Civil servants are to stage a protest in Belfast today to highlight what they claim is the scandal of low pay in the Northern Ireland Civil Service.
Government employees earning the statutory minimum wage are demonstrating outside Belfast City Hall as their union, NIPSA, begins to ballot 20,000 civil servants on strike action over pay.
The public service union is urging its members to vote for an all-out indefinite strike over pay - a call they say is unprecedented.
The union is balloting members in all Northern Ireland Government departments and many public bodies after British secretary of state Peter Hain imposed a pay award before Christmas that had already been rejected by the union's members.
Mr Hain said the deal, backdated to August, was worth 3.49 per cent, but NIPSA insist it amounts to only 0.2 per cent for the majority of civil servants.
The row over pay has been brewing for months and follows a similar wrangle and limited strike action over the 2004 pay deal.
The ballot is due to close on January 30th.
PA