UNION members are due to vote on a possible breakthrough pay deal that could end crippling strike action in Southampton at a mass meeting today.

City council and union negotiators have sketched out a package of proposals to soften the blow of pay cuts brought in on July 11 under the threat of dismissal.

Hundreds of union members are due to vote this lunchtime on whether to give the go-ahead for more detailed negotiations and suspend nearly 12 weeks of industrial action from Monday.

They would then be balloted on a final deal in early September.

A halt in the bitter, long-running dispute will come as welcome relief for fed-up residents who have endured months of strikes by bin men, street cleaners and other council workers that has left rubbish spilling on to the streets and sparked widespread health and safety fears.

The council has been forced to draft in private dustcarts to keep pace with the mess with an estimated one million bin bags littering the city at the height of the strikes.

Hundreds of social care workers and parking wardens were staging a mass one-day walkout today with strikes set to continue for at least the rest of the week.

Up to 2,400 members of the Unite and Unison unions have been taking industrial action over cuts to their pay and conditions.

Workers earning over £17,500 have had their salary slashed by between two and 5.5 per cent, and face a two-year pay freeze.

The latest proposals build on a “final offer” tabled by the council at the end of earlier talks through mediation service ACAS, which collapsed in stalemate six weeks ago.

As before, workers earning under £22,000, including bin men, would be lifted out of the pay cuts, but middle earning and higher paid workers would also get some of their pay cuts restored.

And those earning more than £22,000 would have to sacrifice one of the five extra days’ holiday that came in under the new contracts.

Unions said all social workers would have their pay boosted after the council said it was paying in-demand child social workers an extra £1,400 to stop them moving to better paid jobs with other councils.

The changes would cost around £1m from the £7m the council planned to save from the cuts.

Talks about unpaid leave or reduced hours will seek to find additional savings.

Council leader Cllr Royston Smith has insisted the pays cuts were needed to protect 400 jobs as the council seeks to save more than £75m over four years.

He said he was “optimistic” a deal could be done.

Unison branch secretary Mike Tucker said: “The union members will determine what response to give to the council’s proposals. It’s the best we’ve been able to negotiate yet. It’s a change in the council’s position but people will still have a substantial pay cut.”

Union leaders have proposed to continue legal claims against the council for a failure to consult over the dismissal plans, worth up to £12.5m. A first hearing was postponed at the request of the council.

Hundreds of further unfair dismissal claims are also being prepared.

Union members could also reject the proposals and continue strike action.

However they will not be legally protected from dismissal from next week under union laws.