Workers at car component company Unipres (UK) Ltd in Washington, Tyneside which supplies body parts to Nissan, are being balloted on industrial action over plans to introduce Saturday working.

Unipres announced in the summer it intended to introduce banked working hours which will mean closing the plant on seven Fridays to bring the company in line with Nissan's working patterns. This will require Unipres workers to 'pay back' the time by working a minimum of six Saturday shifts over a 12 month period.

Amicus members' ballot for industrial action was prompted by an internal ballot of the 700 strong workforce on the company's planned changes which was overwhelmingly rejected by 90.75%.

Amicus says the result of the ballot for industrial action will be known on January 18. Unipres supply body parts to Nissan which operates a 'just in time' process so any industrial action taken by the Unipres workers would have a 'severe' impact on Nissan car production.

Amicus' regional officer, Carol McFarlane, said: "No attempt has been made to negotiate with staff or to reach a compromise deal and, unless Unipres backtracks, the result will be damaging industrial action which will harm the company and have a very serious knock-on effect for the companies it supplies."