Public sector unions are set for round table discussions on pensions today after the government's successful 11th-hour bid to stave off strike action.
The department for work and pensions secretary, Alan Johnson, will meet public sector unions in a "proper process" of negotiation to take forward proposals to overhaul public sector pensions.
The government was forced to backtrack over its decision to implement changes to local government pensions changes next month, after local government unions made plans to stage a wave of strikes which were due to start last week.
Just days before the strike was due to take place, a two-pronged charm offensive by the deputy prime minister, John Prescott, and Mr Johnson managed to avert what would have proved to be an embarrassing bout of industrial unrest so close to an anticipated general election.
Unison, the T&G and Amicus agreed to drop the strike after receiving government assurances that plans to raise the retirement age to 65 from next month, and to scrap the early retirement package under the 'eighty five year rule' would be brought back to negotiation.
Under the plans, council workers were set to face a five-year rise in the retirement age one year earlier than their public sector peers.
The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) and the First Division Association, were also set for strike action on the same day over proposed changes to the civil service pension scheme which are still out for consultation.
Other public service unions, such as the National Union of Teachers, joined in by abandoning plans to launch a strike ballot over plans to change the teachers' pension. The unions had collectively complained that the proposals were rushed in with little negotiation.
The government conceded that pensions were a key plank of public sector terms and conditions that required meaningful consultation, as the unions had long claimed.
Peter Allenson, T&G head of public services, said today's talks would be an opportunity to thrash out terms of negotiations.
"The one thing that transcends everything is that instead of compulsion it will be negotiations and that is a significant difference for us," he said. "Negotiations will now take place with nothing ruled in and nothing ruled out."
With only TUC-affiliated unions invited for negotiations with the government this week, those outside the TUC circle, such as healthcare unions, the Royal College of Nursing and the Royal College of Midwifery, are watching closely to see events unfold.
Healthcare unions have to date held back from balloting members over changes to the NHS pension scheme, the last of the proposals to come through in January this year.
