The Government faces the biggest strike by civil servants in more than a decade, amid growing anger over job cuts, the pensions crisis and plans to extend the retirement age.

On the eve of what is expected to be a fiery TUC conference in Brighton, the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) said it would ballot 290,000 workers, ranging from coastguards and immigration officers to prisons staff and pensions advisers.

Leaders of other unions also warned of industrial action, while the TUC said workers across the country could strike unless more was done to tackle the looming pensions "disaster".

The PCS is balloting on a possible one-day strike on November 5 in protest at plans to axe 104,000 jobs.

Mark Serwotka of the PCS said the strike, if approved, would be the biggest in the civil service for a generation and would hit the Inland Revenue, prisons, job centres, benefit offices, driving test centres and the land registry.

He attacked the Government for the "disgraceful" way the Chancellor announced the job cuts in his Budget, which he said was reminiscent of the way some of the worst private companies in the country treated their staff.

He said: "We are not against doing things more efficiently, but cutting more than 100,000 jobs will decimate service delivery, meaning poorer services.

"The people the Government is seeking to axe are not bowler-hatted Sir Humphreys or faceless bureaucrats, they provide vital services.

"They deliver things we take for granted, such as your driving licence, passport or child benefit."

He said staff were also angry their pensions were being threatened and there were plans to increase the retirement age.

TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, attacked company directors for setting a bad example over pensions and criticised CBI director general Digby Jones, who lambasted unions earlier this month for being "increasingly irrelevant".

Mr Barber said it was the job of the TUC to prove this week that Mr Jones was wrong and he highlighted the pensions crisis as an area where workers were relying on union campaigns.

He stood alongside a "pensions wheel of fortune" on Brighton seafront to highlight research showing only one in three workers had a pension linked to pay.

He said: "Unions will fight to defend pension benefits.

"We will negotiate, we will campaign and, if we have to, we will strike."

Leaders of the country's four biggest unions - Unison, Amicus, the TGWU and the GMB - united at the Brighton Centre for their first joint press conference at the TUC.

Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, warned Alan Milburn not to sideline unions when Labour's next election manifesto is drawn up.

Unison clashed with Mr Milburn when he was health secretary, because of his promotion of foundation hospitals and Mr Prentis said he should temper some of his "wild ideas".

All the union leaders wanted a radical third-term Labour Government, which will follow through the 56 commitments given during a summer policy forum.

Prime Minister Tony Blair will address the annual conference at the Brighton Centre today amid reports he is considering requiring every worker to contribute to a state-run pension.

Alan Johnson will make his first major speech as the new Work and Pensions Secretary to the conference tomorrow.

Monday September 13, 2004