A 48-hour strike due to start today in jobcentres and benefit offices was suspended yesterday by civil service union leaders after managers indicated they might table a new pay offer.
The fortnight's delay in industrial action by 80,000 staff in the Department for Work and Pensions was described as an "act of good faith" by the leadership of the PCS civil service union.
But four other pay disputes involving 20,000 staff in courts, prisons, the Home Office and the Treasury solicitors' department are to go ahead today and tomorrow.
The combined action would have been the biggest Whitehall walkout since 1991.
Civil servants in jobcentres and benefit offices rejected a 2.6% pay offer, although managers said the best performing staff would earn up to 8% more.
Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, said: "We now have a basis on which we can talk constructively."
A statement by the Department for Work and Pensions said: "We are pleased that strikes or other industrial action has been suspended and will continue to talk to the union with a view to reaching a negotiated settlement."
