STRIKE action at a Newcastle-based energy company could be imminent after workers twice rejected a real-terms pay cut, GMB warned today.

More than 200 staff at Baker Hughes, a multinational firm which makes pipelines for the oil and gas industry, are now set to vote in a formal industrial action ballot, the energy union confirmed.

The vote, the dates of which will be announced soon, follows two below-inflation wage offers of just 4 and 4.56 per cent from bosses at the firm, which is situated in Walker in the city’s north-east suburbs.