According to the Cabinet Office, this represented 17.4% of the workforce.
A spokesperson for the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) claimed that around three quarters of their members had participated in the strike, a figure that Minister for Cabinet Office Francis Maude has labelled “pure fiction”.
He added: “This is the lowest level of support ever recorded for a national PCS strike,” and personally thanked those civil servants that turned up for work on Wednesday.
The strike’s focus was on the 1% cap on pay increases that has followed the two year pay freeze introduced in 2010. The PCS states that by 2015 the average civil servant will have suffered a 20% cut in their real incomes under the coalition.
Maude, however, insists civil servants are valued: “I am consistently impressed by the public service ethos of our Civil Service. Whether it’s Jobcentre workers getting more people into employment than ever before, or my officials helping to save £14.3 billion from Whitehall last year, we all owe our Civil Service a huge debt of gratitude.”
According to the Cabinet Office, Wednesday’s turnout was 6,478 lower than that recorded from the PCS strike in July, which was estimated to have had a turnout of 77,688.