​Defence unions say morale among civil servants in Bath is at an all-time low.

Nearly 300 workers at the Ministry of Defence offices at Ensleigh in Lansdown staged a two-day strike this week in protest at changes to redundancy arrangements.

The protest - part of national industrial action - came as the 3,000 MoD workers remaining in the city digested the news that their jobs may all be switched to Bristol.

The PCS union says around 90 per cent of its members at Ensleigh, which deals with the supply of defence equipment, joined the stoppage.

The strike action also involved Jobcentre staff, tax workers, coastguards, Border Agency officials, courts staff, and driving test examiners.

The union says the changes will see staff “robbed” of up to a third of their entitlements in a move aimed at saving £500 million.

The Government says the shake-up will bring the civil service in line with other parts of the public sector.

PCS Ensleigh branch secretary Kevin Kilcoyne said he feared the changes were a prelude to more job losses at the MoD, which he said had shed 43,000 posts since 1997.

Last week, it was revealed that the MoD was considering severing its 70-year link with Bath by closing down all three of its offices in the city.

It has stressed that its favoured option is to shut Foxhill and Warminster Road and keep Ensleigh open, but the emergence of the option has alarmed unions and politicians.

Mr Kilcoyne said: “This is not helping with morale. Morale has never been lower.”

He added that concern over the supply of equipment to troops on the ground in zones such as Afghanistan had never been greater.

“If you cut the backroom, it does affect the frontline.”

He said of the redundancy changes: “With civil and public service jobs increasingly at risk, this is a cynical attempt to cut jobs on the cheap which will ultimately damage the services we all rely on. The cuts to the redundancy scheme will see loyal civil and public servants lose tens of thousands of pounds if they are forced out of a job.

“The Government claims it cannot prevent bankers’ bonuses being paid because they are contractual, but appears happy to rip up the rights of its own workforce and change the law to do so.”

Cabinet Office Minister Tessa Jowell said the new deal was "fair for staff and taxpayers".

She said: "It is very disappointing that the PCS has decided to take industrial action, especially given that less than one in five of their own members voted in favour of strike action, and that, overall, this figure represents only around 10 per cent of the total civil service workforce.

"The public will find it difficult to understand the PCS continuing to protest on their own against a package which brings the civil service into line with the rest of the public sector and still offers more generous terms than much of the private sector."

The proposals ensure that those earning £30,000 or less – 80 per cent of all staff – will still received between two and three years' salary if made redundant. Higher earning civil servants will have redundancy pay capped at twice their salary.

PCS has more than 300,000 members in more than 200 departments and agencies.

Meanwhile, shadow defence secretary Liam Fox has added his voice to the concern over the possible transfer of all Bath jobs to the giant Abbey Wood complex in Bristol.

He said he would continue to discuss the issue with the Conservative Parliamentary hopeful for Bath, Fabian Richter.

“This is clearly a huge decision with potentially serious implications for the people of Bath and the surrounding area.

"This is another example of Labour’s piecemeal cuts to defence prior to conducting a much-needed defence review.  We are adamant that big decisions like this must not be made ahead of the urgently needed strategic defence and security review.”