Strikes involving more than one million workers could throw schools and public services into chaos this winter as unions prepare to take on the Government over public sector pay.

The move comes as unions put more pressure on Gordon Brown with demands for radical action on the economy. Union leaders warned Mr Brown that he was out of touch with core Labour voters and would lose the next election unless there was significant change.

PCS, the Civil Service union, plans to ballot its 270,000 members for strike action over pay across all its government departments and frontline public service jobs. It is prepared to mount a series of strikes for three months, starting in November.

The National Union of Teachers, which has 250,000 members, is also to ballot for more strike action over pay after staging its first national strike for 21 years in the spring. It would also time its action for November.

At the same time more than 30,000 college lecturers in the University and College Union and 600,000 local government workers in Unison could take co-ordinated action.

Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of PCS, said that civil servants were facing severe financial pressure because many have had 0 per cent pay increases while household bills were increasing rapidly. Mr Serwotka said that the Government did not have the “faintest idea about the reality of life in the public services”. The unions are calling for better public pay while the Government is sticking to its line of capping increases at about 2 per cent in an effort not to stoke inflation.

Ministers will be dismayed by the fresh prospect of industrial action this winter after enduring co-ordinated action across many public services in the spring during one of the worst periods of industrial unrest for years.

Mr Serwotka said: “Any pay policy that treats chief executives of public services earning £300,000 the same way as those on the minimum wage is morally bankrupt.”

The focus of unions on public sector pay will ignite fears of a fresh “winter of discontent” similar to the one in 1979, which was also over pay policy.

Brendan Barber, the TUC general secretary, said that the Government's argument about public sector pay driving inflation was flawed and belonged to another age. He said: “Ministers should show that they are on the side of ordinary people with fairness as their watchword. Trade unions are not soft on inflation. Our members are its victims. The big threat is now recession. It is economic masochism to try to choke off external inflation by depressing the domestic economy, especially when the credit crunch is already biting hard.”

Mr Barber called for the richer people in society to pay more tax, including a new minimum rate for those earning more than £100,000, and action to close tax loopholes exploited by the wealthy.

This weekend Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of Unite, called on the Government to impose a windfall tax on power companies, impose pricing restrictions on the utilities and legalise secondary strike action for some cases. He dismissed Mr Brown's initiative to help to boost household energy efficiency as ineffectual.

Union leaders will lobby the Prime Minister this week when he joins them for a private dinner at the TUC conference in Brighton. They will also look for concessions from Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, who will speak at a highly charged debate on the economy tomorrow. The unions resisted calling on Mr Brown to resign and are, instead, pressing him to change policy radically to win back popularity.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Catalogue of failings ‘leaves others at risk’
• Tourists told to stay away amid Venice floods
• Google generation has no need for rote learning