STAFF were due to picket job centres across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight today on the second day of a 48-hour strike.

Union bosses were expecting 80 to 85 per cent of members to support the action as yesterday.

About 1,300 staff in the county vented their frustration over a controversial bonus structure and went on strike, said the Public and Commercial Services union. A union spokesman claimed managers had been forced out of their offices and on to the front line in order to keep offices open.

The 48-hour strike is the third this year as a bitter national dispute over pay drags on.

"This is an angry dispute," said Geoff Lumley, chairman of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight branch of the PCS. "Eighty to 85 per cent of our membership has been out on strike and we hope they will be again tomorrow as well."

The Department of Work and Pensions branded the action "cynical".

"We cannot see any reason for the PCS union to call a strike," said a spokesman. "Its timing is cynical, when annual leave is at its peak, and clearly targeted at the services we deliver for some of the most vulnerable people in society."