STRIKE action is set to take place at a lab in Daresbury following a members vote 'overwhelmingly in favour of taking strike action'.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) run the lab, with Prospect Trade Union officially entering into a formal dispute over continually declining income, and claims that 'their work is taken for granted'.

Poppy Holford, the deputy chair of the lab, said: “Members have simply had enough. We worked hard and adapted quickly through the pandemic with lots of good will and flexibility to keep the business productive, and this is barely acknowledged let alone rewarded.”

In 2020, the pay award given to staff was below inflation. In 2021, none was given and a pay award for last year due on July 1, 2022, is yet to be signed off.

According to Prospect, the largest trade union within its area, due to inflation income has declined for members and public sector workers by 26% over the past 13 years.

UKRI are an ‘arms-length’ Government organisation, meaning their funding comes from the government – but are free to make their own independent choices on decisions such as increasing pay for workers with inflation.

The ballot for industrial action saw members voting overwhelmingly in favour of “taking both strike action, and action short of striking such as refusing overtime, the removal of ‘flexibilities’ and good will”. The ballot saw over 70% of members vote.

The action will begin with a single day strike tomorrow, Wednesday.

A picket line will be held outside of the laboratory from 7.30am until 10.30am that day. There will also be a staff walkout that day to coincide with similar action being co-ordinated by the TUC in order to coincide with Jeremy Hunt’s Spring budget statement.