Police staff striking today

Civilian staff with Nottinghamshire Police this week became the first of any in England and Wales to strike on a local issue when they walked out over the way co-workers are being made redundant and pension augmentation.

Twenty four hour strike action was called for Tuesday and again tomorrow by Unison, Britain's largest public sector union after a ballot of police staff.

The early indications from the dispute were that the public had not suffered as a result of Tuesday's walkout.

The night shift saw four from 32 control room staff fail to turn up for work and three from 11 custody officers do the same.

Tuesday's early morning shift saw nine of 29 999 operators walkout but ten of 11 custody officers reported for duty, with the 11th ringing in sick.

There were also affects on backroom staff, forensics, vehicle examiners and in the force intelligence bureau.

Nottinghamshire Police has around 1,750 police staff employees – around 1,100 are Unison members.

A total of 414 members took part in a ballot on industrial action with 334 voting yes to action short of a strike and 272 voting yes to strike action.

Nottinghamshire Police has to make savings of more than £40m because of reductions in Government funding over the next four years.

Assistant Chief Constable Ian Ackerley said there was no break in continuity of service to the public with targets for responding to 999 calls running at 100% and public calls targets met and exceeded.

He said there was no impact on frontline service with police officers transferred into the control rooms.

He did not believe that strike action would harm the force's reputation long-term even though it was the first time there had been industrial action anywhere in England and Wales on anything other than a national issue.

"I am pleased that so many staff came to work on this day of action," he told the Advertiser.

"I'm disappointing though with the withdrawal of labour but the impact on service is minimal."

He said 120 people or fewer would lose their jobs in tranche two of redundancies but as with tranche one when a similar number went, 100 had expressed an interest in voluntary redundancy.

Mr Ackerley said Unison had agreed the methods by which redundancies were agreed in October, 2010.