Staff at Fujitsu Services in Belfast are this week being balloted about possible strike action over a pay and pensions row.

The Unite union said 1,500 of its members at Fujitsu in the UK, including Belfast, would be asked about industrial action.

It estimates that a pension scheme change proposed by the Japanese-owned IT services firm could reduce the total pay package of each employee by around 20%.

In late August, Fujitsu announced proposals for 1,200 redundancies in the UK and the unions said it has since put 6,000 people at risk of redundancy, around 50% of its UK workforce of 12,500.

The company, which has around 700 employees in centres in Belfast and Londonderry, confirmed to the Belfast Telegraph there would likely be very little impact on the workforce at its Northern Ireland operations.

The union has served seven days notice to the company of the ballot which will begin on Monday, October 12. The ballot result is expected to be available after October 30.

Joanne McWilliams of Unite said: "Unite members are asking why they should lose their jobs and tighten their belts when last year the company paid out about £150m to shareholders and around £1.6m to two directors as compensation for loss of office.

"The company imposed a pay freeze on British staff earlier this year just a week before it was due to take effect, withdrawing promised pay rises to employees.

"Fujitsu remains a highly profitable company and our members are insisting that the company must treat them fairly and increase pay, provide decent pensions, and consult meaningfully to minimise job losses and avoid compulsory redundancy."

A spokesman for Fujitsu said the company was not making any comment on the Unite ballot.

Unite members previously voted for industrial action as part of a UK-wide consultative ballot against a proposal to close the company's main final salary pension scheme and the imposition of a pay freeze.

In the ballot 87% of members voted in favour of strike action and 96% in favour of industrial action short of a strike.

Some 4,000 employees in the main defined benefit pension plan are expected to be affected by Fujitsu's plans to close the scheme to future accrual.

Unite said it believes the company intends to force this through by dismissing employees after the end of the consultation period in October, and offering them employment on new contracts which are unchanged, except in relation to pensions.