FOUR hundred safety workers at the Sellafield former nuclear power plant in Cumbria will strike over pay grading, energy union GMB announced yesterday.

The health physics monitors, who use Geiger counters to check radiation levels at the site, will walk out for 24 hours on July 28.

They have been battling for 15 years to be placed in a higher pay grade and, following two years of negotiations, had thought they had won their demand.

But Sellafield management admitted that they planned only to put an “unknown number of monitors” on the new pay rates.

“Management subsequently refused to elaborate on their views of the criteria or the number of post-holders who would go up in grades,” said Sellafield GMB senior organiser Chris Jukes.

“The situation escalated when management refused to negotiate further.”

The impasse frustrated the monitors and it became clear to GMB that there was a mood to take matters further.

The workers voted overwhelmingly for strike action — 97.9 per cent in favour on a 83.76 per cent turnout.

“Even under new proposed Tory laws (for minimum strike ballot turnouts) there could not be a clearer demonstration of dissatisfaction by a worker group as to how this situation has arisen,” said Mr Jukes.

The union did not know whether the strike would affect Sellafield’s nuclear reprocessing activities, but has allowed a skeleton staff of 17 monitors to perform the minimum safety checks, also a requirement of the Tory proposals.

“The company has asked for a minimum level to keep checking, but it will be the minimum. The strike will be for one day and then we will assess the situation,” said Mr Jukes.

“It is a crying shame that we have reached this position and there is huge frustration at the complete inertia that exists within the Sellafield culture and the lack of willingness by management to negotiate openly, transparently and with a view to the future.”

Sellafield, formerly known as Windscale, employs around 11,000 workers and produces more nuclear waste than any other British nuclear power station.