AROUND 1,000 staff from the Office for National Statistics Hampshire headquarters in Titchfield are due to vote today possible strike action in a row over job cuts.

They were joining a ballot of thousands of staff nationwide which has been organised by the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) and Prospect.

The union organised the ballots in protest at plans to cut hundreds of jobs and relocate hundreds more out of London.

Union officials claimed that ONS workers had some of the lowest pay rates in the Civil Service, adding that morale was at an all-time low.

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS said: "Staff are angry at the haphazard illogical approach that management are taking in cutting jobs and relocating posts.

"Staff are being balloted because they want to see a well-funded ONS that is fit for purpose and an end to ill thought out job cuts and relocations."

Two years ago, the government controversially decided to axe 100 jobs from the Titchfield office of the ONS.

Around 200 jobs at the office were due to move to Newport in Wales by 2008 but another 100 jobs had been scheduled to move to Hampshire from London in the shake-up two years ago.

Bosses at the ONS are also aiming to create several hundred new posts at the Titchfield office in the run up to the census in 2011.