COUNCIL workers in Okehampton joined a nationwide protest yesterday (Wednesday) against low pay.

Pickets were set up outside West Devon Borough Council offices in Okehampton and Tavistock to highlight the plight of local authority workers.

This was the first national strike by council workers since the 1979 'Winter of Discontent' and affected all areas from social services, refuse collection, transport to residential care.

Environmental health officer George Greenaway, a member of Unison, who organised the pickets together with staff from the Transport and General Workers' Union and GMB, said over 20 per cent of local government staff earned less than £5 an hour and there was a significant difference between men and women's pay.

'We are fighting for a fair deal,' he said. 'Employees have been offered a 3 per cent pay rise which seems in line with inflation this year but over the last ten years staff having been getting lower than inflation rises.

'This is nowhere near what the private sector has been getting or workers within the health service or the police. We are asking for a six per cent rise to redress the balance.'

Mr Greenaway said within the borough council's offices, it was mainly the administration staff who were affected and each year their workload increased.

'The work seems to pile up but the workforce remains the same — extra staff are not taken on, the existing ones are just expected to do more,' he said.

'West Devon is a small authority which has the least number of employees of any authority in the country to do the work — this brings its own pressures.'

The national average basic wage is £19,406 but two thirds of local authority staff earn less than £13,000 a year which is lower than the Low Pay Unit's threshold for low pay.

Senior technician support officer for the borough council Ros Rice said she was finding it hard to survive on her wages and it was time pay was brought back into line with the private sector.

'We have more deadlines to meet and extra pressure all the time but we do not get appreciated for what we do,' she said.

The borough council said it was trying to minimise disruption and filter members of the public through despite the strikes.

Borough treasurer Lesley Halton said although the offices were quiet, the majority of borough services were running as normal.

'In West Devon, because so many services are carried out by contractors we have been protected from the effects of the strike. Frontline services to the public continued as normal.'

Ms Halton said refuse and recycling services were running as usual as this work was carried out by external contractors. The council tax and business rates departments were in operation and the planning office was run with reduced staff, she said.

Schools in Okehampton remained unaffected by the protest, with all staff working yesterday.