At what point do employees decide they have had enough and down tools, quit their jobs, or more likely, drag themselves through the day, demotivated, listless and uninterested in their work?

This is a question increasingly creeping on to the radar of council directors and HR managers as they consider plans for the next financial year and beyond, all of which involve workforce transformation. Several chief executives have mentioned to me of their concerns about industrial relations over the next year. While council staff are usually realistic enough to accept changes to terms and conditions locally, in return for keeping jobs, regional and national branches of town hall unions increasingly take a different view. Then there is the planned increase in pension contributions and the ongoing pay freeze.