ABOUT 500 workers at Scottish Water will be balloted for industrial action after the company’s failure to make a “fair and decent” pay offer to its workers, Unite has warned.

Wastewater operatives, water treatment and burst repair operatives, maintenance engineers, electricians and sewage tanker drivers at the Scottish government-owned utility rejected a 3.4 per cent pay offer in October amid ongoing fury at “botched” regrading and soaring boardroom pay.

Despite the company planning to ramp-up water bills by 8.8 per cent from April and their executive team coining-in £227,000 in bonuses last year — including an £87,000 payment to the £246,000-a-year chief executive Alex Plant — they responded by upping the offer by £200.