CIVIL servants in Bury, employed by the Department of Work and Pensions, went ahead with a 48-hour walk-out in protest over "unsatisfactory" pay offers.

Local members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) joined their colleagues nationwide by staging the two-day industrial action on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Bury's Benefits Office, which has around 250 PCS members, remained open during the strike days. But union officials said visitors were asked to return when the strike was over. PCS members mounted a picket outside the office.

Around 20,000 PCS members throughout the north west were involved in the stoppages. These included more than 5,000 administrative workers based at job centres, benefit agencies and child support agencies throughout Greater Manchester.

Under an imposed pay deal, the starting salary for an administrative assistant with the DWP is £10,300.

The union is continuing with its ongoing overtime bans and work-to-rule. Mr David Wilkinson, senior national officer for the PCS, said: "We are delighted at the way the two-day strike went. We have had reports that some offices were open. But staff were not serving and all they were doing was asking visitors to return again when the strike finished. We do regret any disruption."

He added: "We have said all along that we are willing to negotiate with our employers, but we've come up against a brick wall."

A spokesman for the Manchester office of the Department for Work and Pensions said: "Both the job centre and social security office in Bury remained open during the two days of industrial action and were able to provide a near normal service for customers, who experienced minimal disruption.

"We regret that the PCS called its members out on strike. The DWP's pay offer is worth more than five per cent on average and eight to nine per cent for our most junior frontline staff, on a full year basis. It is better than most other central Government settlements in the 2003 pay round. We have tried to reach a negotiated settlement."