Postal workers gave warning of more national strikes yesterday as union anger over Gordon Brown’s 2 per cent cap on public sector pay boiled over at the Trades Union Congress.

The Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) will set new strike dates next week unless Royal Mail improves a 6.7 per cent pay offer over two years.

Although Royal Mail is publicly owned, the offer to postal workers is well above those made to public sector workers. At first Royal Mail offered only a pay freeze, saying that it could not afford an increase. It then raised that to 2.5 per cent for one year after the CWU threatened a strike ballot.

The union staged two days of strikes and a month-long programme of rolling action across the postal network before agreeing to suspend action to allow talks to take place.

However, the CWU has thrown out the offer because of disagreements on changes to working practices and the pension scheme. The union wants to take strike action by the end of the month and so will have to give seven days’ notice by the end of next week.

Royal Mail said last night that it was disappointed that no agreement had been reached with the CWU despite several weeks of talks.

Meanwhile, local government workers are about to ballot over strike action after rejecting a revised pay offer and civil servants could be asked if they want to mount national strikes over pay, job losses and the use of private companies in public services.

Delegates at the TUC in Brighton attacked the Prime Minister in two debates over public services and some called for coordinated strike action over pay. Steve Cox, of the Prison Officers’ Association, which last month staged a walkout, said: “None of us wants a return to the winter [of discontent] of 1978 but if the Government continues down this road and ignores the warnings and shuts the door in our faces we will have no alternative and we should all be out on the streets.”

Jane Carolan, of Unison, said: “Now Gordon tells us that it’s our pay and living standards that are fuelling inflation. Take £14 billion out of the economy in super bonuses and that’s a reward for your effort. Ask for a living minimum wage and that’s an inflationary demand. What a con.”

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