Peace talks to end Shropshire Council’s pay dispute with 6,500 workers were locked in stalemate today after union chiefs failed to approve a new deal.

A three-hour meeting of Unison’s branch executive committee took place yesterday to discuss new proposals put forward by the authority in an attempt to end a dispute that saw a one-day strike last month.

At the start of this month, a 2.7 per cent pay cut came into force for council employees as part of the authority’s attempts to find savings of £76 million.

Council chiefs have now indicated they are willing to reduce 2012’s pay cut down to a maximum of 1.9 per cent after negotiations with Unison.

The council is also offering staff two extra days of paid leave during this year’s Christmas break, while business travel expenses would also be increased from 40p per mile to 45p per mile from the start of next April.

But the Unison meeting ended without agreement on the plans and the union is now set to ask the council to engage in further negotiations before putting a final set of proposals to a vote of its members next week.

Alan James, Shropshire branch secretary for Unison, said: “There wasn’t an outcome to be quite honest. It was a very full, frank and at times, fraught meeting with a lot of opinions in the room and quite diverse opinions.

“I will go back to the authority and say let’s keep talking and try to make them as acceptable as possible.

“I think the biggest thing was a few of the proposals are ‘let’s see what happens’. There is a lack of trust about what the authority says and what the authority does. I don’t think it’s right to say the plans have been rejected. I have been asked to go back for greater clarity on the plans.”

Mr James was due to meet with council leader Keith Barrow today to discuss what the next steps will be.

The proposals, which also include the authority promising to review its sickness absence scheme in the next few months, have also been put to the GMB and Unite unions.