More than 240 nuclear safety specialists are on strike today over pay.

Staff from Energy, Safety and Risk Consultants (ESRC), part of Amec Foster Wheeler Clean Energy, are taking part on an industrial action to improve their salaries this year.

The offer is a three-month pay freeze covering January to March then a 1.6% increase.

The strike is affecting ESRC sites in Cheshire, Oxfordshire, Dorset and Gloucestershire with pickets forming outside the sites from 7am this morning.

Prospect negotiator Tony Hammond said: “Our members do not take industrial action lightly but they are very angry at the pay freeze, the size of the offer and the way the negotiations have been conducted. The company maintains that it is unable to improve the award which falls short of competitor pay rises in the sector because of a contraction in the oil and gas sector. It also claimed that the pay freeze would be across the board, including the top team.

“But we have found out that in the last eight months the company has awarded more than £11 million in shares and share options to nine senior staff.  A pay freeze for you – share options for them.”

A spokesperson for Amec Foster Wheeler Clean Energy said: “We are disappointed that a very small proportion of our staff (less than 10%) have voted for industrial action and some of these have chosen to withdraw their labour on Friday, July 10.

“In common with 1,600 of their Clean Energy colleagues, this group of employees has been offered an overall pay deal which represented a 2.6% increase to the wage bill.”