NORTH-East passport workers took part in a national strike against job cuts today (Monday, July 28), risking the wrath of would-be holidaymakers.

Members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union set up a picket line outside the Durham passport office, at the city’s Milburngate House, in protest at staff shortages.

The PCS has blamed the Government for the current summer holidays passport crisis, as staff numbers have dropped by 367 since 2010.

But ministers say the union is putting families’ holidays at risk and David Cameron blamed a surge in applications this year.

The 24-hour strike, which is also over pay, affected all eight UK passport offices, in Durham, Belfast, Glasgow, Liverpool, Southport, London, Newsport and Peterborough.

The Home Office said 875 PCS members had walked out and warned the action could jeopardise people’s holidays.

The PCS hit back, saying the action was a “bid to end staffing shortages that have caused the ongoing backlog crisis”.

Thousands of people have had to pay extra to have their passport applications fast-tracked or face cancelling their summer getaway.

Extra staff have been drafted in to clear a backlog of 30,000 applications. Also, opening hours have been extended and workers offered extra pay to do more overtime.

The Home Office says about 360,000 applications are now being processed, down from 508,000 earlier this month, but it is unclear how many are overdue.

The Passport Office said it was facing the highest demand for applications in the last 12 years and its predictions for the summer had been “substantially exceeded”.

Chief executive Paul Pugh said there were 775,000 applications in June, which he said was the most ever recorded in a single month.

Last month, the Durham office found itself the focus of national attention amid reports of people waiting up to two months for passports that are meant to be processed within three weeks.

The strike ends at midnight and no further walkouts have as yet been announced.

On pay, the PCS says passport workers can be paid up to £3,000 less than people doing “similar work” elsewhere in the Home Office and there remains a “threat of more privatisation”.