The government's bid to avert a widespread strike by council workers before the next general election suffered a blow last night when talks between unions and government officials failed to reach an agreement.
A last-ditch attempt to hold off strike action saw trade union leaders meet with the deputy prime minister, John Prescott, to try to resolve the dispute over plans to raise the retirement age of council staff from 60 to 65.
All sides called the meeting "constructive", but no agreement was reached and strikes by local authority staff and civil servants on March 23, just weeks before the May 5 general election, now look increasingly likely.
Following the failure to reach any agreement trade unions will announce the results of ballots for industrial action later today, which are expected to show huge support for a pre-election strike. Around 300,000 civil servants, including council workers, government lawyers and refuse collectors, have been voting on whether to strike over proposed changes to their pension scheme.
Many are backing the trade unions including Unison, the Transport and General Workers Union and Amicus, over their refusal to accept the government's decision to introduce changes to local government pension schemes one year ahead of the rest of the public sector.
Unions had delayed the issuing of ballot papers in the hope that the matter could be resolved following a period of intensive discussions which began at the Labour party spring conference late last month.
