GOVERNMENT services including Jobcentres, courts and driving test centres face disruption today as Bolton is hit by national strike action.

Up to 850 Bolton members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) will down tools in protest over cuts to pay, jobs and pensions.

The union said the Department for Work and Pensions’ disability assessment centre at Elizabeth House in Back Spring Gardens, Bolton and Farnworth Jobcentres, the driving test centre in Weston Street, and Bolton Crown and Magistrates Courts would be hit by the strikes — although the magistrates court said it will still be open.

The strikes are part of a national day of industrial action by the PCS with rallies due to take place in Manchester, Liverpool and Preston.

The union has called for a minimum pay rise of five per cent or £1,200 for all civil servants this year, for no cuts to terms and conditions, no increase in pension contributions, no increase in the pension age and no reduction in pension benefits.

Peter Middleman, PCS North West regional secretary, said: “Members and their families are hurting because a hostile Tory front bench has nothing other than cuts to offer.

“With unemployment in Bolton stubbornly high and at record levels for young people, the Government’s policy of austerity needs to be reversed.”

A Cabinet Office spokesman said “pay restraint” had helped protect jobs in the public sector and “support high quality public services”.

Today’s action is being followed up by a half-day walkout from 1pm on Friday, April 5.