In Britain, up to 270,000 civil servants have begun a 48-hour strike over redundancy pay, in what is the biggest unrest by the sector in more than two decades. Courts, ports, job and tax centres and emergency police call centres are being affected by the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) walkout. The Union says its members could lose a third of their entitlement over cuts under the civil service compensation scheme. Under the new scheme which takes effect from next month, those laid off and taking voluntary redundancy will have their pay-offs capped at 60,000 pounds. However, the government said other civil service unions agreed the changes were fair. Redundancy is currently calculated on length of service, with a month's pay for every year worked.