Peugeot
workers are to be balloted on industrial action in a dispute over pay.
Union
members at the Coventry-based carmaker have already voted to reject a two-year
pay offer which the company maintains is the best in the industry at 7.3 per
cent, reports to news website Ananova.
Staff
are also unhappy with a proposal to increase employees’ pension contributions
from 4 per cent to 5 per cent by the year 2004.
Amicus
said further talks failed to resolve the row, so its members will vote in the
New Year on whether to back industrial action.
National
officer Duncan Simpson said: "It is frustrating that the situation has
come to this, but the company has left us with no alternative but to ballot for
industrial action."
A
spokesman for Peugeot said the company is disappointed at the move and hopes
workers – who are also being offered a share incentive plan and a
profit-sharing scheme – will accept the pay offer.
Almost
4,000 workers are employed by Peugeot at its plant in Ryton near Coventry,
which produces the popular 206 model.
A
fourth shift is about to be added and production is set to increase next year.
