Unite members at the company's Corby warehouse had gone on strike twice in October after its employees were offered a less than adequate pay rise.

A third strike was postponed while negotiations resumed and OUP announced this week that a deal had been completed.

A statement said: "OUP can confirm that, following constructive discussions with Unite, we have reached agreement with union members at our warehouse in Corby in relation to the recent industrial dispute. We are pleased that we have been able to achieve an amicable solution, and believe the settlement is fair and reasonable."

Neither party will comment on the outcome of negotiations, but PrintWeek understands that employees will get a 2.5% pay increase in 2010, a 2.4% increase in 2011 and a one-off payment of £275.

However, Unite said that, almost as important as the pay deal, was an agreement from the company that its members will have a say in future changes to working practices.

Unite national officer Steve Sibbald said: "New production methods had been brought in and it was not received well by the members. It was resulting in disciplinaries when requirements, which we perceived to be unattainable, were not being met.

"There was an accumulated bad feeling, so when the wage disagreement came along the members were already disgruntled. The commitment to discuss and agree on new systems is as important as anything else."

Employees at Corby had been offered 2% pay increases, on the top of no pay increase last year, despite the rest of the company receiving 2% in both years. Members were pushing for 4.2% increases to bring them in line with the rest of the business.