Following a meeting on Monday between Unison and the council's social work staff, representative Tom Connolly said workers were furious with the treatment by the council and industrial action was a strong possibility.

The meeting was called after the union warned proposed changes to the council's social work service would send it into "meltdown".

The local authority is currently consulting on changes to the system, which would see a reorganisation of the department and the number of frontline team leaders halved.

Mr Connolly, Unison's Edinburgh branch service conditions officer, said: "People are demoralised. We put to them the possibility of industrial action and they were generally in favour of that and it will be considered."

Unison suspects the shake-up of the department has been floated because there isn't enough cash to cover the 143 frontline social workers in the Capital.

Gillian Tee, director of children and families, said: "The main aim for the review is to improve frontline service delivery to enable us to provide better targeted support to those children at risk.

"I would like to make it clear there are no plans to reduce the number of social workers, though it is proposed to review management posts within the structure to increase capacity at the frontline."