OXFORD postal workers could be heading for more strike action after pay talks with management broke down.

Staff are to be balloted for industrial action on July 10, which local leaders of the Communication Workers Union claim could result in a series of one-day stoppages starting in August.

Royal Mail has offered a 2.9 per cent pay rise, which has been rejected by the union. Plans to cut thousands of jobs in an ongoing shake-up of the service have also been vetoed.

CWU official Bob Cullen said: "We hope it won't come to a strike situation, but we won't be dictated to. This is not just about wages, but our right to negotiate and management are trying to get rid of the union."

Mr Cullen said the union understood Royal Mail's need to modernise, but not at the expense of full-time jobs. He warned that it could be a situation of "postal deliveries at teatime" if management plans went ahead.

But Royal Mail spokesman Richard Hall said staff pay had risen by 22 per cent since April 2003 and that a productivity bonus would add a further one per cent on to the pay deal. He also stressed that managers wanted to sit down and negotiate with the CWU.

Mr Hall added: "At a time when everyone in the company needs to pull together to ensure our success in a competitive market, it is really important that we focus on the competition and not on internal issues."

In 2004, a series of wildcat strikes crippled the city's postal service.