UNION officials representing thousands of public sector workers in Bolton have reacted angrily to Government plans to tie their members to three-year pay deals.

Pay for workers including council staff, police and nurses, has traditionally been negotiated every year.

Prime minister Gordon Brown, said that three year deals would help keep inflation down, but local union branches have criticised the plans, which come after rows over below-inflation pay rises.

Bernadette Gallagher, secretary of UNISON local government branch in Bolton, which represents 5,500 workers, said she did not oppose the principle of three-year pay deals.

But she added: "In the current climate of rising housing, fuel and food costs, UNISON would not be happy with such a deal unless an agreement was written in to allow for negotiations to be re-opened if inflation rose.

"As the Chancellor has effectively ruled this out as an option, the union would be incredibly naive to recommend such a deal to its members."

Chancellor Alastair Darling said the three-year deal would "help families plan for the future", but Ms Gallagher said: "The best help the Chancellor could provide for working families to plan for the future is security of employment and decent pay rises."

Harry Hanley, secretary of the UNISON branch at the Royal Bolton Hospital, which represents 2,300 health workers, added: "The deal would be set in stone and our members' pay could fall even further behind the private sector."

Paul Hutchinson, convener for the 800 GMB union staff at Bolton Council, said: "I would be very much against a three-year deal at the moment because of the current economic situation.

"We are on the verge of a housing crash and you don't know what interest rates will be like three years down the line.

"It's another attempt by the Government to undermine trade unions and employment in this country."

Police, who reacted angrily to the Government's refusal to honour a recommendation to backdate their latest pay rise to September, meaning it is effectively worth 1.9 per cent, are also likely to oppose the plans.

Gordon Johnson, secretary of the Greater Manchester Police Federation, said: "I've not seen the finer detail but I don't think we would be very happy.

"We have our own negotiation machinery based on public and private sector pay rises which has worked well up until this year.

Gordon Brown has urged MPs to vote later this month to limit their own pay increases to below two per cent in line with the public sector.