WORKERS at the Federation Brewery in Gateshead are to go on strike next week in a dispute over pay and the brewery's acquisition earlier this year by Scottish Courage.

About 70 staff - the majority of the employees at the site - will take part in the 48-hour walkout due to take place on Sunday, December 19. An overtime ban will be implemented at the same time.

Workers were balloted over industrial action and voted overwhelmingly in support of strikes.

The dispute surrounds a 3.2 per cent pay rise offered by owner Scottish Courage, which bought the brewery earlier this year.

In return for the pay increase, bosses have asked unions to call off a tribunal launched against the company alleging failure to consult workers over the buy-out, which saw the staff numbers at the brewery reduced by about 100.

However, union officials said the pay offer should be without any clauses attached.

Michael Hopper, of the GMB union, said: "There are questions to be answered regarding the failure to consult staff and this is something workers are determined to get to the bottom of.

"It is totally wrong for the company to be asking workers to cancel these tribunals or else not receive their pay rise."

Unions allege that when the Gateshead brewery was transferred to Scottish Courage, a subsidiary of Scottish and Newcastle, bosses failed to consult staff.