The first-ever industrial action over pay and conditions in the British Information Technology industry could happen in December. Trade union Unite has informed Radio ORLA that it plans to strike against employer Fujitsu.

Unite, the largest union in the UK said on Thursday it has served notice of a three day strike on IT services company Fujitsu to take place on 12, 13 and 16 November. This follows the vote of Unite members in the company by a majority of 75 percent voting for industrial action and 92 percent voting for action short of a strike in a ballot announced earlier this week.

According to the union, this would be the first ever national strike in the IT sector in the UK.  Members of the PCS union will also be taking part in strike action.

The strike is over proposals for 1200 redundancies in the UK starting in December, a pay freeze imposed earlier this year, and plans by the company's to close the final salary pension scheme to future accrual, reducing the total pay package of each affected employee by typically around 20 per cent.

Clients of Fujitsu include the Royal Air Force, various UK government ministries such as the Department of Works and Pensions, DEFRA, HM Revenue & Customs, the UK Post Office, communications group Talk Talk, and media agency Thomson Reuters.

Despite the recession, Fujitsu Services continues to make profits, with a £200m profit before taxation last year, while the parent company is cash rich, having raised over $900m from a share sale. Announcing the latest results on 28 October, the Fujitsu President highlighted that for the first half of the year, the company beat its earnings target despite a very challenging business environment.

Fujitsu employs around 12,000 people in the UK. Fujitsu’s main sites are at Bracknell, Stevenage, Manchester, Crewe, Belfast, Staines, Basingstoke, Wakefield, Sheffield, Solihull, Slough, Lewes, Warrington, Cardiff, Bristol, Newcastle and London.