​Teachers and some health workers have taken part in strike action

Teachers staged a 12-hour strike, due to end at midday on Tuesday, in a dispute over pay and the future of the profession. Schools reopened at noon to provide free school meals. The NASUWT union said teachers are calling for a 12% increase in salaries.

Oakwood School in south Belfast was among those where staff manned picket lines on Tuesday morning. Addele Lynas has been a teacher at the school for 29 years, and said that while taking part in a strike is hard for teachers, they have to do it to secure fair pay.

"I have been a special teacher all my life, the children are so important to me, I love every one of them, they're like part of my own family, but I feel I have to strike because the budget cuts in our school are ridiculous," she said. "We don't have enough money to spend on anything, but as well as that, as a person, my wages have gone down in real terms by 38%.

"I'm a single income family and I need, like everybody else, money to pay bills, bills that are going up and up, and my wages haven't.”

She said that while a 12% increase sounds like a lot, teachers' wages have gone down by 38% in real terms. We just want fair pay for a fair job, we love our jobs, we're here because we love the children, we want to be in the school with the children," she said.

Ian McGonigle, NEU NI president, said teachers are also striking for the future of the teaching profession and their colleagues. "We all know teachers who are so burnt out they are going part-time in droves or on long-term sick absence, colleagues at the beginning of their careers whose take-home pay will be irreparably damaged and reduce their earning power across their entire career," he said.

Gerry Murphy, northern secretary of the INTO union, said teachers hope to encourage employers and the Department of Education to get round the negotiating table. "The harm being wrought across the education system due to systematic underfunding over the past decade is the real threat to the future of our children and young people. INTO members and their colleagues in the other recognised teacher unions have had enough.

"Teachers are reasonable and sensible people and when they are moved to take strike action then the Government should listen.”

Responding, an Education Authority spokesperson said: “Management side remains committed to continuing meaningful, active engagement with trade union colleagues to reach a resolution and ensure our teachers are fairly remunerated."

Some health workers are also striking over pay and conditions. The Nipsa union said thousands of its members in the health service are taking part in a 24-hour strike. Padraig Mulholland, Nipsa deputy general secretary, said action by education and health workers is a "warning to employers that workers are not prepared to accept real-terms pay cuts and the destruction of services".

"We must have inflation-busting pay rises for all health service workers and an end to the chronic understaffing that puts lives at risk," he said.