THOUSANDS of Scottish public sector workers have joined a UK-wide walkout as they demand an increase in pay.
Court services were reduced and museums and driving centres closed as members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union protested over what it has calculated as a 20 per cent cut in earnings through a pay freeze and cap in recent years.
Civil servants, council staff and cleaners stood on picket lines across Scotland, and rallies were held in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
The PCS in Scotland said the 24-hour strike had enjoyed large support as people called on ministers to "break with the imposed UK austerity pay cap" in the run-up to the independence referendum.
The union said there was only one courtroom in operation at Edinburgh Sheriff Court - the best strike turnout since 2011 -while Portree and Dingwall courts were closed completely.
The Scottish Court Service (SCS) said an estimated 26 per cent of its staff were taking part in the industrial action.
PCS spokeswoman Joy Dunn said: "It's been very, very positive from our point of view. We've had a fantastic response from our members in Scotland."
The action follows a national PCS ballot which gained 73.7 per cent support. The union represents 28,000 workers in Scotland.
The National Museum of Scotland and the National War Museum in Edinburgh were also shut due to the action.
Members of the PCS national executive committee addressed members at rallies at the Mound precinct in Edinburgh and on Glasgow's Buchanan Street.
The PCS said 97 per cent of members working for the employment tribunals service in Glasgow were on strike and Peterhead and Fraserburgh driving centres were shut.
Scottish secretary Lynn Hen-derson said: "John Swinney (the Scottish Finance Secretary) doesn't need to wait for the referendum to break away from (Chancellor) George Osborne and the pay policy of the Tories.
"At any point in the last seven years he could have rejected a below inflation pay cap and accepted the arguments of PCS that investment in public services, in public sector jobs, in fair pay for civil servants that would help Scotland's economy and help the way out of recession," she added.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "As a result of the UK Government's austerity measures, the Scottish Government's discretionary budget is being reduced in real terms by 10.7% over five years.
"We have consistently rejected the Chancellor's approach to public finances and remain concerned about the impact of spending cuts on public services, household budgets and economic recovery."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article