METROLINK tram workers in Manchester will begin balloting on Monday on a call for strike action over pay.

More than 600 drivers, controllers, engineers, customer service and business support staff, who are members of the Unite union, have rejected a “woeful” 4.5 per cent pay increase following years of below-inflation pay rises.

The drivers want the company, owned by British-French privateers Keolis-Amey, to provide guaranteed above-inflation increases over the next three years.