Britain’s largest civil service union the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) has announced it will ballot up to 290,000 public sector members about whether they will strike over government plans to change the public sector pension age from 60 to 65.
The plan to raise the pension age for the civil and public services comes just over two years after previous changes to the civil service pension scheme.
It will force people to work longer to get the pension value they expected.
The plans will also see an end to the final salary scheme.
The move follows announcements by the Unison, T&G and Amicus unions of their intention to ballot local government workers about strike action over the changes.
It raises the possibility of simultaneous strike action by central and local government workers .
Other unions are expected to decide whether to ballot for strike action on the same subject next week. The PCS ballot is expected to close around 10 March.
Mark Serwotka, general secretary of PCS, said: “With thousands of hard working civil and public servants already facing the axe and increasing insecurity over their futures the Government’s forced pension age rise comes as a double-whammy.
“We urge the Government to engage in meaningful negotiation and think again about forcing people to work an extra five years and give people real choices about their futures.”
