Peace talks with unions today in bid to avert walkout by millions of public-sector workers

The meeting follows weeks of angry exchanges over pension reform and comes as Ministers consider a raft of new laws to weaken unions.

Failing to resolve the dispute could lead to the largest wave of industrial action since the 1926 General Strike, according to Unison leader Dave Prentis, who has threatened to ballot more than one million members unless the Government makes concessions.

One union representative said there were signs the Government would seek to continue negotiating the issues into next month but the discussions were “fraught with difficulties”.

Unions want Ministers to change their plan to make public sector workers retire later and pay more into their pensions.

Kevin Courtney, deputy general secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), said: “What we are looking for is some sign that the Government is prepared to move on the three central issues – paying more, working longer and getting less.”

But the talks appear to have come too late to stop a strike on Thursday by up to 750,000 teachers, lecturers, civil servants and other public sector workers.

Education Secretary Michael Gove warned teachers yesterday that they risked damaging their professional reputations and suggested that parents could be drafted in to keep classrooms open despite the “militancy” of unions.

He said strike action would mean “the respect in which teachers should be held is taken back a little bit”.

Ministers are considering legislation to impose a minimum threshold on strike ballot turnouts before industrial action can be taken, as well as proposals that could see an end to full-time union officials receiving taxpayer-funded salaries.

Bank jobs plea: Page 4; Still time to talk: Page 11.