Southampton council chiefs have been accused of drawing up plans to sack a quarter of the workforce as they bring in controversial mass pay cuts today.

Around 4,600 council workers in Southampton faced dismissal today – dubbed “Armageddon Day” by unions - if they failed to sign up to pay cuts of between two and 5.5 per cent.

It follows seven weeks of industrial action by up to 2,400 unions members which has seen hundreds of workers, including bin men, walkout in targeted strikes that have left mountains of rubbish piling up across the city.

The council said at least nine out of ten workers had signed up to the worse contracts by Friday last week, which it claims will protect 400 jobs.

But Unite described as ''devastating'' a leaked report by Southampton City Council setting out its budget and spending priorities until 2015, including setting aside £5 million a year from 2012 to 2014 for redundancies.

Unite said the internal report sets out the true extent of the council's redundancy programme, with redundancies increasing year on year, jumping from 361 posts in 2012 to 725 the following year, and 1,224 by 2014, as previously revealed by the Daily Echo.

Ian Woodland, Unite's regional officer, said: ''Now we have the facts - they plan to sack more than a quarter of the workforce by 2014 and spend £15 million of taxpayers' money doing so.

''This is a disgrace and will devastate those loyal workers who thought that by making a wage sacrifice now that they had a chance to save their jobs for the future.

''The Tory-led council has deliberately misled the public into believing that their services are safe too - who on earth will be there to provide them if more than a quarter of the workforce has been sacked?

''Council leaders should have been informing and consulting with unions over these revelations long before now and we will be demanding urgent talks to finally get to the truth.''

Council leader Royston Smith distanced his ruling Conservative administration from the cuts set out in the report.

"We're not doing that and what we will do will be determined by me and my Cabinet," he said.

Port health officers went on strike this morning and have been holding a demonstration at the picket line at the city's docks where they were due to be joined by dockers.

The strike could delay one in one hundred containers from leaving Southampton port, the operator of the second busiest container terminal in the country said today.

More than 600 staff across the council will walkout during the week.

On Wednesday, workers will march through the city to stage a protest outside a meeting of the full council.