I'm committed to these negotiations, says TUC leader

Services including job centres and courts are being hit and thousands of schools closed as public sector workers across the UK stage a 24-hour strike.

Picket lines have been set up as the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) and three teaching unions protest at planned changes to their pensions.

The General Secretary of the TUC, Brendan Barber, told the BBC "I'm in favour of negotiations... but what we've seen so far is imposition and that's not the way to solve this problem."