TOWN Hall staff in Bury could take strike action in the summer after national pay talks ground to a halt.

The grim warning comes after negotiations between the Local Government Employers Association and the trades unions representing employees stalled. Unions say the employers signalled their reluctance to improve an earlier seven per cent offer over three years.

Now, Unison has warned of strikes during the summer should there be no progress in the pay talks.

Local branch secretary Steve Morton reported back to his executive committee on the comments made by Unison national secretary Heather Wakefield.

She said that employers are trying to attach "strings" to their previous offer, including withholding the third year of any pay deal if councils have not carried out equal pay reviews before then. And she has also said that employers want the removal of premium payments for overtime and shift working from the national agreement, a move that would hit already low paid care workers.

Mr Morton said the stance of the employers had left his members "with little option but to prepare for what is looking increasingly like an unavoidable dispute in the coming months."

He predicted his members would be "incensed at this blatant attempt to erode conditions of service and reduce the pay packets of the lowest paid local government workers, many of whom worked at weekends and nights and relied on the premium payments to reach an acceptable level of income".

Mr Morton continued: "The employers seem to want ever increasing levels of output for ever decreasing rates of pay and that is a formula that can only have disastrous results." The union will meet today (Fri May 7) to consider further steps.