Picket lines formed at various locations in the city, including the Passport Office and Department Of Work And Pensions in Northgate, as well as a Ministry Of Defence office and the Sheriff Court in a protest over pay, pensions and job losses.
Scottish leaders of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) said up to 30,000 workers across the country took part in the strike, which signalled the start of three months of planned industrial action.
In total, up to 250,000 civil servants across the UK were due to join the mass walk-out to coincide with Chancellor George Osborne's fourth Budget.
PCS president Janice Godrich said: "The message from 30,000 PCS members in Scotland today is 'We have had enough'.
"Whether the sharpened axe that cuts our jobs, slashes our pay and hacks our terms and conditions is a Scottish axe or a UK axe, makes no difference – we are the ones being made to carry the burden of austerity."
The union's Scottish secretary Lynn Henderson added: "Scottish ministers need to reflect on what sort of Scottish public sector they want – one that is properly resourced to deliver for the people of Scotland or one that is decimated by cuts."
gordon.thomson@ eveningtimes.co.uk
