HUNDREDS of civil servants working in York and North Yorkshire started a two-day strike today in protest at Government plans to axe jobs.

The workers, in all areas of the Department of Work and Pensions, are protesting at proposals to axe 30,000 jobs across the country.

The strike has been called by the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union and comes following the loss of 300 city jobs after the closure of the York Pensions Centre.

The PCS claims that since DWP cuts were announced, members in North Yorkshire have seen a fall in numbers from 950 to 550 in just under two years, with more planned later in the year.

Tanya Walker, DWP North Yorkshire chairwoman for the PCS union, said: "The message of our campaign is that the Government can't keep arbitrarily cutting staff without it having a negative impact on local public services including lengthy delays in claiming and receiving benefits or even talking to a member of staff, with an estimated half of calls in North Yorkshire going unanswered and a two to three week wait for an appointment.

"Our members are facing increasingly unreasonable and unrealistic demands on their time from managers everyday, violent incidents from frustrated members of the public are increasing, staff are scared to take sick leave when they are ill for fear of a disciplinary warning and moral is at an all time low."

Updated: 09:55 Thursday, January 26, 2006