HUNDREDS of Department for Education (DfE) workers begin strike ballots tomorrow over plans to close six offices and enforcing a 60 per cent office attendance requirement.

The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union said that the DfE’s refusal to consider enhanced flexible working arrangements that could protect jobs would would add up to 90 minutes to their daily commutes and uproot their members’ lives.

Offices in Croydon, Exeter, Leeds, Newcastle, Peterborough and Watford are slated for closure. The department says 359 staff would be directly affected.

The union has accused DfE of providing no detailed business rationale beyond generic comments about cost and is calling for a “cast-iron guarantee” of no compulsory redundancies and “meaningful” negotiations.

PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said that the DfE is “choosing to put loyal civil servants in impossible situations rather than work with us on sensible solutions.”

The DfE was contacted for comment.