Thousands of staff in schools, colleges, councils, government departments and prisons have joined rallies today in protest at changes to their pensions.

Events are planned across England, Scotland and Wales starting at midday, in protest at government plans which will affect more than 7 million public servants.

The day of action, coordinated by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), has been organised in response to the government's decision to push through a change to pension schemes for public servants, dubbed as "work 'til you drop" by unions, which complain that there has been insufficient consultation and negotiation on the matter.

The central concern among public servants is the proposed five-year increase in the retirement age, from 60 to 65 years, which unions say will result in employees working "longer for less". Police and fire officers will retire at 55, instead of 50.

Unions argued that favourable pension deals have long been seen by public sector workers as compensation for low pay and high stress levels.

TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, called for more "serious engagement to negotiate a fair public pension deal".

"Cuts in pension provision are the same as a pay cut," he said. "The government's attempt to raise retirement ages across the 7 million who work in the public sector must add up to the biggest ever pensions change."

Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union, said: "Today is an opportunity to push home the message to the government, the politicians and the public that public servants won't sit idly by and allow forced changes to their pension.

"They won't tolerate having to work until they drop to receive their pension and they won't put up with being denied real choices about their future."

The campaign is the precursor to possible strike action next month. A number of unions have already signalled plans to ballot members for strike action, while others, including the National Union of Teachers, are still gauging members' views before deciding to go ahead with formal ballots.

Two local government unions, Unison and the T&G, had stalled their ballots earlier this week in a lastditch attempt to persuade the deputy prime minister, John Prescott, to withdraw plans to introduce changes to the local government pension scheme this April.

But after talks with Mr Prescott broke down last night, the unions signalled their intention to go ahead with the strike ballot.