PUBLIC sector workers throughout the Vale took part in a national one-day strike called to highlight a dispute over working conditions, pay and pensions.

Some schools, council services, job centres, hospitals and fire stations faced disruption as workers downed tools on Thursday, July 10.

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU), National Union of Teachers (NUT) Cymru, PCS, the civil servants union, and GMB, Unite and Unison council workers manned picket lines.

Public sector salaries were frozen in 2010 and a pay cap of one percent was brought in in 2012.

Vale Council environmental health officer and Unison branch chairman, Rowan Hughes, said there had been a lot of support from the public to the protest outside the Civic Offices, in Barry.

He said: “One of the things that concerns us in the Vale is that 1,000 of our members are living below the living wage of £7.65. The Vale Council has repeatedly refused to pay the living wage and of those 1,000 members 83 percent are women.

He said members had told him that earning a living wage would mean they would have the chance to go to the cinema or buy a loaf of branded bread rather than the cheapest variety.

More strikes are expected to take place in September.