North: Civil servants strike over job cuts

Around 3,000 civil servants in the North were taking strike action today in a protest against threatened compulsory redundancies.

Workers from England-based departments like Revenue and Customs were staging a walkout across the UK and tax returns were expected to be affected.

Northern Ireland Public Alliance Union general secretary John Cory was speaking at a rally in Belfast today.

“Although we are not directly involved in this strike because we only represent Northern Ireland civil servants, we want to convey to them our strong support for their strike, particularly their demands for no compulsory redundancies for pay and against privatisation,” he said.

This is one of the busiest days of the year for tax office returns. Passport offices, courts, job centres and driving tests were also likely to be affected.

The Public and Commercial Services Union walkout came after plans to axe 100,000 workers across the UK.