COUNCIL workers are poised to strike on Tuesday next week, following a London-wide ballot of employees.

Unison's local government members in Ealing have voted decisively for industrial action, as part of its campaign for a decent level of London weighting.

The union is calling for a flat-rate £4,000 allowance to be paid to all council workers, because it says the current allowance in Ealing, of £1,407, is less than half the London weighting allowance paid to teachers.

Yet, despite recent talks with Ealing Borough Council, top bosses are refusing to budge on the issue, a stance which has only served to frustrate and anger Unison members into taking action.

Ealing Unison branch secretary, Chris Morey, said: "Members are angry that, while the government recognises that London weighting is an issue for some in public service, local government employers have flatly refused to negotiate on London weighting for their employees.

"This is totally unacceptable. Members are determined to achieve fair pay for working and living within London."

Unison general secretary, Dave Prentis, added: "Unison's local government workers have spoken out against low pay across the capital. If the councils are serious about delivering world-class services in London they must pay decent wages to their staff.

"A growing number of public service workers are being forced to leave London because it is so expensive. How much further do essential services have to decline before the government is prepared to do something about it?

"It is ridiculous that investment in our public services should somehow be divorced from investment in the very people who deliver them."

A spokesman for Ealing Council said: "We have received notice that Unison will be asking all its members who work for Ealing to take strike action on May 14.

"Clearly, this will have an impact on our services, and we expect to let service users know how they will be affected over the next few days."

He added: "We do value our employees and appreciate the unique difficulties of living and working in London but, as all council workers know, local authority services are already stretched to the limit in terms of finances and resources and to pay for the increase in the allowance we would have to either make massive job or service cuts or increase council taxes.

"In general, staff working for London authorities are already paid more than their counterparts in other parts of the country and the cost of the claim £250m across London as a whole and £10m for Ealing alone is simply not affordable."