CIVIL servants will be “ballot-ready” to take on the government in a fight for pay increases, the Public & Commercial Services union (PCS) has told the northern TUC conference.

Delegate Fran Heathcote said on Saturday that it is clear that the government wants to “hold down the pay of its own workforce.

“Even Tory ministers are arguing that it is time for an end to the pay cap,” she added.

“We must ensure our members are ballot-ready. We know we are going to have to work harder to beat the Tories’ 50 per cent ballot threshold, but we are worth it and our members are worth it.

“There is so much we can and must do to get our members ballot-ready. We all know we need a pay rise and we know we will have to fight to get one.”

Ms Heathcote was proposing a motion which acknowledged that five million public-sector workers were now on average £2,000 a year worse off in real terms compared with 2010.

The motion, which won unanimous support, committed unions in the region to organise and support protests, demonstrations and strikes against the Tories’ public-sector pay cap and support the TUC national demonstration defending the public sector on May 12.

Iain Owens of the University & College Union urged delegates to support the strike action starting today by members at Sunderland College, who he said had suffered below-inflation pay rises since the financial crash of 2008. He said pickets will be in action at the college today.