Trade union laws could be re-written to make it more difficult to take strike action, a Government minister has warned.
As up to 2.6 million public sector staff prepared to stage a one-day walk out next week over changes to their pensions, Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude denounced their action as "stupid and wrong".
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, he said that current rules give the unions a "perverse incentive" to take industrial action.
He suggested the Government's determination to act could be strengthened by the fact that some of the unions involved had the support of less than 50% of their members in the strike ballots.
"If very disruptive strike action is carried out on the basis of these weak ballots, weak turnouts, the case for reform gets stronger," he said.
His comments echoed David Cameron who pointed out this week at Prime Minister's questions that just a quarter of Unison members and 23% of Unite members voted in favour of industrial action.
Mr Maude said legal change to prevent the unions striking on the basis of ballots where there was a low turnout was "an option".
He indicated that ministers were also looking at the rule which requires a union to take action within 28 days of a ballot being held or stage a new ballot.
However once a strike is held, it also gives the unions a mandate for further industrial action until the dispute is resolved.
Mr Maude said it provided a "perverse incentive" to strike. Ministers would now consider a new legal time limit on the mandate that a union has for industrial action after a vote - possibly cutting it to as low as three months. "There is a case for change. We'll want to look at this carefully," he said.