WORKERS at a lift company will strike for a fortnight unless a dispute is resolved, a union has warned.

About 300 engineering staff at Kone, which has a base in Team Valley, Gateshead, are threatening action.

The Unite union says workers are upset over the use of a vehicle tracker, known as VAMS, to scrutinise their movements, which they claim is unreliable.

The Northern Echo attempted to contact Finnish-headquartered Kone, but did not receive a response.

Staff, who service lifts, doors and escalators across the UK, are due to start action on Wednesday, May 27, and Unite has appealed for last-ditch talks to end the unrest, saying management walked out of a previous meeting with arbitration body Acas.

If it takes place, the strike will run alongside an existing overtime, night call and on-call ban, which has been in effect since March.

The union added there will be a 24-hour stoppage of driver engineers on Tuesday, May 26, with driver engineers at Gatwick and Heathrow doing the same tomorrow (Saturday, May 23).

Linda McCulloch, Unite national officer, said VAMS was not appropriate for verifying time sheets and site visits, claiming a driver was alleged to have gone 1,000 miles in a day without refuelling.

She added: “The Acas talks with Kone’s UK management have proved to be fruitless.

“Due to this unreasonable behaviour, Unite is calling on the top executives of this Finnish-owned company to intervene and sort out the intransigent stance of their local UK management.

“Our members have already staged strike action and we are now staging a two-week strike as people are furious at the way they have been treated.

“They have no confidence in the UK management.

“Evidence has shown the mileage recorded by VAMS for business or private use exaggerates mileage being completed.

“It does not function properly and will lead to employees being wrongly assessed for private mileage, which could lead to wrong deductions from wages and ultimately disciplinary situations.”

The union said workers voted by 81 per cent for strike action and by 91 per cent for industrial action short of a strike.

As well as Gateshead, Kone’s UK sites include Glasgow, Chertsey, in Surrey, Keighley, in West Yorkshire, and Warrington, Cheshire.