WORKERS at a Northallerton government agricultural office are stepping up their action for higher pay by holding two more strikes next week.

About 200 civil servants at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs office are due to strike on Monday and Wednesday. The new action follows a one-day strike last month.

In addition to the strikes, members of the Public and Commercial Services trade union have been working to rule.

The new strikes were announced as the national Defra management met in London yesterday. PCS members said they were optimistic that a pay offer would be put to them in coming weeks.

Speaking in Northallerton yesterday, Mr Michael McDine, a member of the local branch executive, said the strikes were designed to inconvenience the government - not farmers or vets engaged in foot-and-mouth work.

"The strikes are in support of our pay claim. When the former agriculture and environment ministries were merged into Defra, we discovered that some environment workers were being paid up to £4,000 more for the same job. We think we should be paid the same amount."

"We were informed by our national executive that the new action would be taken next week. Judging by the support we had last time, we should have 200 members on strike."

He stressed: "We are taking every possible measure to ensure that foot-and-mouth activities are not affected. We have done everything we can to try to make sure the work of vets is not hindered."