Officials and outsourced staff at two departments and one government-owned corporation have stepped up their disputes with employers this week, with further ballots in the offing.
Staff at HM Land Registry have agreed to take a work-to-rule strategy in their battle with management over a requirement for 60% office attendance.
Around 3,800 members of the PCS union who work at the non-ministerial department voted in favour of strike action and action short of strike in a ballot that closed just before Christmas.
PCS said members at 14 Land Registry sites had decided to pursue action short of strike and would begin working to rule – doing their own work but not covering for colleagues or taking on extra work outside their own job description and grade – from 21 January.
Union general secretary Fran Heathcote said members at the organisation were disappointed the employer had imposed changes to their working conditions without prior agreement.
"We call on management to work with us to find a solution that’s fair and acceptable to our members," she said. "It would cost them nothing and might help Land Registry regain some of the goodwill required to make progress in clearing the huge backlogs of work."
In addition to what PCS describes as the Land Registry's requirement for a "strict adherence" to its 60% attendance rule, the union's dispute also includes changes to previously-agreed grading protocols and the use of data for performance assessments.
Also this week, members of the Prospect union who work at the Civil Aviation Authority agreed to begin working to rule in their dispute over an imposed 3%-4% pay deal at the Department for Transport-sponsored public corporation.
Prospect deputy general secretary Rachel Curley said members did not want to take industrial action, but had been "left with no choice after unacceptable tactics from the employer".
The industrial action starts on 20 January and will also see staff refuse to work overtime.
Last month PCS members at the CAA voted to strike over the pay offer.
Separately, PCS members who work as outsourced security guards, cleaners and facilities staff at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero have voted to strike in a dispute over pay, health and safety, and contractural redundancy entitlements.
A ballot of the 57 PCS members employed by ISS on the contract returned a 100% "yes" vote in favour of strike action, based on a turnout of 80%.
PCS called on ministers at the department to intervene in the dispute, which has the demand for a 7% pay rise at its heart. It said its members accounted for more than four in five staff on the DESNZ contract.
In a further development, the union said today that ISS employees who work on other Government Property Agency facilities-management contracts will be balloted for strike action over pay concerns.
It named the Department for Education, the Cabinet Office and the government's Canary Wharf Hub among locations likely to be affected.
PCS added that outsourced workers at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's Abercrombie House site in East Kilbride would be taking a further 28 days of inustrial action in their pay dispute, starting from 22 January.
The cleaners and caterers, who are employed by OCS, have already staged 49 days of strikes in their campaign. PCS said that action had been "highly effective and disruptive" and had seen the closure of catering facilities at the site over the Christmas period.