DEFENCE ministers have been urged to resume talks with workers at a munitions plant at Beith in Scotland.

The workers are locked in an equal pay dispute with Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S), the Ministry of Defence (MoD) agency responsible for running the DM Beith plant in North Ayrshire.

Acting on behalf of 50 employees at the plant, the GMB union argues that the pay gap between craft and non-craft roles has grown as wide as £18,000 a year after DE&S imposed a new bonus scheme.