A FEW dozen union members hold the key to a deal to end six months of industrial action in Southampton over pay cuts, the Daily Echo can reveal.

Up to 2,400 union members are being balloted on a proposal reached through fraught negotiations to settle the bitter dispute. The postal ballot ends at noon today.

But all three unions involved in the dispute must agree to the settlement, including the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians (UCATT) which has fewer than 30 members.

UCATT has joined Unite in recommending its members reject the council’s latest offer which would lift around half the workforce from the cuts and restore some lost pay to others, although a two-year pay freeze would remain.

But the power of the UCATT votes was condemned by council leader Royston Smith who called on the law to be changed to stop this situation from happening.

He said: “A small group of militant people can hold a whole moderate organisation to ransom.

“We are in difficult times but our job is to try and provide services to residents that pay the wages and I would hope that people will vote for the latest offer so that the council can get back to the job of providing them.”

Thousands of council staff earning over £17,500 signed up to pay cuts of between two and 5.5 per cent in July under threat of dismissal.

The council insisted the pay cuts would protect 400 jobs as it seeks to find savings of over £75m over four years following Government funding cuts.

But the deal would see a £12m legal claim that the council failed to consult the unions over its plans dropped. Unite called the condition “unacceptable”.

Jerry Swain, regional secretary for UCATT London and south east region, said: “Southampton City Council is acting no better than a conman.

They are guilty of sleight of hand, their offer gives with one hand and then takes away with the other.”

Unison, the council’s largest union with around 1,600 members eligible to take part in the ballot, said the proposal was the best it could negotiate.

It did not recommend its members vote either way.