Civil servants have threatened strike action unless they are allowed to work for just four days a week.
Up to 150,000 workers with the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) will vote on whether to walk out if the Government can’t meet a set of demands, including a four-day working week.
The union has argued that civil servants should receive a “cost of living” pay rise, a £15 per hour living wage, and a London weighting for staff based in the capital worth £5,000.
Bosses have also demanded workers receive 35 full days of holiday and a shorter working week with “no loss of pay”.
But the union has been sternly rebuked by Number 10, which has urged workers to focus “all their energies on delivering for the taxpayer”.
Nearly 150,000 civil servants working across 171 Whitehall departments could be involved in potential strike action, which PCS hopes will “send a signal” to the Government.
A recent survey conducted by the union found that 96 percent of members supported the new pay demands, and a further 82 percent said they would strike until they are met.
The organisation said it is “serious” about undertaking industrial action to “get [ministers] to meet our demands”.
A spokesman for Number 10 told reporters today the Government expects civil servants to work “every day of the week”, and that they had heard those demands before.
They said: “I think we’ve been asked about a four-day week before.
“And we’ve been very clear that we think that civil servants should be focusing all of their energies on delivering for the taxpayer.
“That includes being available and working with ministers in departments and in offices up and down the country, every day of the week.”
The PCS plans to ballot members later this month, with members to be quizzed on how they would like to proceed between March 18 and May 13.
Fran Heathcote, the union’s general secretary, said members were previously willing to take sustained action, as they proved last year when workers won a five percent pay rise and £1,500 cost-of-living payment.
She added: “The Government can expect more of the same this year if they don’t meet our demands and treat our hard-working members with the respect they deserve.”
