WORKERS in York were on the picket line as part of a national strike by civil servants to protest over pay and conditions.

Staff at the city's Land Registry office were on strike yesterday as part of a wider May Day walkout by the Public And Commercial Services (PCS) Union.

The national strike called for no compulsory redundancies or relocations, no more outsourcing without agreement, fair and equal pay, adequate resources and decent working conditions.

It was also held to protest against plans announced last year by Chancellor Gordon Brown for civil service job cuts.

At the Land Registry's James Street offices, there was added resonance to the strike as the branch faces closure within three years, putting about 130 jobs at risk.

The Press revealed in March how an internal staff briefing by bosses at the Government agency showed a proposed timetable to close the office by 2010.

Some staff are expected to relocate to Hull or other regional offices, while others may take voluntary redundancy.

Linda Cartwright, secretary of the PCS's York Land Registry branch, said the support package that had been offered to her members was totally unsatisfactory.

She said: "It looks like the minimum package they could have offered us and we are saying it is not good enough.

"A lot of people have come out because they are so angry about it."

She said bosses had drawn an "arbitrary line" across the county, with vastly different terms depending where workers lived.

If a member of staff lives east of York, they could be forced to commute to Hull, while someone living towards the other side of the city could be offered redundancy instead, she said.

"It is discriminatory, it is unequal, everyone is up in arms about it and that is one of the reasons so many people came out," said Mrs Cartwright.

She said workers were also fed-up of waiting to hear details of their future after an announcement was made last May the office would close by 2015.

"It has been an awful, stressful year for members of staff and their families, because they had no clue where we were going," she said.