Leaders of Britain's largest civil service union will decide tomorrow whether to ballot for strike action that could paralyse government departments in response to plans for swingeing job cuts.
The chancellor, Gordon Brown, announced plans to axe more than 104,000 civil service jobs in a bid to save £20bn a year in his comprehensive spending review in July, provoking instant anger from the unions.
The brunt of the cuts will be borne by the Department for Work and Pensions - already hit by strikes over pay this year - where 30,000 jobs will be lost and 10,000 staff are to be reallocated to frontline duties by 2008.
The national executive committee of the Public and Commercial Services union, led by leftwing "awkward squad" member Mark Serwotka, will begin a two-day meeting tomorrow, which will discuss industrial action as part of a wider campaign against the cuts.
Up to 270,000 civil servants could be balloted if the committee opts for strikes - a possibility first raised in an immediate reaction to Mr Brown's announcement.
The union has already staged a series of strikes this year in the DWP benefit offices and job centres in a long-running dispute over pay and a controversial performance assessment procedure.
The strikes proved popular among DWP civil servants, with 14,000 joining the PCS during the course of the dispute. Both sides are now in talks.
