Community and youth workers across the country have voted for industrial action for the first time, in protest at low pay and career stagnation.
Almost nine in ten (87%) members of the Community and Youth Workers' Union (CWYU) who were balloted agreed to take industrial action early next month if employers do not revise a proposed pay rise of 3%.
The union has 5,000 members, 3,500 of whom are affected by the employers' offer, which translates into an extra 30p an hour for the majority, and 47p more for the highest paid.
The union refuses to put a figure on its pay expectation but argues that councils are refusing to pass on the full 5.9% increase in youth and community funding earmarked for services this year, despite a 30% increase in staff workloads.
The country needs 4,000 more workers, according to the government's own figures, laid out in its 2002 document, Resourcing Excellent Youth Services. It recommends one full-time worker for every 400 young people aged between 13 and 19.
Members are also angry at the "dumbing down" of qualifications for youth workers at a time when a large amount of new regulation is being introduced, often requiring more skilled staff intervention. They are also calling for a new advanced practitioner senior grade to improve retention of frontline practitioners.
The union's general secretary, Doug Nicholls, said: "While the profession is planning to raise qualification requirements, the employers are proposing to reduce them to the equivalent of GCSEs. That would be fateful."
"With 191,000 young people still not in education, training or employment, youth work skills are in great demand, as are community work skills with so many neighbourhood renewal schemes. Yet our members, who used to be on a salary par with teachers, now start work on £4,000 a year less than their teaching colleagues."
The union is scheduled to meet a new set of employers' representatives on March 2, five months after the original negotiating team disbanded.
Until then, workers are withdrawing their "good will" by refusing to attend meetings or training held outside contract hours, or provide cover for absent colleagues. Failure to deliver a satisfactory revised offer will lead to industrial action, the union says.
The employers' side, representing council bosses, was unavailable for comment.
