Nearly 20 staff members at the Fellside CHP plant, Sellafield, are to escalate industrial action with employer Cape Industrial Services.

A total of 19 workers, including scaffolders, thermal insulation engineers and labourers, have been engaged in an eight-month dispute over gaining improved terms and conditions as stipulated by the National Agreement for the Engineering and Construction Industry (NAECI).

The workers have been operating a continuous overtime and work to rule since Tuesday, 03 January.

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Further industrial action would see four 24-hour stoppages starting on Thursday, 26 January. This will be followed by further stoppages on;

• Thursday, 02 February

• Thursday, 09 February

• Thursday, 16 February

Unite said further action "could be on the cards" unless an agreement could be reached with Cape Industrial.

Unite regional officer, Ryan Armstrong said: "The company has been dragging its feet with Unite for over eight months.

"All our workers want is for Cape management to align workers' terms and conditions to those recommended by NAECI and other workers at the plant.

"The industrial action is coming at a time when vital preparation work is to commence for a major shutdown to the Fellside CHP plant planned for the near future. The loss of production will have an impact on the shutdown work – and if the work is not completed on time it may start to affect the vital steam supply to the main Sellafield site."

(LM)