Workers claim regrading could see some lose up to �1,000 a year

At a meeting in Glasgow, 600 staff members reacted angrily to the local authority's position.

They have asked their union Unison to move to an all-out strike.

The union claims the council has threatened to use anti-trade union laws but the council dismissed this and said it wanted a "fair settlement".

The workers had planned to take industrial action from Monday in protest at their role profile placing by the council's pay and benefits review.

The members were very angry at the legal to-ing and fro-ing that the council seems to prefer to sitting down and negotiating a solution Ronnie Stevenson Unison

However, they said this had to be postponed when it became clear that the council was considering a legal challenge.

Ronnie Stevenson, Unison's Glasgow convenor of social work stewards, said: "The members were very angry at the legal to-ing and fro-ing that the council seems to prefer to sitting down and negotiating a solution.

"They therefore asked the union to invoke the ballot result in favour of strike action and we'll be pursuing that through the union machinery as soon as possible.

"The staff and Unison wanted to show the council what would be lost if they were placed on this lower role profile, whilst doing at least part of their jobs to back the vulnerable clients they serve."

'Most vulnerable'

He said the council employers were insistent they would force a strike, "cutting all the support for the most vulnerable".

Last week a council spokesman said: "We want a fair settlement for staff to help us deliver high quality, value-for-money services to some of Glasgow's most vulnerable people."

The affected workers manage the cases for children at risk, vulnerable adults and offenders and are accountable to the children's panel, courts and formal community care reviews.