School catering staff in the north London borough of Islington are on the verge of walking out over cuts to their working hours sought by contractor Scolarest.
The 200 staff have voted unanimously for strike action next week, according to the GMB union, which has called for an emergency meeting with Scolarest and Islington Council to resolve the dispute.
GMB branch secretary Gary Doolan said that Scolarest wanted to cut staff hours because of a drop in the number of meals served. But he blamed this on the quality of meals served by the contractor.
Scolarest, part of the Compass Group, took over the contract 18 months ago from an in-house team. It said it based the number of working hours on the number of meals served in all of its local authority contracts, using a formula to ensure that every school had "an efficient catering operation which fully meets their needs".
Since November 2003, it has been consulting with staff, schools and unions to implement the formula at 24 schools in Islington.