MORE than 120,000 civil servants will be balloting for strike action over pay in what would be the biggest walkout in the service in almost a decade.

The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) announced yesterday that its members will begin voting in the coming weeks on whether to launch a campaign of industrial action, which would take place in May.

The union said if the strike goes ahead, it will be the biggest walkout in the Civil Service since the co-ordinated pensions strike of 2011.

It comes after civil servants were left incensed by a “derisory” 1 per cent pay offer that fell way short of the 5 per cent PCS proposed by the union.

The average wage of civil servants has fallen in value by approximately 10 per cent since the Tories and Liberal Democrats took office in 2010.

As a result, the union is seeking a pay rise “significantly above” the rate of inflation and national pay bargaining across the Civil Service and related areas.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “Never has it been more necessary to have a well-paid and well-funded Civil Service than at a time of great uncertainty over Brexit and the serious problems experienced with universal credit.

“Yet what we have seen is a monumental betrayal of hard-working staff in core Civil Service departments over pay.

“Our members were led to believe that the pay cap had been lifted last year. Instead civil servants were singled out for unfair treatment and a de facto pay cap remained in place.

“Our members have had enough and after years of real-terms wage cuts, will now be balloted with the aim of launching targeted and sustained strike action which will have a significant effect on key government departments.

“Ministers need to understand the very real anger that our members feel and seek to immediately reward their staff with a pay rise significantly above the rate of inflation.”