TALKS are being held in a bid to avert the threat of industrial action by lock keepers on the River Thames.

Lock keepers in Oxfordshire who are members of the GMB union were preparing to be balloted on industrial action in a dispute about lock keeping duties.

The union maintains much of the work lock keepers undertake to combat flooding is not formally recognised by the Environment Agency (EA).

It claims their present pay structure fails to recognise additional responsibilities they undertake such as controlling water levels and operating weirs.

The GMB had originally planned to ballot about 50 of its members who work on the Thames on April 28. Thirty work in Oxfordshire.

Senior union organiser Ted Purcell said the dispute centred on health and safety issues and the call-out system to deal with flooding on the river.

Mr Purcell said: “The EA management at first put forward a stand-by and call-out system that was so incompetent it would have undoubtedly led to flooding and a threat to life and limb.

“GMB members corrected the errors and agreed to trial the new system as long as their long standing request for an accurate job profile was forthcoming, based on what lock and weir keepers actually do.”

The union will argue that lock and weir keepers have been underpaid for over a decade, because their pay scale does not reflect the importance of their role in reducing the risk of floods.

Mr Purcell said: “Senior officers claim they supervise water level management, and therefore get paid for it, and have done so for over 10 years.

“But river users saw how well these senior managers managed this task over the Easter weekend, when parts of the river ran dry.”

It is understood the worst hit stretch was at Windsor, where some boaters complained about water levels.

The GMB has decided not to go ahead with the ballot so that talks could continue.

EA spokesman Dave Ferguson said: “We have spoken to all staff and they are working normally.

“We are currently in negotiations with their union about their role. These negotiations are on-going.”

It is believed that the majority of the 50 lock keepers on the Thames are members of the GMB union. Many previously belonged to Unison.

If the ballot had gone ahead, it is understood that the industrial action would have been limited, with lock keepers working to rule and not carrying out jobs such as changing the level of weirs.

Last year lock keepers and residents reacted angrily to news that the Environment Agency was planning to sell or rent rent out 10 of 22 lock keepers' properties in the Upper Thames region, including ones at Culham, Godstow, Little Wittenham, Sandford-on-Thames and Wallingford.

Residents complained the move could leave people living in flood-plain areas increasingly vulnerable.

But after a powerful campaign against the sales, supported by Tory leader and Witney MP David Cameron, the EA dropped the plan and announced it would only be selling five properties away from the river.