Around 200 workers at the Sellafield site are set to strike over pay.
Members of the GMB union employed by Mitie, which provides cleaning, security, landscaping, waste management, postal services, and laundry support at the West Cumbrian nuclear complex, will start industrial action tomorrow, Friday August 1.
The industrial action will continue until Friday, August 15, excluding weekends.
They rejected a 3.5 per cent pay deal offered by the company, affecting operations at Sellafield and associated sites.
The GMB said the offer would leave many workers earning little more that £13 an hour and last year, Mitie reported operating profits of £166 million, up 42 per cent from the previous year, £5.09 billion in revenue and CEO pay of £14.7 million – 575 times the average worker’s salary.
In a separate ballot run by union Unite, its members have also voted to take industrial action.
The workers range from electricians, joiners, pipefitters, riggers, groundworkers, welders and painters and other construction roles. They are employed by 36 contractors on the Sellafield site.
Around 1,600 members were eligible to vote and 910 votes were cast. Over 90% voted in favour of strike action.
The long running dispute is around the employers at Sellafield refusing to resolve requests for additional Sellafield Specific Allowances.
The requested allowances relate to Unite construction members engaging and constructing on advanced technologies projects, the union said.
It said it had asked for the introduction of a nuclear professional allowance for Unite members who are working in a unique environmental at Sellafield but claimed all requests had been refused by the firms which have contracts on the Sellafield site.
The union has not yet revealed when industrial action will start.
