SLAUGHTERHOUSE heroes who have kept two million tapeworms off our dinner plates are set to strike after bosses top-sliced their pay yet again.

Public-sector union Unison announced yesterday that 63 per cent of inspectors had voted in favour of downing aprons — and general secretary Dave Prentis said action would “threaten summer barbecues” if bosses failed to negotiate.

The abattoir inspectors employed by the Food Standards Agency have saved us from eating swathes of contaminated animal products — including four million septicaemic cattle and 560,000 pigs with parasitic larvae.

But meat inspectors have been forced to stomach successive below-inflation pay rises in recent years. 

In offering workers a measly 0.75 per cent pay rise this year — way below inflation — the agency may have bitten off more than it can can chew.

Unison expects abattoirs in England, Scotland and Wales to grind to a halt.

“Should Unison decide to take strike action, our contingency plans will minimise any disruption to meat supplies,” said a Food Standards Agency spokesman.

“The FSA values the important role played by its frontline staff and our work to ensure public safety in relation to food will continue.”

But Mr Prentis denied claims that disruption would be minimal.

“The strike may well clear supermarket shelves and butchers’ shops of meat,” he said.

“It is down to the FSA to come up with a fair offer instead of digging in their heels and refusing to negotiate.

“Meat inspectors and vets are a vital link in the food safety chain, protecting the public by keeping contaminated meat off our plates.

“Working in slaughterhouses is an extremely messy and stressful job and our members will not accept another cut in the value of their wages. Imposing a pay offer is inflammatory and the result of our strike ballot makes it clear that FSA staff have had enough.”

Unison is calling for an above-inflation pay rise to begin to offset a 15 per cent loss to workers’ pay packets.

The agency recently stuck the knife into poultry factories, after a Guardian undercover investigation uncovered a menu of hygiene failings.