WORKERS at a lift company will stop a strike after resolving a row with management.

About 300 engineering staff at Kone, which has a base in Team Valley, Gateshead, had started two weeks of action over the use of a vehicle tracker, known as VAMS.

Union Unite claimed VAMS was unreliable, but, after further talks with Kone bosses and arbitration body Acas, officials say the system will be changed to deliver more accurate readings.

As a result, Kone workers, who service lifts, doors and escalators across the UK, will stop their strike action at 6am tomorrow (Tuesday, June 2).

Linda McCulloch, Unite national officer, said: “We are pleased to have negotiated a new framework document with the company that provides loads of safeguards for our members.

“The agreement provides mechanisms that will ensure VAMS accurately records and measures the workloads of employees.”

Julie Dennell, Kone’s HR Director, said the firm was pleased the situation had been concluded.

She added: “Both parties have agreed a common framework and terms of reference, and the ongoing industrial action in parts of our business will now cease.”

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