The largest civil service union is to ballot for strike action after it rejected the changed redundancy terms offered by the government.

The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) will begin balloting on strike action from tomorrow.

They are planning a two-day national strike, followed by a rolling programme of action to target areas such as the justice system and ports and airports, to cause maximum disruption.

The union, which accused the government of attempting to make “unilateral changes” to civil service redundancy rights, is also lodging papers to bring the matter to judicial review.

But the Cabinet Office, which leads on civil service pay negotiations, insisted that the union had rejected a reasonable offer and pointed out that all the other organisations which make up the Council of Civil Service Unions (CCSU) had accepted the proposed deal.

The five other unions - Prospect, the FDA, GMB, Unite and Prison Officers’ Association – all agreed to the deal yesterday morning. However, taken together these unions represent round 100,000 civil service workers against the PCS’s 270,000.

The changes to redundancy rights, first mooted last July, would leave the vast majority of officials with smaller payouts if made compulsorily redundant. Payments for lower paid workers will now be capped at £50,000 plus 24 months pay.

However, a small number of officials will benefit from the changes, with those already over 60 when made redundant receiving better terms than previously.

The government believes the changes will save it £500m, though in a statement the PCS said the move is a precursor to the government axing 100,000 jobs “on the cheap”.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said the Cabinet Office’s determination to “plough ahead” with the changes had left “hardworking people feeling let down and betrayed”.

“Not only will this rob the people who keep this country running of their jobs and entitlements, but also the public of their dedicated civil and public servants who provide services from cradle to grave,” Serwotka said.

But cabinet secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell said the deal was “fair for civil servants and affordable for the taxpayer”, illustrated by the fact that every union except the PCS had agreed to the terms.

“Between them, these five unions represent a complete cross-section of our staff across all grades and their support is testimony to the fact that we have the right deal,” O’Donnell said.
 
He added: “I believe the decision by the PCS union to continue opposing the proposals and ballot its members for industrial action is wholly misguided.  Reflecting thousands of comments we received from civil servants during the consultation, the terms we are setting out today give substantial protection to the lowest paid and those closest to retirement.”

And he made a direct appeal to PCS members ahead of the strike ballot to “think hard” about how industrial action would damage services.

PCS leaders have since posted a message to members criticing Sir Gus’s “crude attempts” to divide the union.

General secretary of managers’ union the FDA also backed the deal, arguing there was a “requirement for reform” in the current fiscal climate.

Jonathan Baume also said that the revised terms offered by the Cabinet Office in recent weeks addressed many union concerns. In a pointed message to the PCS, he added: “It is also unlikely that industrial action, given the improvements secured in recent days, would deliver better terms.”