City council staff strike in Auckland and Christchurch

City council workers in Auckland and Christchurch are striking for better pay today.

Southern Local Government Officers Union secretary Peter Lawson said it was unprecedented that the staff of the country's two largest councils take strike action together.

Some 1100 Christchurch City Council staff walked off the job for three hours this morning in the first of two strikes planned for December. The strike affects libraries and service centres outside the main Tuam Street offices.

Mr Lawson claimed the council had failed to include pay increases in its budget, branding it "irrresponsible".

But the council's general manager of human resources said the local body took a lot of care putting its budget together.

Meanwhile, Public Service Association members from the Auckland City Council are striking over their council's refusal to offer a pay increase in bargaining for a new collective contract.

"The strike action is a last resort by our members who are frustrated by their employer's refusal to comply with their own policies about pay and treat their staff fairly", national secretary Richard Wagstaff said.

- NEWSTALK ZB / NZHERALD STAFF