Prison officers have been threatened with legal action for holding protest meetings after some 400,000 public sector employees took to the streets of Westminster to complain about austerity measures and pension changes taken by the Government.
Off-duty police officers, university lecturers and border-control staff joined teachers and nurses in walking up Millbank to the Houses of Parliament.
Meanwhile protest meetings were taking place at 80% of the country's prisons according to the Prison Officers Association (POA). They said that they would continue until they were called off by the union's national executive.
The POA General Secretary Steve Gillan said that the union had been warned by the Treasury that they would seek an injunction to stop the meetings which they see as industrial action. Prison officers are banned from striking by law, so instead held the meetings whilst on the job.
The day of striking in London was convened by public-sector workers and was led by the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, nurses from the Unite union, teachers and lecturers from the University and College Union and Royal Navy support staff from the RMT union.
The Government were claiming something of a victory after claiming that fewer civil servants actually took to strike action compared to last November.
"We can now confirm that far fewer civil servants are on strike than in November, with around 100,000 taking part, down from 146,000 last year," said Cabinet Secretary Francis Maude.
The Government confirmed that the strikes had had minimal impact on the provision of services nationally, with only nine out of 700 Job Centres forced to close.
Sergeant Al Perry of the West Yorkshire Police Federation said: "We are here for one reason: to put our voice against the 20% cuts being imposed by the Home Office. There are around 20,000 officers here today. We want the public to look at us and see that this is the number of officers that will be lost in the next two years," he said.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper also took part in the march, and said that the Government cuts have gone too far.
"The Government is going too far and too fast," she said.
Related links:
Read more on the story (The Guardian)
Taking part in industrial action (FindLaw)
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