Government is ready to step in if CableVision workers take industrial action on Monday over pay.

The union's 21-day strike notice expired yesterday, but Labour Minister Terry Lister said the union had indicated it would not take any action before consulting members on Monday.

He said: "... from the start it would be industrial action short of a strike if they are not happy."

Mr. Lister said any action would be short lived as he would then refer it to arbitration under the Trade Disputes Act.

He said: "Both sides have said that if it goes to arbitration that's all right."

CableVision general manager Jeremy Elmas said both sides had given their final offer.

He said: "We reached a point where they were asking for a quite dramatic increase - ten times the consumer price index."

Mr. Lister said the union believed they were being paid less than workers in similar organisations such as TBI and Telco, so they are pushing for pay parity.

Mr. Elmas said the contract had been up in December 31, 2001 but negotiations only started in May this year.

He said he had been given a letter by the union in August last year asking when talks could start.

He said: "I told them I was available in October, 2001 but they did not respond until May 2002."

He said the union had indicated they were willing to take action at the turn of this month.

He said: "We made a final offer and said if you don't accept it we should go straight to arbitration.

"I have been assured by the shop steward that there was never an intent of walking out.

"They did send a notice that there may be some industrial action so I don't know if that means working slower or a sick out or something like that."

Mr. Elmas said the company had suggested voluntary arbitration several weeks ago but no date had been selected yet and the union had not replied.

"They suggested we go to mediation but that's non-binding so we figured why not go to arbitration?"

He said the company were trying to bring in a new shift system but there was no sign this was a problem with workers.

"Since we have a new service level agreement and our customers typically want to have their TV serviced during the hours they watch it, which is after five o'clock and at the weekend, we see a shift system as a requirement to provide high quality service."