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.

Picket lines were today in place outside Jobcentres, benefit offices, prisons and three government departments as 100,000 workers went on strike over pay in one of the worst days of industrial unrest in the history of the civil service.

The biggest action involved 90,000 workers at the Department for Work…

Tens of thousands of civil servants are to stage a two-day pay strike next week, their union announced today.

Almost 100,000 workers will walk out in the action, which will affect prisons, job centres and benefit agencies.

Some 90,000 staff from the department for work and pensions and 4,500 from…

Social security managers are offering civil servants bonuses and putting staff up in hotels to break strikes in jobcentres and benefit offices. A confidential Whitehall document obtained by the Guardian reveals the extent of cash incentives offered to employees to undermine support for a dispute over the removal of protective…

Thousands of workers staffing job centres and benefit offices today vowed to stage a walk out later this month which would be the biggest civil service strike seen in a decade.

Almost 100,000 civil servants in three government departments will go on strike today in what is expected to be the biggest civil service industrial action for more than a decade. Some 90,000 staff in Jobcentres and benefit offices in England, Wales and Scotland will walk out for 48 hours in…