JOBCENTRES and benefit offices in York were operating with a skeleton staff today as workers began 48-hour strike action in an increasingly bitter pay dispute.

Members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) joined about 85,000 colleagues nationwide to protest over a 2.6 per cent pay offer being imposed by the Government.

Staff from the Prison Service and the Office of National Statistics are also involved in a separate wage dispute today in what is one of the worst outbreaks of unrest in the history of the civil service.

It is believed that 65 per cent of staff in North Yorkshire are participating in the two-day action, which immediately follows the four-day Bank Holiday weekend. Only 46 out of 153 staff at York's benefit office in Monkgate arrived for work today.

This is the second two-day stoppage at the Monkgate office and York's two Jobcentres. They also staged a 48-hour walkout in February, which had been postponed from January to allow for talks.

Tanya Walker, union branch chairwoman for North Yorkshire, said: "We haven't got any choice unfortunately. Striking is not an option that a union takes lightly and we certainly don't want anybody in a position of losing pay.

"But the offer put out to us was barely different to the original offer on the table last year."

DWP regional press officer Simon Wilkinson told the Evening Press that they are hoping to provide a normal service for customers.

"It is very important that vulnerable people don't suffer as a consequence of the industrial action," he said.

"We regret that the union has called its members out when many of our staff will be away with their children on the school holidays."

Updated: 10:47 Tuesday, April 13, 2004