Staff at the educational division of Oxford publisher Macmillan were on strike on June 24 in protest at a below-inflation pay award.

They said the pay award had been imposed upon them without agreement.

About 80 members of the National Union of Journalists and Amicus voted by two to one to take the action after Macmillan refused to take the issue to arbitration.

The NUJ's union official at Macmillan, Alan Dury, said: "We can't accept the company imposing a below-inflation pay deal.

"We have members earning as little as £12,500. You can't live in Oxford on that."

Macmillan group personnel director James Richardson said: "We're extremely sad that the chapel has voted for a strike." Staff in Oxford refused to accept a 2.1 per cent pay rise when fellow workers at Macmillan's Nature Publishing Group in London, were awarded 2.5 per cent.