Public sector strike hits services and schools

Services including job centres and courts will be hit and thousands of schools closed as public sector workers across the UK stage a 24-hour strike.

Picket lines are expected as the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) and three teaching unions protest at planned changes to their pensions.
They say the proposals will mean working longer and contributing more, for a reduced pension in retirement.
The government says the plans are "fair to taxpayers" and the public sector.
As well as pickets, union leaders and activists will hold a march and rally in central London, where police leave has been cancelled.
Airport delays The impact of the co-ordinated industrial action began to be felt at ports and airports on Wednesday evening, when some UK Border Agency staff walked out from 1800 BST.
Travellers have been warned to expect delays on arrival at UK ports and airports on Thursday.
However, people leaving the UK will not be affected because departing passengers come into contact with security staff, employed by the airports, who will not be taking industrial action.
Heathrow airport said there were currently "no significant problems for arriving passengers".

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LATEST ON LIKELY DISRUPTION

• Schools: Based on information about 75% of schools, one third to close, one third to open as normal and one third to be "partially affected"
• Job centres and courts: Will remain open "wherever possible"
• Benefits: Little disruption expected as most claims are automated
• Customs/immigration: Trained managers to be redeployed to ensure full checks are conducted and borders remain secure
• Civil service: One in five workers will strike. Staff to be allowed to bring their children into work
• Parliament: Operating as normal with full access maintained

Sources: No 10 spokesman/Parliament spokesman

• Why Miliband is against strikes

The action by the National Union of Teachers (NUT), the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) and the University and College Union (UCU) affects England and Wales.

The walkouts by the PCS, which has around 250,000 members including coastguards, police support workers, court staff and driving test examiners, will be staged across the UK.
The government believes one in five of the nation's 500,000 civil servants will be on strike.
However, it added that the "vast majority" of courts, job centres, and HM Revenue and Customs call centres would remain open as usual.
Speaking on BBC One's Breakfast, Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude said: "People are going to be scratching their heads, wondering why teachers and some civil servants are going on strike while discussions are still going about how we keep public sector pensions among the best available.
"But people are living longer... It's perfectly reasonable for people to expect to work a bit longer before they start drawing the pension, which will still be among the very best... to ask them to pay a bit more towards it because other taxpayers who are paying the rest, they've seen their own pensions take a hit."
The director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, David Frost, said the government reforms to pensions were "essential" and could have a knock-on effect for businesses.
"The private sector has had to wake up to the tough realities of pension provision in a rapidly changing world, and the public sector must do the same," he said.
He added: "If the UK is perceived as a country where we have a lot of public sector strikes, then I think investor confidence, perhaps in putting new business into the UK, could be hit."
'Hit-and-run' A third of schools are expected to be closed, with another third partially-closed - resulting in the teachers' strike affecting about 14,000 schools in total. A third are expected to be unaffected.

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Analysis

Nick Robinson BBC Political Editor

There will be no picket line outside Downing Street today but one or two officials from No 10 are expected to join thousands of public servants striking, many of whom will stream down Whitehall in protest at planned cuts to their pensions.
That will be the visible part of this industrial dispute. The invisible and possibly more crucial part is the ongoing negotiations with many unions who are not striking today.
Those involved on both sides continue to believe that this will end with an agreement on reforming public sector pensions.
The significance then of today's strikes may be what signal they send to the negotiators about union members' appetite for more action - and the public's tolerance of it.

Some parents working in Whitehall, including MPs, will be able to take their children to work on Thursday, Downing Street said.

No 10 later said that Prime Minister David Cameron's children would not be with him because their school would be open. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg's children will not be at school, but it is not known how they will be spending the day.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber will address a rally in Exeter, saying: "The brutal truth is simply this: The burden of deficit reduction is being piled unfairly onto millions of low and medium-paid public sector workers who did nothing to cause the crash.
"Their pay has already been frozen for two years, even though inflation is higher than it has been for over a decade.
"Meanwhile those who are actually guilty of causing the crash in the finance sector are busy getting back to business and bonuses as usual, escaping the scene of their crimes just as a hit-and-run driver would flee a car crash. This is a gold standard for unfairness."
The government and opposition have condemned the strike action, although Labour leader Ed Miliband accused the government of mishandling negotiations with the unions.
Addressing Parliament during prime minister's questions on Wednesday, Mr Cameron said: "I don't believe there is any case for industrial action... not least because talks are still ongoing.
"It's only a minority of unions who have taken the decision to go ahead and strike."
BBC political editor Nick Robinson said that people on both sides of the negotiation, as well as Labour Party figures with good union connections, "continue to believe that a deal is the only way that will see the resolution of this - and that a deal is possible".
"Of course, there is still a significant gap and things could well go wrong," he added.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has called for legislation to impose a minimum threshold on strike ballots before industrial action can be taken.

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