Around 50 employees, members of the Unite union, have pledged to walk out at the factory in Seacroft, Leeds, after being offered a pay rise they described as “paltry”.

The strike is due to start at 7am on Sunday and end at 7am on 22 September.

According to the union, the company had offered a one-off non-consolidated payment for the pay year April 2015 to April 2016 and then a 0.5% rise.

Both offers were rejected by the workers, who voted by a margin of 62% for strike action, it said.

Unite regional officer Chris Daly said: “Our members don’t feel that the management has made any meaningful effort to engage in realistic pay talks, especially as the company is profitable. The current pay offer is paltry.

“Our members have seen their pay packets eroded in real terms as there has been a pay freeze for at least two years, while their German counterparts working for the same company have received 3% this year.

“We would urge the firm to get around the table, under the auspices of the conciliation service Acas, for constructive talks to resolve this pay dispute.”

Site manager Graham Cooper said the details of the pay offer were not as simple as Unite has described but said he did not want to "negotiate via journalists".

“We’ve already tried to go to Acas to no avail. We’ve brought Acas in, we’ve had a conciliator on site. He was unable to find common ground so they are going on strike.”

He added that it was impossible to compare terms and conditions between countries.

“They [the Leeds workers] get lots of things the German plant doesn’t get. Everything’s different.”

He said he believed the deal on the table was fair given current market conditions and zero inflation.

“Our business is in an extremely competitive situation. For example the Kodak plant just outside Leeds closed a couple of weeks ago.

“It’s really sad that this is happening and our workers are going to lose pay. It’s a sad position we’ve come to.”

Agfa plate manufacturing is organised on a global level, with European production facilities feeding work into a central hub in Belgium, before being shipped to customers.

Cooper declined to say what products are manufactured at the site, which covers about 9ha and employs around 100 staff.

“We make a variety of products but we don’t give out that sort of information,” Cooper said. “Agfa Graphics has got a network of plants across Europe for the UK customer so deliveries will not be affected.”

Agfa Graphics UK/Eire country manager Joergen Vad, also wanted to reassure customers.

“The site manager has informed me. It’s a local dispute and there will not be any disruption to any customers because there is no direct delivery.”

Agfa’s Leeds site opened in 1980 and was previously acquired by Agfa from DuPont. It makes printing plates for industrial printers.