By 90% to 10%, members of Prospect have backed changes to the Civil Service Compensation Scheme agreed last month with the Cabinet Office after three years of negotiations with the current and previous governments. Turnout was 36%.

Welcoming the result, Dai Hudd, Deputy General Secretary, said: "This result clearly expresses the strength of feeling of members in favour of new settled terms ahead of the challenging time facing everyone in public service.

“It endorses the very difficult decisions our Civil Service Sector Executive has had to take throughout the three years and fully vindicates their actions."

Members of three other unions – the FDA, GMB and Unite – have also overwhelmingly backed the deal in membership ballots held over the last three weeks, representing a combined total of 110,000 public servants.

The Prospect result comes the day after the government lodged the terms of the new scheme in Parliament which will take effect from today. The new terms replace the draconian cuts to the current redundancy scheme contained in the government's Superannuation Act, which completed its passage through Parliament last week.

PCS, the largest civil service union, is midway through its own ballot on the CSCS with a recommendation from its executive to reject the new terms. However, their implementation by the government means that more than half a million public servants in civil service departments, agencies and non-departmental public bodies are covered by the new agreement, including PCS members.

The new agreement:

• provides one month’s compensation per year of service up to a ceiling of 21 months’ pay
• gives staff aged 50 or over the option of taking an early, unreduced pension, paid for out of their severance payment
• protects the lower paid and members recruited since July 2007 by setting a salary floor of £23,000 for the calculation of redundancy payments.