Public servants will suffer the consequences of cuts in funding announced in Chancellor Alistair Darling's Budget speech last week, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has said.
Mr Darling stated that public services will be subject to "efficiency savings" which could impact upon employees working in the sector.
Brendan Barber, the TUC general secretary, suggested that workers may be forced to "accept pay deals" and it is possible the standard of living they enjoy could be cut as part of the new measures.
"The government must do more to defend public services, ensure they are properly funded and value the work of public servants, and abandon this relentless round of arbitrary cuts and targets," Mr Barber remarked.
Furthermore, plans to put into practice private sector delivery of public sector services are "ideological", he added.
Last Wednesday marked Mr Darling's first Budget speech since he was appointed chancellor of the exchequer last year.