School meals staff in East Yorkshire plan to strike next month in a long-running pay dispute with employers.

Workers claim Goole-based Martin's Contract Catering, which won the contract from East Riding of Yorkshire Council, refused to pay a nationally-agreed three per cent pay rise to 420 members of staff.

The company is also said to have cut hours by up to 20 per cent, claiming the contract was not making money.

Now the company has agreed the rise, backdated to April, for 40 per cent of employees who are protected by legislation which guards their jobs because their employment was transferred from the council to the contractor.

But the other 60 per cent will not have backdated pay.

Brian Martin, managing director of Martin's Contract Catering, said: "We have a meeting with ACAS tomorrow and we would want to see what happens at that before we talk about industrial action."