ITV production workers and other staff will stage a 24-hour strike in a dispute over pay, unions announced yesterday.

Broadcasting union Bectu said members had voted 67 per cent in favour of industrial action against a measly 2 per cent pay award.

Journalists’ union NUJ voted 77 per cent for the strike.

“My members are not going to accept this cheap-as-chips pay offer,” said NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet, who cited ITV boss Adam Crozier’s £8.4 million bonus and the broadcaster’s 6 per cent advertising revenue recorded last year.
Staff have been pressing for a bigger wage increase in view of the TV company’s profits.

Bectu general secretary Gerry Morrissey said staff were “very unhappy” with the offer, adding: “There is a huge disparity between the pay offered to staff and the bonus package to executives as well as shareholder dividends.”

The strike, coinciding with ITV’s annual meeting on May 14, will hit live programmes.