THE Government is facing a series of national strikes by hundreds of thousands of civil servants in the run-up to the General Election, in a bitter row over cuts to compensation payments.

The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) said it will ballot its 270,000 members, with walk-outs by Customs and immigration officers, JobCentre and benefit workers, museum staff and tax officers threatened from early March.

The union’s leader, Mark Serwotka, launched an angry attack on Prime Minister Gordon Brown, accusing him of trying to look “macho” by slashing pay-outs to low-paid public sector workers.

The union will also launch legal action today, saying it had a good case to challenge what it believed was an illegal act by the Government in changing the civil service compensation scheme.

The Prime Minister last year announced the changes, which the union said would lead to voluntary and redundancy payments being cut by a third, leaving long-serving staff facing the loss of thousands of pounds.

A worker on a salary of £24,000 who has worked for the Civil Service for over 20 years would have redundancy pay cut by over £20,000, said the PCS.

Ballot papers will be issued tomorrow and voting will end on February 25, with the first action likely to be a two-day strike on March 8/9 or 11/12 if there is a yes vote.

Action will continue throughout March and could stretch towards the General Election.

Talks with Government officials have broken down and the union said it now had “no option” but to press ahead with plans for what threatens to be the most disruptive campaign of industrial action in the Civil Service for years.

Mr Serwotka said: “Margaret Thatcher introduced this compensation scheme but the Labour Government is now saying it is too generous and wants to rob hard-working, low-paid public servants, which is an absolute disgrace.

“Workers are being robbed of their accrued rights, so it is no wonder they feel so angry.”