STRIKING workers at a Manchester flooring factory have been laid off as part of a “vindictive attack” by bosses, GMB said today.

About 200 staff at the Polyflor factory in Whitefields are due to down tools today after the union rejected a below-inflation pay offer from the company, which is a leading manufacturer of vinyl floor coverings and forms part of an international corporation.

But ahead of the industrial action, management told every striking worker “not to turn up for your shifts as process shifts for process workers continue to be suspended,” according to GMB.