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Thousands of civil servants are expected to join a one-day strike on May 1st over job cuts, pay and privatisation.

Due to be held two days before local elections are carried out across the country, the second one-day strike is expected to affect everything from passports, tax and Jobcentres to galleries, courts and driving tests.

Following on from strike action in January up to 270,000 civil and public servants working across more than 200 government departments, agencies and non-departmental bodies are expected to join the protest.

The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) announced the 24-hour walkout strike, which has the backing of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), earlier today.

"The government and civil service management's continued refusal to resolve the dispute through negotiation has provoked more confrontation and a second one-day civil service-wide strike," said Mark Serowtka, PCS general secretary.

"Services are suffering in the race to slash jobs at the same as the government [is] using its own workforce as an anti-inflationary measure by insisting on capping pay at two per cent as inflation creeps up to five per cent."

Mr Serowtka also blamed increased privatisation as one of the reasons for the strike, causing disharmony within the civil service.

"The government and civil service management need to recognise that they can't continue to bury their head in the sand and start negotiating with the union to resolve the dispute," he warned.