Firefighters' leaders are poised today to suspend an eight-day strike due to begin on Wednesday after local authority employers held out the prospect of a new pay offer.
The ruling executive of the Fire Brigades Union is expected to postpone the start of the walkout for what one senior official called "11th hour" peace talks.
Ministers may interpret the likely decision as a sign of weakness after the FBU leadership cancelled two 48-hour stoppages originally scheduled for last week.
But a senior FBU official insisted this would be the last of six scheduled strikes before Christmas to be dropped if councillors representing UK fire authorities failed to table a new pay increase.
"It would be odd not to wait when the prospect of a new offer that might be acceptable has been proposed, but patience is running out. The time has approached for an offer or industrial action," said a union source.
Local authority leaders indicated at talks last week that they were ready to offer more than the 4% rejected by the FBU last summer. No figure was put up, though it is likely to be well below the 40%, or £30,000 a year, claimed by the union.
A council source said the employers had made clear they wanted to talk further but remained committed to linking wage rises to the "modernisation" of the fire service, including new working practices.
Members of the 19-strong FBU executive spent the weekend consulting local officials and firefighters to gauge their mood ahead of today's meeting. The attitude of crews has hardened since a firefighter died in a blaze last week - a day on which he would have been on strike if industrial action had gone ahead.
During two days of talks last week, the employers offered to address three parts of the FBU claim - new rates for control staff and retained volunteers, plus a better formula to trigger future annual awards - but the fourth, an across-the-board increase, is the most crucial.
Three more eight-day strikes are pencilled in, starting on November 22, December 4 and December 16. The employers have offered to extend a legal requirement that action commences within 28 days of last month's ballot result in order to avert walkouts during talks.
Service personnel driving ageing green goddess tenders remain on standby. The Royal Navy says that a quarter of its frigates and destroyers will be taken out of action during walkouts, and the Royal Air Force says it is preparing to ground aircraft.
The FBU leadership is under pressure from more militant areas, including Scotland, to call strikes after firefighters voted by a margin of nine to one to walk out.
"There is a certain amount of frustration around the country. A number of weeks were wasted between September 2, when talks ended, and last week, when they resumed," said an official.
"Although progress has been made on some issues such as a new pay formula and improved pay for retained fire-fighters and control-room staff, the employers have still not got around to the big issue."
