AROUND 1,200 office staff at Ford have voted in favour of industrial action short of strikes in a dispute over pay and contract changes.

The white collar staff are joining hundreds of managers in taking industrial action at sites across the country including Dunton in Essex, Unite said today.

Yesterday, the office staff voted in favour of action short of strikes and will begin this on August 22. Ford managers are already engaging in industrial action short of strikes.

They will join managers in working to rule and an overtime ban, the Echo understands.

Both sets of workers, who are based in Dunton, Stratford, Dagenham, Daventry and Halewood, are in dispute with Ford over what they describe as "unacceptable" pay offers and contract changes. Coordinated strike action is expected to be scheduled if the dispute is not resolved.

Ford has said it will continue to engage with the union and employees on the "fair and balanced offer".

 

Unite national officer Alison Spencer-Scragg said: “Sadly our members have lost all confidence in Ford’s UK leadership.

“These disputes have been needlessly escalated because of their attempts to bully staff into swallowing completely unacceptable deals.

“Industrial action by more than 1,500 white collar staff will severely impact Ford’s UK operations and there is a limited amount of time before full coordinated strikes are announced.

“Unite has now written to company’s senior leadership in the USA to step in before these disputes escalate further.”

A Ford UK spokesman said: "We will continue to engage with Unite and our employees on the fair and balanced offer that reflects an already highly competitive pay and benefits package."