Staff at a Fife-based cable manufacturing plant in Glenrothes are to be balloted for strike action after the collapse of pay talks.
Unite the Union has confirmed it will ballot its members based at Leviton UK Manufacturing Ltd.’s Viewfield Industrial Estate site for industrial action.
The ballot involving around 50 members follows the rejection of what Unite officials claimed were “several insulting pay offers”.
Pay talks collapse
Leviton Manufacturing UK made a final 2.25% pay offer backdated to April, whereas previous agreements with the company commenced in January.
Leviton and Unite had engaged the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) in negotiations after two previous pay offers of 1.75% and 1.95% were also rejected.
However those talks have failed to break the deadlock.
Union officials say they will now ballot its members from August 23 until September 3 for industrial action.
Union members to be balloted
The company designs and manufactures high-speed copper and fibre-based cable systems for IT and data communications.
It also manufactures cabling for industries such as the military, rail, automotive and aerospace.
Formally Brand-Rex, the company was acquired by US based Leviton in 2015 and started trading under the Leviton name in 2019.
George Ramsay, Unite industrial officer, said: “Leviton Manufacturing has made several insulting offers to our members based in Glenrothes which have been rejected.
“We engaged the services of ACAS to try and achieve a positive resolution to this dispute but the company has also in effect cut-off three months’ pay rise for our members backdating the offer to April instead of January.
Pay offers rejected
“We will now ballot our members for industrial action and are confident that they will endorse a mandate for industrial action.
“The company still have a chance to get back round the table before it comes to that and the ball is in their court.”
However Leviton has hit back saying it was “surprised and disappointed by the decision to push for strike action.
A company spokesperson added: “We engaged closely and in good faith with both employee representatives and senior officials from Unite and reached a fair increase settlement that Unite recommended to their members for acceptance.
“The past two years have been very difficult for Leviton UK.
“Sales were badly hit in 2020 by the pandemic and 2021 has seen post Brexit logistics challenges and extraordinary increases in raw material and freight costs.
“Despite this, we have offered a pay rise that is above the Scottish average.
“We will continue our proactive engagement with both Unite and our employees and are hopeful that we will quickly resolve matters.”