Hundreds of civil servants in the Bradford area are set to walk out on a 48-hour strike from Monday in protest at Government plans to cut payments to those facing redundancy.

The stoppage will involve Revenue and Customs staff, including up to 900 at the main tax office in Shipley, as well as workers at Department of Work and Pensions offices, JobCentres, courts staff and driving examiners.

Pickets will be posted at the Shipley tax centre early on Monday morning and members of the Public and Commercial Services Union will leaflet people in Shipley town centre with details of how the proposed changes could hit public services..

The union, which has more than 30,000 members working in 200 departments, says the stoppage is a result of the Government and Cabinet Office making unilateral changes to the civil service compensation scheme.

It has accused Ministers of “robbing” its members of up to a third of their entitlements as part of moves to reduce the civil service compensation scheme by £500 million based on the number of jobs it has axed over the last three years, including closing local tax offices in Keighley and Skipton.

Beth Baker, Shipley branch secretary, said the changes would hit long-serving staff aged over 50 the hardest.

The union claims that, with all the main political parties planning deep spending cuts, the changes to the scheme will lead to tens of thousands of job losses on the cheap. Miss Baker said: “With civil and public service jobs increasingly at risk, this is a cynical attempt to cut jobs on the cheap which will ultimately damage the services we all rely on.

“The cuts to the redundancy scheme will see loyal civil and public servants lose tens of thousands of pounds if they are forced out of a job.

“The Government claims it cannot prevent bankers’ bonuses being paid because they are contractual, but appears happy to rip up the rights of its own workforce and change the law to do so.”

The PCS has about 1,000 tax office members working in Bradford city centre at offices near Forster Square station and Bradford Interchange.

Bradford branch president Paul Tillyer said the Government had postponed the original date for introducing the reduced redundancy payment and set a new deadline of April 1.

Mr Tillyer said the strike action was intended to highlight the issue in the hope of reaching a deal.