INSPECTORS charged with making sure workplaces are safe are striking on Monday leaving Swindon without cover.

Workers at the Health and Safety Executive are to stop work for a day because they have been told to accept a pay cut.

The strike will be the first involving health and safety inspectors for more than 20 years, and follows the breakdown of talks between management and the Prospect Union and Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS).

Prospect said about 35 per cent of its members had been offered a below-inflation pay settlement of 1.5 per cent. The union has called for a minimum of 2.6 per cent.

Steve Frain, an inspector for the HSE in the Swindon area, speaking on behalf of the Prospect Union, said the strike would mean any inspections planned for building sites and workplaces on Monday would not now go ahead, and members would be unavailable to give advice to employees.

Hundreds of HSE staff across the country are expected to take part in the industrial action, which will also include a work-to-rule.

Their day-to-day role involves carrying out inspections of workplaces, enforcing health and safety law, and giving advice.

Swindon's HSE inspectors are based in Bristol.

While the inspectors and their support staff are facing a real terms pay cut, the HSE's director General Timothy Walker has received a pay rise of more than £10,000 this year, while his deputy Kate Timms has seen her pay swell by £20,000, according to the union.

Prospect negotiations officer Richard Hardy said: "To offer the most experienced inspectors in the HSE only 1.5 per cent is derisory. Morale in HSE is low enough as it is, without forcing our members to take pay cuts.

"We are very worried that members will vote with their feet, stripping HSE of hundreds of years of experience which will have a horrendous impact on workplace safety throughout the UK."

PCS negotiations officer Steve Farley said: "Our claim for a minimum 2.6 per cent increase is both reasonable and affordable and would ensure staff do not suffer pay cuts when compared to inflation.

"Despite 11 months of talks with HSE, management has refused to improve on a deal which will see our members' pay cut over the next three years."

Both unions have agreed members will break the strike to deal with major incidents and court cases, and insisted they would not be putting safety at risk.

A spokesman for the HSE said the industrial action would solve nothing. He said: "The current pay offer honours the commitment made to staff in 2003 about pay progression and meeting equal pay challenges."