"We would fight any attempts to impose a wage freeze," UNISON warned in the wake of Gordon Brown's call for public sector pay rises to be pegged at 2%, slightly below the current rate of inflation.

Inflation has been running at more than the government's 2% target for four consecutive months.  Although the government points out it began to fall in October.   Mr Brown said this showed that the rise in inflation was largely due to the temporary impact of higher oil prices.  But he still called on the public sector pay review bodies to keep pay awards at around 2% arguing this would stop the temporary rise in inflation becoming permanent.