COUNCIL workers in Wirral could be balloted for industrial action over possible plans for compulsory redundancies.

The names of around 100 employees are on the authority’s Corporate Redeployment Register and are yet to have their fate decided.

But a special council meeting is now to be held after unions said they would consider industrial action if there are compulsory redundancies for workers who cannot be found alternative jobs in the authority.

The council began its wide-ranging review after it was revealed last year that it had to plug a £60m hole in its budget over the next three years.

Massive cuts in budgets across the authority were planned, totalling £45m up to 2011, to help fill the gap between income and spending.

Senior Labour councillor Phil Davies said: “At the meeting, we did not have a formal record of what the trades unions thought.”

Cllr Davies said it was decided, therefore, to defer any decision on the redundancies until the unions had been consulted.

He said: “We need to know if the unions are implacably opposed to this, and if so what are the alternatives. At the end of the day, these people continue to be paid by the authority and we need to find a way forward for them.