Amid the strikes by postal workers, nurses, ambulance drivers and train staff, another vital workforce is also taking industrial action.

Staff at the Environmental Agency having been working to rule since December 12 in a dispute over pay.

With two flood alerts currently in force in Kent following heavy rain on Sunday night and the consequential melting snow, the industrial action is of concern to many communities at risk of flooding.

Geraldine Brown is the chairman of Yalding Parish Council, a village which suffered extensive flooding only a few days before Christmas in 2013.

She said: "What annoys me most is that we have received no official notification about this industrial action or what it might mean for our community or other communities across Kent, indeed across the country.

"I found out about it quite by chance."

The Environment Agency members who are members of Unison are working only their contracted hours. They are all taking all scheduled breaks, not doing any unpaid work outside their contracted hours and not responding to emails or texts outside contracted hours or during rest breaks.

The union has also asked its 2,800 members at the agency to withdraw themselves from incident rostas on December 20 and 22.

The level of job vacancies in the agency is now so high that the government has been depending of the staff's goodwill to deliver vital services to protect communities and the environment from floods and pollution incidents.

Unison's national secretary for the environment, Donna Rowe-Merriman, said: "Staff across the environment agency have seen wages fall by over 20% as a result of over 12 years of pay austerity. The cost-of-living crisis is affecting the ability of staff to pay household bills and put food on the table.

"Workers have said loud and clear that enough is enough.

"The EA is underfunded and its staff are undervalued and underpaid."

She said: "The failure to properly reward staff is leading to unprecedented vacancies – as staff vote with their feet in search of better paid jobs."

Mrs Rowe-Merriman said: "This failure to address the root cause of low pay forces the agency to pay external contractors even higher rates to fill the gaps or turn to remaining workers working overtime to provide vital services.

"Staff are often compelled to carry out overtime just to pay their household bills due to low pay in the EA affecting their family life”.

She said: "The government needs to ensure that public monies deliver decent pay for public sector workers – not inflated profits for contractors and dividends for shareholders."

Cllr Brown, who is also chairman of the Maidstone branch of the Kent Association of Local Councils, said: "One of the effects of the industrial action is that the flood warning service has been temporarily been automated.

She said: "That means that it is being triggered by certain thresholds, not by a flood defence officer trained in reading forecasts and levels."

That means that residents and communities are likely to receive more flood alerts than previously.

Under the manned system, flood alerts – which are generally warnings only of flooding to low-lying land, not properties – are only issued between 6am and 9pm. But the automated alerts could be issued during the night when normally only the higher level flood warnings are issued.

Cllr Brown said: "Initially there is a danger that people will be woken up and panicked unnecessarily. If that happens too often, there is a danger that when there is a serious flood-warning, people might think the agency is crying wolf again, and just ignore it."

Yalding receives alerts whenever there is a concern about the upper, lower or middle reaches of the River Medway, the upper and lower reaches of the River Beult and the River Teise.

Cllr Brown said: "We have received no information about what service we can expect during this industrial action, which is appalling."

She said: "What happens if we have a serious flood? Would the Leigh flood storage area be operated? Would we have help or would we be left to our own devices?"

Unison balloted its members in November. Some 73% of those responding voted for strike action, with 92% voting for action short of a strike.

The staff, who received no pay increase last year, have been offered 2% by the government plus a £345 one-off payment this year, which Unison's general secretary Christina McAnea described as "insulting."

An Environment Agency spokesman said: "As a public sector organisation, the Environment Agency remains bound by the pay policy of the government of the day.

"We have plans in place to minimise any disruption to our essential work to protect the environment and respond to incidents."

He said: "We have contingency plans in place to protect everyone’s health, safety and wellbeing and to sustain critical operations, including responding to flooding and other serious incidents."

The agency said it was committed to safeguarding the flood-warning service during the industrial action, but admitted such flood alerts and flood warnings would be generated automatically.

Current flood warnings can be viewed here. www.gov.uk/check-flooding

Further advice is available from the Floodline on 0345 988 1188.