LABOUR MSPs have been accused of hypocrisy for not turning up at Holyrood because of the public sector workers' strike while the party's MPs crossed picket lines at Westminster.

SNP MSP Kenneth Gibson said strikes had previously taken place while Labour and the Tories had been in power at Westminster and Labour MPs had still attended Parliament and "done their jobs".

He said it was "utterly hypocritical" that when Labour MPs, including former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, were at Westminster and when party leader Ed Miliband said he did not support the strike that Labour MSPs should "abandon" Holyrood on a day when it was debating the pensions issue.

"The Scottish Parliament should be the voice of Scotland and MSPs should attend Parliament, join the debate and help send the strongest possible message from Holyrood to Westminster the UK Government's actions are not acceptable," he said.

Almost all the 68 nationalist MSPs turned up and while the SNP, Tory and LibDem benches were well-filled, one side of the Holyrood chamber lay empty.

Among the few missing from the SNP were Fiona Hyslop, who is on ministerial business in the US and Canada, Shona Robison, who was in Brussels, and Linda Fabiani, who was speaking in a debate at the London School of Economics.

A spokeswoman said backbencher John Finnie represented the party at rallies in Inverness and Glasgow.

First Minister Alex Salmond and Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon were among senior Cabinet ministers sitting through the debate.

Labour dismissed Mr Gibson's attack on their absence as "rambling nonsense" and claimed the SNP had ended up on the wrong side of the argument.

Party leader Iain Gray said: "Scottish Labour MSPs have supported the day of action by visiting picket lines and attending the various rallies that were held around Scotland.

"We decided we should not spend the day in the Scottish Parliament but instead stand with teachers, nurses and council workers who are defending their pension rights.

"It's disappointing SNP members decided instead of supporting the day of action they would organise a debate on public pensions in the Parliament just so they could justify crossing the picket lines.

"The truth is most of these pensions are devolved and it is the SNP who are implementing George Osborne's pension cuts."

Finance Secretary John Swinney defended the administration's decision to cross picket lines saying: "On days such as this, Parliament has the responsibility to make its voice heard. We've got a duty to put our case to Westminster and that is why we are in Parliament today."

Mr Swinney said he respected public sector workers' right to take industrial action but he added: "I also believe that members of the public have a right to access public services and they should be able to do that today."

During the debate, Mr Swinney said there was no such thing as a gold-plated public pension. "The reality is that public sector pensions are, in the main, relatively modest," he said.

Mr Swinney said if the Scottish Government did not implement the increase in pension contributions, its budget would be reduced by £8.4 million every month.

"This aggressive and arrogant threat by the United Kingdom Government proves two points," he claimed.

"First, we have very limited options outside of applying these increases.

"And, second, the UK Government continues to have the power to meddle and influence issues that are central to the future of Scotland and which should be for the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament to decide."

Tory Scotland Office Minister David Mundell said later the SNP Government could have chosen not to apply the increased contributions but had "failed to take any sort of decision and have sought to blame West-minster at every turn".

He added: "Their manufactured outrage is designed to mask the fact they have no answers for the people of Scotland on how they would fund public sector pensions, never mind the wider state pension."