AMICUS members at engineering firm Wolverhampton Pressing begin strike action today in a dispute over pay which is only just above minimum wage.

The workers have been taking stoppage action over the last 12 weeks in a bid to get a better pay deal.

Production line workers at the garden tools business earn just 10 pence per hour more than the national minimum wage of £5.15, earning them an annual salary of just over £7,000 after tax.

The union says that, even with overtime, production workers at the plant earn less than £10,000 a year.

Amicus says that skilled engineers at the plant earn just £7. per hour and that almost the entire workforce will be taking part in industrial action, starting tomorrow and for every Friday now on, in support of a living wage.