Almost 300,000 civil servants are set to decide whether to begin strike action next month in a row over pensions, the Public and Commercial Services Union announced today.
Britain's largest civil service union said it would be balloting up to 290,000 public sector members on strike action over government plans to compulsorily change the public sector retirement age from 60 to 65.
The move follows ballot plans by local government unions Unison and the T&G, which have both agreed to ballot members over local government pension changes due to come into force this April, and further proposed changes envisaged for 2008.
All three union ballots will close in the second week of March, with a "yes" vote expected to lead to an orchestrated day of strike action on March 23.
Other unions are expected to decide on whether to ballot for strike action over pension changes next week.
Public sector unions are also preparing for a separate day of campaigning against pension changes on February 18.
The government plan to raise the pension age for the civil and public services comes just over two years after previous changes to the civil service pension scheme, and will force people to work longer to get their expected pension, PCS general secretary, Mark Serwotka, said today.
The plans, which have been met with scepticism and anger by members, will also see an end to the final salary pension scheme.
Mr Serwotka said civil servants were facing a "double whammy" of pension changes leading to insecurity for staff, on top of planned staffing cuts of 84,000 following the efficiency review carried out for the government by Sir Peter Gershon.
· Unison general secretary Dave Prentis is consulting lawyers after the head of the local government Employers' Organisation accused him of deliberately misleading members over pension changes due to come into force this April to persuade members to go out on strike.
The changes, which even the EO admits are difficult to explain, boil down to a raising of the early retirement age from 50 to 55, and an increase in the age at which staff can receive a full pension scheme.
Other proposals, due for implementation in 2008, include axing the final salary scheme to a career-based average. Unison members were consulted on both the imminent and the proposed changes, and backed the move to ballot for strike action.
But Rob Pinkham, EO chief executive, emailed Mr Prentis earlier this week accusing the union of "wilfully misleading" members by telling them all the changes were coming into force this April. Mr Pinkham also approached a national newspaper to repeat his accusations.
A Unison spokeswoman described the move as a smear tactic. "What [Mr Pinkham] should be doing is trying to settle the dispute, not inflame it in this way," she said.
"The decision to ballot for strike action was taken by the union collectively last June, and it is outrageous and disgraceful that someone in a position like Mr Pinkham should try to fling around wild accusations like this."
Terry Edwards, EO assistant director for pensions, defended the accusations levelled at Mr Prentis, while admitting that from April eligible council workers will no longer be able to draw a full pension at 60.
He said some council staff seemed to be under the impression that all pension changes were coming into force this spring. "Whether members are misunderstanding what is going on or not I don't know," he said. "But a lot of people are getting very worried."
He declined to comment on whether the EO had engaged in smear tactics against Mr Prentis, but pledged to get more information out to council staff to get their own message across. "We will be issuing stuff to members explaining why the change is happening," he said.
