Civil servants strike over 0% pay increase

Nearly half of the 120,000 civil servants working in benefit offices, the Child Support Agency and Jobcentre Plus are to receive a zero per cent pay award next year in a tough clampdown on pay.

The imposed settlement - believed to be unprecedented in the history of Whitehall pay bargaining - has led to calls for a two-day strike, due to start today, and an overtime ban by 80,000 union members at the Department for Work and Pensions.

Under the deal - ordered by Leigh Lewis, permanent secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions - civil servants will get a 2% pay rise this year, no pay rise next year and 1% in 2010. The lowest paid will receive a rise which take their wage to only 24p above the minimum wage. The DWP said that new people joining at its minimum wage would get a 2% increase every year.

The only people who will get extra money in 2009 are due to receive an increment under the existing pay spine. Lewis is said to have personally intervened to force the settlement on staff without seeking prior approval from Peter Hain, the work and pensions secretary.

The decision signals that Whitehall intends to be tougher on pay deals over the next three years because of public spending constraints.

Unions were furious about the proposal. Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, said: "It is completely unacceptable that some of the lowest paid in the civil service are receiving increases that take their pay to just 24 pence above the minimum wage and that staff who have stuck with the DWP through thick and thin are expected to receive nothing next year.

"Staff will not sit back and be allowed to be used by the government as an anti-inflationary tool, especially when there is no evidence to suggest that their pay fuels inflation."

There is particular anger about this year's pay deal, where an extra £39m was put aside for bonus payments. The lowest paid are receiving an extra £340 a year.

The highest paid are getting a minimum of an extra £3,000 a year on top of the 2% award. The union argued that if this money was redistributed to the lowest paid, it would have meant all its members had kept above inflation. But the executive board of DWP, which was handling the negotiations under Lewis, refused to consider this.

In a letter to PCS members Lewis said: "I recognise how strongly you feel about this and why you feel let down. I think, in your shoes, I might well feel the same."

Lewis himself has received a pay rise of more than £14,000, taking his salary from £159,000 to £173,000. This included the provision of a chauffeur driven car worth £5,400 in benefits.

Today's strike could affect new pensioners, new job claimants and people on crisis loans who may not get their money in time. Existing claimants - whose money is paid directly into bank accounts - will not be affected.

A DWP spokesman said: "We are disappointed that PCS has decided to call this action.

"The pay award we have implemented is a good one which particularly benefits our lowest paid staff and those at the lower end of their pay scales."