More than 4,000 county council workers are threatening to walk out on strike as they "stand and fight" against cuts in care assistants' pay.

Unison, the trades union representing Oxfordshire County Council staff, last night said it was preparing to ballot the entire branch over industrial action.

At the heart of the discontent is the fact that County Hall wants to cut care workers' weekend pay from double time to time-and-a-half, to save cash.

The carers, who visit the elderly, vulnerable, physically and mentally ill in their own homes, are paid a standard wage of £7.78 an hour, but get double for Sunday working.

A mass walkout would directly affect 500 care staff and cause major disruption.

Unison branch secretary Mark Fysh said: "To have this cut by such an amount is a gross insult to this dedicated group of staff.

"Many have said they would be forced to leave.

"I have rarely seen such a large group of staff so insulted and so angry when it comes to pay cuts.

"We will not accept this cut.

"We have offered to negotiate on working patterns and many other issues - it is time to stand and fight, and that is exactly what we will do if this pay cut is pursued.

"We are preparing to ballot the entire branch on all-out industrial action."

The authority says it has identified £600,000-a-year that could be redirected to "crucial council priorities" after a review of home care support.

But none of the cash has been earmarked to bridge the gap in carers' wages.

One care worker told the Oxford Mail: "I can understand why these proposals have been made, but I believe that to the workers whose lives will be affected by these cuts, this proposal is totally unaccept- able.

"As a carer myself, I work on the frontline of the service providing the manual labour involved with caring, sometimes to challenging individuals who can at times be aggressive and occasionally violent.

"Caring is a job that is all day, every day, 365-days-a-year.

"We are expected to work evenings, weekends, Bank Holidays, Christmas and New Year.

"Reducing that rate of pay is unfair to the carers who rely on this income.

"In some case - myself included - this would mean a drop in wages of approximately £100 a month.

"This is a large percentage of our salary that is being taken from the lowest paid workers in the service."

John Jackson, the county's director of social and community services, said: "We are currently consulting staff on a range of improvements to our home support service, listening to their ideas and suggestions and working closely with Unison.

"We hope to give firmer details in the near future once we have considered the points being raised by staff."