HUNDREDS of Government officials, who are providing crucial support to the beleaguered farming industry during the foot-and-mouth crisis, are to go on strike next week.

Workers across the region at offices of the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) are taking industrial action over a pay dispute with Whitehall chiefs.

Members of the Public Services Union have voted to stage a one-day nationwide strike on Monday, and are planning to cause further disruption to the rural department over the coming weeks.

The strike will affect operations in Newcastle and York, as well as in Northallerton, where staff are dealing with the foot-and-mouth epidemic in the North Yorkshire hotspot.

The row erupted following the merger earlier this year of the Department of Environment (DoE) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Maff) to form Defra.

Former Maff workers were incensed to learn that their new colleagues from the DoE were earning up to £2,500 a year more for doing the same job.

Michael McDine, of the North-East branch of the union's executive committee and a Defra worker, in Northallerton, said: "If the Government is expecting the same standard of work, it is not fair to discriminate between people just because of which department they come from.

"Our members have taken an awful lot of flak for foot-and-mouth and BSE, and have now discovered they have been paid well below the going rate as a reward."

Mr McDine said a series of strikes would follow Monday's action, with workers being removed from key areas for two days a week.

"There is a lot of work moving between sites and we are aiming to disrupt that.

"There will be an on-going policy of work to rule. We are asking our members to only work their conditioned hours and not ten hours a day, as some are doing at the moment."

However, he stressed: "They will be mainly clerical staff. We have been particularly careful to ensure that foot-and-mouth work will not be affected."

Rob Simpson, of the National Farmers' Union, said: "Defra needs to ensure that none of the disease work is undermined or delayed as a result of this strike."

A Defra spokeswoman insisted bosses were committed to merging the two rates and that talks were on-going

Read more about the foot-and-mouth crisis here.