Shop stewards at Aston Martin will wait until Thursday to decide their next move after workers at the luxury carmaker voted for strike action.

Members of the Transport & General Workers Union met in Gaydon following the vote by 70 per cent of the workers to reject the firm's 4 per cent pay offer.


They have given the company, which was sold by Ford to a Kuwaiti-backed consortium last month, until later this week to respond to their vote.

They are also waiting for a response from Amicus, whose members at the Gaydon factory in Warwickshire and Newport Pagnell plant in Buckinghamshire have voted on the pay offer.

The T&G represents 650 production staff from the total of 1, 800 employed at both sites. A spokesman for the T&G said: "We are are waiting until Thursday - when we also get the result of the Amicus ballot - before deciding what to do next.

"This gives the company an opportunity to make a formal response to our vote."

Management at Aston Martin have expressed their disappointment at the vote.

The two-year deal offered by the company was worth an initial four per cent the first year and inflation plus 0.5 per cent in year two, plus a ‘merit’ payment worth an average of 2.25 per cent for the lowest paid workers.

Union leaders said the offer was rejected because of the large pay differentials between workers doing the same job, which can be up to #2,500.

Average workers are paid around #21,000 at Aston Martin, although at 39 hours per week they work longer than their colleagues at Ford (37.5 hours) and Jaguar (37 hours).

They said they were also unhappy because Aston Martin workers were paid far lower than their colleagues at Jaguar and Land Rover – former stablemates in Ford's Premier Automotive Group until Aston was sold last month.

Although Aston Martin was sold to a Kuwaiti-backed consortium, Ford has conducted the pay negotiations while the final details of the sale are ironed out.

David Richards, the incoming chairman, and the new owners have been updated about the situation which is thought is unlikely to derail the sale.

Dr Ulrich Bez, chief executive of Aston Martin, said: "This is a very disappointing outcome to a fair offer designed to improve Aston Martin's competitive performance, particularly as the union leadership initially recommended acceptance of the company's offer.

"Aston Martin is entering the most significant and exciting period of change in its entire 93-year history. It is therefore sad that when we are about to enter one of the brightest points in the company's future that we have union members voting not to accept these substantial improvements to pay and benefits."

A spokeswoman for Aston Martin said the merit payment would benefit the lowest paid workers at Aston Martin and result in a pay increase of 6.45 per cent for 70 per cent of the technicians at Gaydon.

But the Transport & General Workers Union said the pay grades had been allowed to build up so people were often paid different sums for doing the same job.

While some progress had been made to address this, it had been very slow the T&G said. Des Quinn, T&G regional industrial organiser, said: "The negotiations that took place previously were very difficult, and conducted whilst the sale of the company was imminent.

"The agreement that was finally struck did not, in the members’ view, remove deep-seated and inherent problems with the current grading structure.

"Whilst there are other outstanding issues that needed to be addressed, we believe they can be resolved by negotiation.

"In light of the overwhelming ballot result, we will be meeting with shop stewards and members to determine next course of action, one of which will include urging the company to meet with us again to resolve the important issues in dispute."