A LONG-RUNNING industrial dispute over pay and working hours at a Darwen firm is on the verge of being settled.

Staff at Lucite International, which creates acrylic sheets which are used as plane windscreens and to make baths and signs, walked out on strike twice over the summer over the issue Under the original company proposals, shop-floor employee weekly hours would rise from around 36 to 40 hours and for office staff from 36 to 37.5 hours with no increase in pay.

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The company said that the changes were essential to “secure a commercially sustainable future for the business”.

Now a new package of measures has been put on the table which boss Keith Pigott believes will solve the dispute which has been running since May.

The company in Duckworth Street employs 240 staff.

The Lancashire Telegraph understands that after intensive negotiations with senior GMB union officials an agreement has been reached including cutting the extra unpaid hours for shop-floor workers from four to two.

The final details are now being agreed at a local level before a consultative ballot of the workforce takes place.

Plant general manager Mr Pigott said: “A complex package has been agreed which I am not prepared to discuss.

“The dispute has been settled.

“I believe the issues have been resolved.

“There was no question of any major redundancies.”

GMB regional organiser Karen Lewis said: “I shall be meeting with the workforce representatives to discuss this before Christmas.

“The staff are working in the plant not on picket lines.

“I having nothing more to say.”

Workers at the plant started work-to-rule action, meaning they worked the minimum required by the rules of their contract on May 14.

They staged walk-outs in May and June as initial negotiations failed to make progress.

Since then the company has been in consultation with staff and union representatives seeking all ideas to help make the £300,000 a year savings it believes are essential to keep the Duckworth Street plant viable in the long-term.

Sunnyhurst ward councillor Dave Smith said: “I am hopeful that these new proposals are acceptable to everyone and that the union’s concerns have been reconciled.

“I hope that this new deal can secure the future of Lucite’s Darwen plant for the forseeable future.”