15996/5THERE was a carnival atmosphere among workers who gathered outside the Smallbone of Devizes furniture factory on Hopton Industrial Estate yesterday.

But it masked a serious issue as the company faced its first industrial action in more than 20 years.

Members of the GMB union at the plant had called out their members on a 24-hour strike after negotiations with management over this year's pay round foundered on a proposed productivity deal.

The workers were offered a 3.2 per cent increase in basic pay plus a productivity incentive scheme that the management said could have seen skilled workers increasing their wages considerably.

Instead, the union wanted a 50p-per-hour increase across the board, amounting to a six per cent increase for skilled workers.

Don Jones (not the Devizes town councillor), one of the two shop stewards at the factory, said the company had been investing considerably in plant equipment and it was about time it invested in the workers.

He said: "We have put a lot of service into this company over the years and we would like to see some return."

His fellow shop steward, Adie Merritt, said: "We are not happy about the productivity deal. It has been tried before and it didn't work. All our work is bespoke and no two kitchens are the same, so how would it work?

"We are not asking for any more than we deserve. The company is opening showrooms all over the world and the standard of workmanship here is second to none. You don't see Rolls Royce workers being paid Ford workers' wages."

Some 67 workers out of 87 employed on the shop floor and 101 in the Devizes factory in total were out on strike yesterday and at least 50 of them peacefully picketed outside the plant, holding balloons and placards supplied by the union.

Mr Jones said none of the strikers wanted to take action. He said: "We'd far rather be inside earning a day's wages than standing out here."

Smallbone plc boasts a turnover of £23 million, but the company said that is the total of two companies in the group and the fitted furniture division turnover is closer to £15m.

It said increases in costs of raw materials has eroded its profit margins and yet it still has to stay competitive.

Charlie Smallbone, who founded the company in 1976 and is its current chairman, said: "Why won't they give the productivity deal a chance?

"Historically, we have always looked at the pay round as a cost of living increase. But the productivity bonus gives the workers the opportunity to earn a quite reasonable amount more.

"It is a competitive market out there with a lot of other companies vying for the jobs that we win."

Mr Smallbone sold the company in 1988 and went on to found Paris Ceramics. In 2003 his new company took over his old one and last year Smallbone was floated on the stock market.

He said: "We have reinvested all the money we made on the flotation into the company. We have bought new equipment, opened a new showroom in St John's Wood, London, and are about to open new showrooms in Glasgow and New York.

"All this investment will benefit the workforce. We have a duty of care to our shareholders. We are not unhappy to enable the chaps to make more money, but we want to do it through productivity.

"They need to trust the company. If they gave us the opportunity to try out what we have in mind, they would see what benefit it would be to everyone."

The GMB union has not ruled out further stoppages over pay.