MORE than 400 staff working mainly on IT contracts for the Department for Work and Pensions, as well as the Ministry of Defence and American car maker General Motors, will begin a 48-hour strike today.
The staff are employed by Hewlett Packard (HP) Enterprise Services, which has offices in Newcastle, Washington, Preston and the Fylde Coast, in Lancashire.
The dispute over pay and job losses has already seen staff working to rule since January 22 and strike action has twice been suspended.
Further talks in the dispute broke down over the weekend.
Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union, which represents affected staff, said hard working staff had been “slapped in the face” with job losses and a pay freeze for two years running.
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