Scottish civil servants to strike

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Tens of thousands of workers in Scotland are to take part in a national civil service strike next month.

The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union has voted to hold a 48-hour stoppage on 8 and 9 March in a dispute over changes to a compensation scheme.

The union said some 30,000 staff in Scotland would be involved in the action, including about 5,000 who work for the Scottish government.

It has warned the strike may impact on the forthcoming general election.

As well as Scottish government workers, civil servants working for UK government departments in Scotland such as the Department of Work and Pensions, HM Revenue and Customs and Ministry of Defence will join the strike.

Jobcentre staff, tax workers, coastguards and border agency officials will also be involved.

Organising rallies

PCS has claimed the compensation scheme changes would mean its 270,000 members across the UK will miss out on thousands of pounds should they lose their jobs.

The union's Scottish secretary, Lynn Henderson, said: "We will be co-ordinating strike action across Scotland and organising rallies and so on, on March 8 and 9.

"The national executive will meet next week to lay out a strategy for March, but we're certainly looking for the month of March to be a month of action."

Meanwhile, talks over pay for council workers between the Unison, Unite and GMB unions and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) broken down on Thursday.

A spokesman for the unions said its demands for a 3% rise for their 150,000 members had been "simply dismissed without any negotiations."