DULUX paint workers are balloting for strike action after union officials claimed yesterday that management was “ratcheting up bad feeling” among the workforce.

The workers at the AkzoNobel works in Stowmarket, Suffolk, have overwhelmingly rejected a management offer of a 2.25 per cent backdated pay rise starting April 2019.

However, the Unite union has said that management has written to its members warning they would withdraw the deal entirely if they don’t agree to the offer by September 6.