CIVIL servants will swell the ranks of two million public-sector workers on the picket lines next week, union PCS confirmed yesterday.

The union’s executive called members out for July 10 following a massive mandate for strike action over the coalition’s desultory 1 per cent pay offer.

Civil servants voted 73.7 per cent on a 24 per cent turnout to join the mass walkout over Con-Dem poverty pay.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said it was time for the coalition to offer their workforce something more than fine words.

He said: “Ministers praise public servants for their hard work and dedication but at the same time they are slashing their living standards. Instead of warm words, public sector workers need a pay rise.

“As politicians of all parties justify pay cuts by repeating the lie that there’s no money around, and household incomes fall to their lowest for more than a decade, it is clear the so-called economic recovery is not being felt by everyone.”

The union has sought a pay claim of either 5 per cent or £1,200 from the Cabinet Office to partially compensate for year-on-year pay freezes.

The union estimates that inflation has swallowed up to 20 per cent of the value of some members’ pay cheques, worth thousands of pounds a year.

PCS members will join members of the GMB, the National Union of Teachers, Unison and Unite in what could be Britain’s biggest-ever day of strike action.

It follows threats of strike action from the union’s Home Office group last month over cuts and closures leading to a backlog of nearly half a million cases in the Passport Office.

The union blamed the backlog on the closure of 22 interview offices and one application processing centre since 2009 and the sacking of 315 staff, accounting for roughly a tenth of the department’s workforce.

Cabinet Secretary Francis Maude’s office had yet to comment as the Morning Star went to print.