ONE in three North-East workers could be forced to “work longer, pay more and get less” after an official report paved the way for sweeping public sector pension changes.

Angry union leaders in the region last night said the recommendations by Lord Hutton were an attack on the low paid.

Among the proposals from the former Labour minister was an end to final salary pensions, increases in employee contributions and later retirements.

Lord Hutton was brought in by the Government to look at measures to cut the rising cost of public sector pension schemes.

With a third of all workers – 330,000 people – employed in the public sector, the proposed reforms are likely to prove particularly unpopular in the North-East.

Clare Williams, North-East regional convenor for public sector union Unison, said the majority of public sector workers received less than £5,000 a year upon retirement, with the average in local government only £4,000 and for women only £2,000.

She said: “Attacks on pensions in the public sector are an attack on the low paid.”

She said Unison would be campaigning strongly to protect its members’ pensions.

Vince Allen, principal officer for the National Union of Teachers in the North, said he welcomed Lord Hutton’s assertion that it was a myth public sector workers were sitting on gold-plated pensions.

However, he said the previous Government had undertaken a review of pensions in 2006.

“A series of changes were introduced as a result of this and I feel these should be given a chance to work,” he added.

Ian Watkins, North Yorkshire regional secretary for the Fire Brigades Union, said: “If you were to increase the retirement age you run the risk of having firefighters of 60-plus on the back of fire engines.

“If people were in a burning building I am sure they would want to be rescued by someone fit enough to lift them out.”

Meanwhile, Labour leader Ed Miliband warned the trade unions that he would not support a wave of public sector strikes over changes to pensions.

Mr Miliband said that industrial action would alienate the wider public and undermine their efforts to fight other spending cuts.

Lord Hutton will publish his final report next spring, ahead of the 2011 Budget, although unions are braced for more bad news during the comprehensive spending review later this month.

He made it clear he favoured increased contributions by public sector workers to make schemes more affordable and said it was unfair that employees could retire at 60 today, whereas their children would have to work until they were 65.

‘‘I feel very uncomfortable at retiring at 60 while my children will have to retire at 65. I don’t think that’s fair,” he said.

“There is a general principle – it is unsustainable to remain wedded to this idea that you can still retire at 60. We are all living much longer in retirement. We expect to live to 88 or longer.”

Government ministers will have to decide how much contributions should increase, said Lord Hutton, adding that pension scheme costs had risen by a third over the past decade, virtually all shouldered by the taxpayer.

The steep increase in the cost of the pension schemes has been driven by a combination of people living longer and a growing number of workers being employed by the Government, which, in turn, has led to a rise in the number of pensions being paid out.

A total of £32bn was paid to public sector workers drawing their pensions in 2008-9 – the equivalent of two-thirds of the cost of the basic state pension.

Chancellor George Osborne last night described the report as “very impressive and substantial”.

“I think John Hutton is bringing experience that he has as Labour’s former work and pensions secretary to bear and he is addressing this whole issue of fairness,” he added.