The government ended a wave of public sector strikes last summer when it accepted, in full, the recommendations of independent public sector pay review bodies to increase the pay of teachers, nurses and others.
But ministers might be facing another headache over pay and the possibility of a fresh threat of strikes from some unions.
BBC Verify examines why this pressure over public sector pay and industrial action has re-emerged.
What are the public sector pay review bodies recommending?
In July 2024, the new Labour government accepted the recommendations of these bodies to increase public sector pay by between 4.75% and 6% for the 2024-25 financial year.
There is a new round of recommendations from these bodies every year and they traditionally deliver in the summer.
In September 2024, the government decided to speed up the process by asking for their recommendations by the spring for how much public sector pay should rise in each sector in the 2025-26 financial year.
These have not been made public yet, but reports suggest the recommendations are for more than the health and education departments have budgeted for this financial year.
In their own submissions to the pay review bodies, the health and education departments said they could only afford to increase their pay bills in England by 2.8%.
The BBC has been told that the teachers' pay review body has recommended a 4% rise and the NHS body has recommended 3%.
In the case of teachers, this would be above the latest 3.2% consumer price inflation forecast from the Office for Budget Responsibility for 2025-26.
Because education and health are devolved, the health and education departments set budgets for spending in England only. The teachers' pay review body makes recommendations for England only but the NHS pay review body covers England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Public sector pay is set through a separate process in Scotland.
