WORKERS battling “fire and rehire” proposals by SNP-led Aberdeen City Council have voted overwhelmingly to take strike action.

Almost 90 per cent of the participants in the GMB Scotland ballot backed industrial action after the council refused to rule out sackings, using the practice to impose a new cost-cutting contract on 3,000 workers.

That contract would cut the full-time working week from 37 to 35 hours and impose a two-year pay freeze, which could take as much as £1,500 a year out of the pockets of front-line workers already struggling with soaring energy and council tax bills.