Workers at Canberra's water provider will stop work for two hours on Wednesday morning over a pay dispute with management.
The union representing Icon Water workers has called on the ACT government to intervene in negotiations, saying the pay offer from the company does not keep pace with the cost of living.
Workers have been offered a 12 per cent pay rise over four years, which is 3 per cent a year. Workers have called for a 15 per cent rise over three years.
The latest annual inflation rate for Australia was 6.1 per cent.
Electrical Trades Union organiser Matt McCann said the rising cost of living in Canberra had smashed Icon workers and the offer was not enough to keep up with the higher costs.
He said the workers who would stop work are front line workers and that about 70 to 80 were expected to take part in the action.
"Our members are the Icon workers that you see in the trucks driving around town," Mr McCann said.
"They're the workers that keep the water flowing to the houses and the other stuff flowing in the other direction."
Further industrial action has been threatened if management does not offer a new deal.
"It could escalate, there could be further stoppages of work, there could be partial work bans on using some of the rather unhelpful technology that they seem to have spent a lot of money on," Mr McCann said.
An Icon Water spokesman said the company would continue discussions with the union.
"We will work to minimise any impact to the community by ensuring we have sufficient staff to cover our activities during the time any industrial action takes place," the spokesman said.
"We are continuing our dialogue with the unions and employee representatives towards achieving a sustainable agreement for our employees and our customers who pay for water and sewerage services."
But the union has called on the ACT government to intervene. The ACT government owns Icon Water.
"The people we're talking to at the management level, they don't seem to have any ability to resolve the issue," Mr McCann said.
"The government makes a lot of noise about wanting to lift wages and understand the importance of how lifting wages will drive the economy in the right direction. So it's probably a good time for them to step in and stump up."
At the recent ACT Labor conference, members passed motions calling for pay increases of at least 5.5 per cent a year over the next five years for the territory's public servants.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr told the conference the ACT government would continue to strengthen the conditions in the territory's public service and actively lift up some of its lowest-paid staff.
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