Negotiations are taking place on Monday at Peugeot's Ryton plant near Coventry in an effort to avoid a ballot on strike action over pay.

Last month, workers there voted overwhelmingly to reject the company's pay deal.

Peugeot has described its offer as being worth an average of 7.3% over two years.

But the T&G union disputes that, suggesting instead that the deal is worth between 3% and 3.5% in the first year and less than that in year two.

Tony Woodley: Peugeot "greedy and selfish"

Tony Woodley, T&G union deputy general secretary, says the pay offer compares unfavourably to others in the industry and believes members deserve better.

"Quite frankly, the ballpark figure is whatever the members will accept.

"But from a negotiator's point of view, we expect all of our people to have at least the 4% wage increase without strings in year one", he said.

'Best offer'

"We expect our people not to have any of that money clawed back by a greedy, selfish company who, at the end of the day, have had a pensions holiday for donkey's years", he said in reference to Peugeot's proposals to increase employees' pension contributions.

A Peugeot spokeswoman said: "We want to move forward.

"We're always positive about talks, but we believe the offer we have made is one of the best in the industry in terms of pay and benefits."