COASTGUARD OFFICERS THIS WEEKEND BECAME THE LATEST public sector workers to go on strike over pay.

Around 700 control room officers began the first day of their strike on Saturday, leaving coastal stations under-manned until tomorrow.

Coastguard control room officers coordinate and manage rescue efforts, working with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. The RNLI was keen to confirm it was not involved in the weekend strike, and launched rescue boats as usual.

Of the five Scottish coastguard centres, those at Aberdeen, Shetland and Stornoway centres remained open with a skeleton staff of volunteers and managers. Forth coastguard station at Crail in Fife was completely closed, with calls being diverted to Aberdeen, and yesterday all calls to the Clyde coastguard were being handled by the control centre in Belfast.

Demonstrations took place on the picket lines in Greenock and Aberdeen.

The move comes after months of coastguards working to rule, withdrawing non-essential 999 duties.

Steve Quinn, Scottish Public and Commercial Services Union (PCSU) representative and a member of the Aberdeen coastguard, said: "Up to now we have had three 24-hour strikes. That hasn't persuaded the management to come and talk about things, so now we are going to have a 48-hour strike."

This is the latest in a series of industrial actions being staged over the government's policy of capping public sector pay increases at below the rate of inflation. Local authority staff in England, Wales and Northern Ireland walked out last week, and union leaders are balloting Scottish workers on whether to follow suit.

According to the PCSU, staff in Glasgow's passport office will walk out later this week, at the height of the busy summer holiday period.

In addition to opposing the 2% public sector pay rise cap, coastguard officers are unhappy that their pay does not match up with that of other emergency services.

Quinn said: "We are arguing for a one-off pay adjustment to put right what has now become a historical wrong. We have fallen so far behind the other emergency services that all we are looking for is parity. The disparity can be as much as 50%. On the night of Piper Alpha, I was earning the same, roughly speaking, as a bobby on the beat. Twenty-one years later, I have been promoted three times and I now earn less than a bobby on the beat. If Piper Alpha were to happen tomorrow, the vast majority of the people organising the rescue would be on the minimum wage."

The PCSU claims the average starting salary for a coastguard control room officer is around £13,000. New recruits to the police or fire service can expect to earn around £20,000. Coastguard pay is negotiated by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), a subsidiary of the Westminster Department of Transport. Peter Cardy, MCA chief executive, said: "The Treasury has very strict limits on public sector pay. We have carried out a comparability study, and we agree that coastguards have fallen below other emergency services in terms of pay. But the government has been very rigid about its pay policy and it's not admitting any special cases.

"We are not in full agreement with those going on strike, but we can see we are behind in the labour market. There is no question about that."

Ann Begg, MP for Aberdeen South, supports the coastguard's desire for pay parity with other emergency services. She said: "As an MP it's difficult to say that it is right to strike, but there is an issue here that needs to be resolved. But if this continues as a straight pay dispute, it is difficult to see a resolution.

"One possible way to get around the government pay restrictions could be to reassess the job's classification. What's needed here are fairly major changes reassessing the entire structure of the service."

Saturday appears to have passed without any serious incident calling for coastguard rescue action. However, Quinn claimed the MCA would be responsible for any injury to members of the public.

He said: "There was always the possibility that somebody might have got themselves into bother. If anybody had died, then the blame would have rested squarely with the MCA, because their plans weren't robust enough."