The Government is facing a series of fresh attacks from unions as civil servants threaten to strike.

The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union said around 270,000 of its members across the UK working in every Government department will vote later this month on three months of industrial action that will extend into the New Year.

The PCS will also try to co-ordinate any strikes with other unions which could lead the Government on a collision course with up to a million workers later in the year.

A wage dispute involving half a million council workers remains unresolved, while teachers are to be balloted soon on whether to launch more strikes, also over pay.

The TUC Congress in Brighton will debate a motion calling for co-ordinated industrial action in the public sector on Monday.

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS, said the strike ballot followed growing anger over the Government's policy of limiting pay rises in the public sector to 2 per cent this year, hitting low-earning civil servants.

Mr Serwotka said: "The Government says it is on the side of hard-pressed families, yet compound the financial misery for hundreds of thousands of hard working people by pursuing an unjust pay policy.

"The Government is out of touch with the people who keep this country running and who deliver the everyday things we take for granted.

"Our members have grown increasingly frustrated by the Government peddling the myth that they are the causes of inflation when they see their food, fuel and housing costs soar."

Keith Sonnet, deputy general of Unison, said there was a "huge level of unhappiness" among workers with the Government, which he warned could feed through to the next general election.

Unison is one of seven unions supporting Monday's conference motion, which also calls for days of action, including a major national demonstration over pay.

The TUC argued that £5 billion a year could be raised by increasing taxes on the "super rich" and by closing tax loopholes.

The union organisation also stepped up calls for a windfall tax on the profits of energy firms, an issue expected to receive support at the conference later this week.

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