CIVIL servants in Huddersfield joined a national walkout today.
Hundreds of thousands of workers across the country staged the 24-hour action in a bitter dispute over job cuts.
Jobcentres, benefit offices, Customs, driving tests, tax collection and museums were disrupted.
One picket line in Huddersfield was outside the tax office at Southgate.
The walkout by members of the Public and Commercial Services union was the biggest in the civil service in more than a decade, plunging industrial relations in Whitehall to a new low.
Around 160 Government departments and agencies were hit by the stoppage, which could be followed by further industrial action if the row is not resolved.
The union is protesting at controversial Government plans to axe more than 100,000 jobs, warning of the "devastating" impact on services to the public.
Mark Serwotka, the union's general secretary, said: "Hundreds of thousands of members are today taking a stand against arbitrary cuts which will decimate services we all rely on from the cradle to the grave.
"The people on strike today are not faceless bureaucrats or a bowler-hatted Sir Humphrey but people who collect the taxes to build hospitals and schools, get the unemployed into work and protect our shores from illegal contraband.
"Cuts on this scale will do nothing to improve service delivery and mean people will have to travel further to access services. Decent public services need civil servants to deliver them."
A spokesman for the Cabinet Office said: "We're taking essential efficiency measures across the public sector to increase investment in vital frontline services such as healthcare, education, transport, the fight against crime and helping people back into work.
"Our decisions mean more police, more teachers, more doctors and more nurses. We will not be diverted from this essential investment and we hope to continue to discuss this with the unions in a constructive way."
