Workers at HMRC will launch a series of strikes on Wednesday in the long-running civil service dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.

Members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) in Newcastle will be on strike from May 10-12, 15-19, 22-26, 29-31 and on June 1 and 2.

The start of the strike coincides with the closure of a ballot of PCS members in 184 other areas of the civil service on whether to renew a mandate for industrial action.

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PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: ‘Our members in HMRC are the latest in a long line of PCS members being forced to take strike action to fight for the pay rise PCS members deserve.

‘In HMRC alone, almost one in three staff are now on national minimum wage. In DWP one in five staff are having to claim in-work benefits.

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“These people are the Government’s own workforce, who are suffering the consequence of year after consecutive year of meagre pay rises leaving tens of thousands of them in financial crisis.

‘We will not accept being left behind. We will not accept being treated like the poor relation.

“PCS members are determined to keep the pressure on until the Government improves its offer to us.”