Unison's regional organiser Tony Pearson said that if the latest talks did not end in a settlement, he would like to see the involvement of a third-party mediator, such as the Joint Provincial Council, in an attempt to resolve the dispute.

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Refuse crews and street cleansing staff in Leeds are today starting their tenth week of striking over a proposed wages restructuring – drawn up to comply with equal pay agreements – that would have cost some workers £4,500 per year.

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A productivity-linked offer was rejected by the unions last month but Mr Pearson said he hoped a deal could be reached in the near future – if the council look again at the proposed pay and grading structure.

He said: "The hope is that we can move forward in terms of productivity and there's a deal to be done on productivity. But we'd like to see some movement on the basic grades to bring Leeds in line with other authorities.

"We can give them the gain they want on productivity but they have to take steps over the anomalies because there's a serious difference between themselves and other authorities which shouldn't have arisen.

"We think there's some sensible revisions that can be made in the lowest pay grade and that's the way forward. If we don't get it sorted out soon, we would like to see some proper mediation. There's some serious talking to do but both sides can achieve a win-win situation."

Mr Pearson said "all manner of concerns" led to the rejection of the council's last offer, including health and safety fears and the issue of bonuses.

Last Monday's meeting with the joint leaders of Leeds City Council, Coun Richard Brett and Coun Andrew Carter, was the first between the politicians and the unions since the strike started on September 7.

Mr Pearson said the council's chief executive Paul Rogerson also attended the meeting, as well as other senior council figures who had not been directly involved in the negotiations until last week.

He said: "My big concern is why it took us nine weeks to get here. I think there's been a frustration all the way along that normal channels of industrial relations haven't been in place in this strike. We had to wait four full weeks before we started negotiations.

"Then we got into the meetings and what was unusual was this idea that everything had to be reported back."

He added: "It's astounding that you can have the largest strike in Yorkshire since the miners' strike and the people with the megabucks haven't wanted to involve themselves directly in the negotiations until now."