Strike 'Damaging' To Families, Says Minister

Thousands of workers have gone out on strike in what ministers have said is “damaging” industrial action which has a significant impact on families.

Tensions ran high among those out on action after the Government dismissed the strike as failing and said public sector workers were turning up to work as usual.

More than a million teachers, firefighters and civil servants are taking part in 24 hours of industrial action bringing significant disruption to vital services.

One in eight schools was estimated to have been forced to close its doors while callers to job centres were told there was a limited service due to “severe difficulties”.

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude said the strike was seriously “damaging” and presented huge difficulty for families, many of whom have been forced to make alternative arrangements for their children.

The row over David Cameron‘s pledge to change the law to make it illegal to strike unless a greater majority of union members voted for action intensified with those on strike accusing him of “utter hypocrisy”.

Karen Russell, a teacher from Middlesex, told Sky News: “I’ve just had enough of the Government not listening to the concerns of teachers.

“We are doing the job day in day out – curriculum changes without any sort of warnings or consultation … and my pay and pension.”

She said taking a day out of school was not disruptive to children – they had been given a day off for the Royal Wedding – and that parents she had spoken to supported the strike.

“Parents trust teachers more than the Government”, she said.

Teaching assistant Sharon Graham, from Northumberland, who took an extra two part-time jobs to make ends meet, said: “You can’t survive with the bills you are getting in.”

But mother-of-three Katrina Poole, from Bristol, who has had to make special arrangements for her children, said: “I know teachers work very, very hard, but they’ve got 13 clear weeks off school and maybe they could deal with this outside educational time.”

National Union of Teachers (NUT) general secretary, Christine Blower, said teachers “deeply regret” strike action.

The public sector strike has been billed as the biggest since 1926, and presents the most significant industrial relations challenge for the coalition Government since it came to power in 2010.

The Cabinet Office issued a statement at 7am saying the action would “achieve nothing” and said early indications were that most civil servants were turning up for work “as usual”.

It estimated fewer than 90,000 members of the PCS union would not be working – a fifth of the civil service workforce.

The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union described the Cabinet Office’s figures as “laughable”, adding: “No-one can trust this government to keep reliable figures, it can’t even tell us what it’s done with dozens of Home Office files.”

The TUC said public sector workers are £2,200 worse off under the Government, while half a million council employees earn less than the living wage. 

In March the Government announced a 1% pay rise for public sector workers. However, Office for National Statistics figures show that public sector workers earn, on average, 14.5% more than those in the private sector.

MPs will see their salaries rise by 11% by May 2015.

The Prime Minister on Wednesday pledged to include changes to employment law in the Conservative manifesto to introduce a threshold in ballots, which some have suggested should mean 50% of union members must vote before a strike can take place.

The NUT strike ballot, which was held in 2010, saw just 27% of members taking part, while Unison said only 23% of its members voted.

However, unions pointed out that not “a single member of the present Cabinet would have been elected using the same criteria”.

Strike 'Damaging' To Families, Says Minister