More than 170 social housing maintenance workers are to take strike action in Manchester.

The dispute concerns employees at private contractor Mears and Manchester Working, a joint venture (JV) between Morrison Facilities Services and the local authority. The first strike action is scheduled for Monday, 15 May.

The workers, who undertake repair and maintenance work on social housing properties and public buildings across the city, have concerns over unfair pay, along with changes to their terms and conditions.

Employees are unhappy with pay differentials being up to £3,500 for the same job, with Mears previously backtracking on a commitment to tackle pay differentials.

Union Unite said some highly skilled workers are being paid "significantly below the regional average", with many on £22,000. Other employees on the same contract are receiving £25,500 for the same work.

In addition, Manchester City Council is currently in the process of breaking up the JV company and much of the workforce has been TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations ) transferred to Mears. Under this new deal, workers are expected to follow a more flexible approach to shift working, additional working hours and days as well as greater use of technology, without any real increase in pay.

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Unite also branded Mears' plans to introduce a 'productivity procedure' as a 'sackers chart', stating the company is pressurising the workforce into to accept poorer conditions regarding sick pay and vehicle policies.

Following the first day of strike action next week, rolling action will take place every Monday, Thursday and Friday until the dispute is resolved.

Unite regional co-ordinating officer Andy Fisher said: "This is a long running sore and members are no longer prepared to put up with low pay and different rates for the same job.

"To make an unhappy situation even worse members are now facing attacks on their terms and conditions by Mears which is seeking to boost its profits at the expense of workers' wellbeing.

"This strike action is not being taken lightly and it will mean that tenants won't receive urgently needed repairs and planned maintenance will be dramatically delayed.

"It is entirely immoral of Mears and other housing organisations in the north west to use these unfair and unequal pay rates to try to force down wages on other maintenance contracts in the region.

"There is still time for the companies involved to get round the table and resolve these issues once and for all."

Unite added the workforce is "highly disappointed" with the attitude of Manchester Council, which was aware of the ongoing problems at Manchester Working but still went ahead with the TUPE process.

(LM/MH)