Doncaster council has approved a 4% pay cut for all non-teaching staff, affecting 7,000 workers across the authority.
Unison, which organises local authority workers, is already planning a fightback. Branch secretary Jim Board said: "These plans mean a large number of our members are going to suffer quite a severe pay cut on top of an already falling standard of living.
"We are preparing a ballot and are recommending our members do not accept the pay cut. If they reject it and the council goes ahead then there is a very real threat of industrial action."
Doncaster council workers’ fight against similar cuts last year was one of a number of high-profile disputes between cuts-happy local authorities and their employees. 1,000 workers at Doncaster council have already lost their jobs since the start of the recession.
Southampton council workers, facing a similar and bitterly-fought battle against pay cuts, are still in dispute with their bosses, who announced 143 redundancies in October and a raft of privatisation in November on top of the pay cut plans against which workers have been struggling since May 2011.
With the local authority budgeting cycle beginning again, more struggle against council bosses’ attempts to slash pay and jobs is an inevitability for 2012.
