Britain faces an increasing number of industrial disputes this year, driven by public sector unrest, the economic downturn, increasing concerns over pensions and more equal pay claims, according to the head of Acas.

Ed Sweeney, chair of the conciliation service, told The Times that 2008 was likely to see “a lot more disputes”.

He said: “In the public sector there is anger over pay and there will be major change in the private sector. Pensions will move up the agenda. There is a confluence of issues, which will make this year one of the most challenging.”

Unions are discussing co-ordinating strike action across sectors to maximise effectiveness. Some disputes, such as those in the Civil Service, have run sporadically for more than two years as unions fight both pay restraint and job cuts.

Last year there was a big jump in industrial action, partly because of the long-running postal strikes. Figures show more than 965,000 days lost to strike action to the end of November. For the whole of 2006, 754,500 days were lost to disputes.

It is believed that the Government could announce more cash for Acas soon, after giving it a greater role in solving disputes at work. The previous programme for resolving disputes at work, which involved a series of informal discussions between the two parties, was scrapped recently.

Acas has suffered cutbacks in recent years as the Government has sought to downsize Whitehall.

The warning over industrial unrest from Mr Sweeney, a former trade union leader, comes as unions across the public sector are squaring up for confrontations over pay as the Government tries to limit rises to the rate of inflation or below in some cases.

Mr Sweeney, who took over as chairman of Acas in November, accused the Prime Minister of implementing “an unofficial incomes policy in the public sector”. He said that the Government needed a more imaginative approach to public sector pay that included rewards that may not be in the headline pay increase.

“There is a lot of unrest in the public sector,” Mr Sweeney said. “We have even got scientists going on strike. I'm sure if pay was thought about a little more tangentially, we could come up with a solution.”

A spokesman for the TUC said: “There is clearly considerable disquiet across the public sector at successive below-inflation wage deals. In the private sector, pensions remain a big issue. Whether this leads to industrial conflict will be up to what Government and employers do and how trade union members wish to respond. But no one should be in any doubt that feelings are running high.”

However, Susan Anderson, head of employment policy at the CBI, said that business was not expecting a great deal of unrest in the private sector. Despite the recent dispute at BAA, the airports operator, in which strike action was averted only when the company backed down on pension changes, Ms Anderson said that many companies had made the changes to their pensions that they needed to make.

She said that Mr Sweeney may be right in terms of the public sector, but added: “We don't see those problems in the private sector at all ... employment is still growing. We are at a turning point it's true, but we are not looking at recession. In the private sector, we don't see the spectre of unrest.”

Lining up for action

— Disputes in the public services are likely to dominate industrial strife over the next few months. Yesterday the police, who are not able to strike, were granted permission to launch a High Court challenge to the Government's decision not to backdate a 2.5 per cent pay increase to September, the start of the police pay year

— The National Union of Teachers is balloting members in England and Wales over a one-day strike in protest at pay. The Government has offered 2.45 per cent this year and 2.3 per cent in the next two years

— Today 20,000 local government workers in Birmingham will stage a one-day strike over a new equal pay grading structure. Unison has rejected the new system because it says that some workers could lose up to half their pay

— Nationally, there could be local government strikes if the Government rejects the unions' joint pay claim. They have asked for an increase of 6 per cent or £1,500, whichever is the larger. The Government is trying to restrict public sector rises to 2 per cent

— Disabled workers at state-owned Remploy factories are being balloted to strike over redundancy procedures as 28 factories are closed. Two factories have voted for strike action so far and another six will return votes shortly

— PCS, the Civil Service union, is in talks to resolve a pay dispute at the Department for Work and Pensions. The move comes after two days of national action last month. Disputes could also be looming at the Department of Transport, involving the DVLC and the driving standards and highways agencies

— In the private sector, two airline disputes are brewing. Balpa, the pilots' union, is balloting for strike action at British Airways in a clash over its new subsidiary airline, OpenSkies. The pilots want the OpenSkies aircraft, which will fly from European cities to America, to be staffed by BA pilots

— At Thomson airlines, cabin crew belonging to Unite are being consulted over strike action because managers have refused to give assurances of no compulsory redundancies as Thomson is merged into TUI Travel

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