COUNCIL chiefs in Southampton have been accused of unlawfully trawling through staff payroll records to undermine union opposition to looming pay cuts.

It comes as hundreds of union members who yesterday packed out a meeting in central Southampton agreed to hold a postal ballot to reject the council’s final pay offer.

In a letter urging staff to sign up to pay cuts of up to 5.5 per cent to plug a £25m budget hole, council chief executive Alistair Neill claimed the unions did not represent the majority of workers – just 40 per cent.

The council admitted using its payroll to find out the number of union subscriptions deducted from staff wages.

Union leaders are now considering a complaint over a possible breach of the Data Protection Act. They claim the council has got their sums wrong, as hundreds of newer members weren’t included. Unison branch secretary Mike Tucker said about 60 per cent of council workers, more than 3,500 staff excluding teachers, were in a union, and more were joining each day.

He said: “They have done this in the past and gave undertakings it would not happen again.

“We are in the process of formulating a formal complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The only reason we can think they accessed the data was to seek to undermine the ballots we are about to commence.”

The council yesterday confirmed it was preparing to dismiss workers and rehire them on worse contracts if they don’t accept the pay cuts. A spokesman for the ICO said: “Local authorities who hold and process information about their clients, employees or suppliers, are legally obliged to protect that information.

“Trade union membership would be considered to be sensitive personal information, and so any use of this type of information must be fully justified.

A council spokesman said: “We are aware that the unions have complained about how the estimate of union membership was arrived at. We are currently addressing these concerns.”