A UNION leader has accused the management at the west Belfast company, Mackie International, of awarding itself substantial pay increases while maintaining that no money was available for pay increases to the workforce.

Mr Jackie Nicholl, of the MSF union, described the attitude of management at the plant as "deplorable", and said that four directors at Mackie's had recently been given substantial salary increases, while pay claims by shopfloor employees had been turned down.

Last month, around 180 workers voted in support of a series of half day strikes, along with the introduction of an overtime ban, after failure to break the deadlock in a long running pay dispute. Mackie's, which employs around 400 people in the manufacture of textile machinery, has since issued protective notices to 60 workers employed in the company's textile division.

It is understood that management has offered a pay increase to match inflation, and a phased reduction of one hour in the working week, consisting of a reduction of half an hour from this June, and a further half an hour from next January. The unions say the dispute could be resolved if the workforce were offered the full hour's reduction from June.

The chairman of Mackie, Mr Pat Dougan, said prospects for the textile division this, year were not good, but hoped this would be offset by a strong performance in other areas.

Earlier this month, Mackie's shares dropped when the company announced that talks on a possible takeover of the Belfast company had been terminated.