A fresh assault on government pay restraint policies was launched yesterday as more council workers decided to join next month's two-day strike. Members of Unite, the country's biggest union, representing 40,000 local government workers, voted by three to one to join the strike on July 16 and 17, which is threatening to disrupt refuse collections, schools and social services.

Unison, the largest public sector union, which has 600,000 local government members, announced the dates of the strike last week after council workers rejected a 2.45 per cent pay offer. The strike was called less than a week after Alistair Darling, chancellor, appealed to workers to curb demands to stem rising inflation. Council workers are seeking a rise of 6 per cent or 50p an hour, whichever is higher.