UNIONS representing thousands of public sector workers across Dorset and Hampshire are drawing up battle plans in a bid to save their pension deals.

They have been inundated with calls from council workers, NHS staff, teachers and police following publication of a report that said they should be stripped of final salary pensions, contribute more money and work for longer.

Industrial action could be just weeks away, possibly affecting schools and other vital services.

Former Labour Cabinet minister Lord Hutton was commissioned by the government to produce the report, which is likely to set ministers on a collision course with unions.

Proposals include police, firefighters and members of the armed forces working until they are 60, a suggestion that has been dismissed as “ridiculous” by Dorset Police Federation chairman Clive Chamberlain.

“If you expect police officers to go out on the streets and scrap with drunks, and soldiers to fight for the country, you certainly can’t expect them to be doing that when they’re 60-years-old,’’ he told the Echo.

“This is not good for the public and it’s not good for the police.”

“The public sector is being demonised by politicians and others who, for years, have profited from huge bonuses and proper, gold-plated pensions. We are being attacked on all fronts.”

David Morgan of the Bournemouth branch of the National Union of Teachers said members were angry at the proposals and added: “This is not good news. Recruitment of teachers will suffer and it is not fair on those already in the job who will have to pay at least £61 more into their pensions every month.”

He said members from Bournemouth would join a TUC march in London later this month and added: “They are keen that some action is taken.”

Dorset GMB union branch secretary Gary Pattison said: “The levels of cuts taking place and pension bonuses being removed is shocking.

“I think strike action is inevitable. I suspect you will see a great deal of anger on the streets.

“Salaries in the public sector are being kept down while the banks, who still payout massive bonuses, are being let off huge amounts of money, along with many other companies.

“The unions cannot stand by and accept this, we have too much at stake.”

Unison’s branch secretary for Dorset, Pam Jefferies, said Lord Hutton’s recommendations for increased contributions could destabilise the entire economy.

“Low paid workers whose earnings are frozen and are not receiving pay rises cannot afford to make larger contributions.

“If people leave the scheme, it could have an impact on the investments made by the pension fund, which could effect the wider economy,” she said.

She added that a proposal to prevent public sector workers from drawing their pensions until the state retirement age would affect the thousands of people being made redundant from public sector jobs.

Dorset Fire Brigades Union secretary Karen Adams, said: “I don’t think the public will want 60-year-old firefighters doing an operational job.

“It can be a very physically demanding. Would they be able to cope with the demands?

“The service cannot just create loads of office jobs for frontline firefighters to go into.

“Who would fund this? Firefighters are going to be livid, absolutely livid.

“Times are hard for everybody, but why do we have to keep beating the public sector to deal with the deficit cause by the bankers? I think it is a disgrace the way they are trying to trim everything.”

A long-serving Borough of Poole employee said: “Everyone is in a position where they need to pay more and work for longer but with the freeze on pay, the process of redundancies, the devaluation of pensions and cost of living going through the roof, it’s hard to see where the extra money will come from.

“When you are struggling from day to day you stop thinking about retirement at all.”

Kathy Ibbotson from the Royal College of Nursing, said nurses in Dorset had been angered by the proposals.

“The nurses are very angry,’’ she said. “There had already been changes to their pension scheme, which meant they would have to pay more, but they hadn’t realised until now how much more.

“Nursing is a hard, stressful job. It used to be you could retire at 55 but they have phased that out. It does seem that the cuts are falling unfairly on certain groups.”