WORKERS at a Glasgow waste-to-energy plant downed tools yesterday for a two-day strike to try to settle a long pay dispute.

Seventy scaffolders and labourers employed by Interserve Industrial Services took the decision to strike after management failed to agree to pay parity with other staff with union Unite last week.

It will be followed by another 48-hour strike on Tuesday May 3.

When construction work started at the Glasgow Recycling & Renewable Energy Centre site at Polmadie about 18 months ago, the scaffolders and labourers were employed on Construction Industry Joint Council nationally agreed pay rates that are now less than workers subsequently employed on rates equivalent to the NAECI national agreement or higher.

Unite said that Inter­serve and its subcontractors have had to pay higher rates in order to attract the workforce they needed from Scotland and beyond.

Regional officer Stephen Deans called for pay parity for the hundreds of workers at the site which could mean “an uplift of between £4 and £5 an hour for our members.”

Expressing disappointment at managers’ intrans­igence, he said: “We want management to get back around the table and seriously negotiate on the issue of pay parity,” adding that he hoped the two 48-hour strikes would focus managers’ minds.

An Interserve spokesman said: We are disappointed that industrial action has been called, this is a multi-contractor site where employees are paid the appropriate rates for the associated trades and Interserve is aligned with this policy.”