundancy (plus 1 months salary extra). No pay rise and no bonus this year
The public sector will be in in the next few years for a lot of job losses as whoever gets in tries to cut the budget deficit but they have for the last 10 years been onto a good thing

To be fair, the building trade has had it really hard - much harder than a lot of the rest of the public or private sectors. I don't think I'm particularly in a cushy job but I'm bloody glad I'm not a builder.

And I suppose it could be said that for the last, well if not 10 years then at least 5 years, everyone has been 'onto a good thing' without really the foundations to justify it, which is partly why the whole country is suddenly stuffed.

While it's fair to say that I just about fell of my chair when I found out how much redundancy pay the civil service are trying to protect (3 years) I have to take fully the point made by the general secretary of the PCS on channel 4 news tonight.

This condition is in their contracts. It was put in there by one Ms. Thatcher who wasn't exactly well know for her happy relationship with civil servants.
And, at a time when we were told that the bankers bonuses couldn't be touched because they were contractually protected the civil service is facing the prospect that their contracts is going to be (or already has been) torn up in front of their faces (to pay for the massive deficit caused by the bank bail out).

That does stick in the craw. Massively.

If that is the case I am with the civil servants. If they can rip up contracts why didn't they do it with the banks first. The civil servants would had less of a leg to stand on.

It rather does look like, in not opposing the banks contracts, the government has made a rod for it's own back. Sadly, that's also our back, because in the end it's our money.