A group of workers at industrial manufacturing company BOC Edwards are working to rule in a long-running pay dispute.

Some 35 staff at the firm's UK headquarters in Manor Royal, Crawley, have withdrawn flexibility after their claim for a 3.1 per cent rise was rejected.

The employees, all members of the general workers union Amicus, say they are earning 0.4 per cent less than their colleagues and have missed out on a £300 bonus.

They are refusing to participate in personal development reviews, which the company is obliged to undertake, and are no longer cleaning gas pumps when they arrive on site.

Kevin O'Gallagher, the Amicus regional officer, said: "The action will last indefinitely. We have approached the company about getting Acas to negotiate between us but so far we have been deafened by its silence.

"This situation comes on the back of redundancies at Crawley and, if we cannot get any further by negotiation, it will probably escalate into strike action."

Andrew Davies, a spokesman for BOC Edwards, said in May last year workers at the 78-strong remanufacturing unit were awarded a 2.9 per cent pay rise.

He said: "Subsequently the union came back with an additional pay claim for 3.1 per cent, which was turned down by the company. The withdrawal of flexibility has not impacted on the unit at all. It is business as usual.

"There's no mandate for industrial action. The door is still open and we are willing to continue to talk."

BOC Edwards, a division of the US-based industrial gases giant BOC Group, employs more than 400 in Crawley. It also has a facility in Shoreham.

The action follows 17 job losses in Crawley earlier this year as part of a wider restructuring programme across the unit which resulted in 120 redundancies worldwide.

The job cuts are expected to produce savings of £5 million a year from the start of the financial year in October.