A UNION representing hundreds of Amazon workers who downed tools over a pay dispute insists that the strike is not over.

In August, more than 200 employees at the online retail giant's Symmetry Park warehouse staged a three-day sit-in at the canteen because they felt a 35p-per-hour pay rise would not be enough to cope with their increased workload and rising costs of living.

One worker described the offer as next to nothing given the severity of the economic situation and he worried about how he would pay the bills.

Afterwards, the business' bosses decided to give the entire UK workforce an extra £500 bonus between now and Christmas in a move they said was not related to the recent strike.

The GMB union, which represents staff in negotiations with the company, assumed this bonus was meant as a solution to the workers' worries and rejected any suggestion that the industrial action will stop.

Regional organiser David McMullen said: "GMB does not agree with the fact that the strike is over at all. Despite what Amazon might wish or claim.

"One of the regional strike ballots missed the punishing legal threshold by three votes, but over 99 per cent of those ballots returned were in favour of taking action.

"Amazon workers are angry. This latest ballot result is just a stepping stone on their journey in the fight for £15 an hour.

"GMB is continually in discussion with our members at the Swindon depot about how best to take that fight forward, which is not over by a long chalk.

"We are committed to supporting our members not just in reaching fair pay but in protecting them in the workplace so ambulances stop being a daily occurrence."

The Amazon facility's general manager David Tindall told the Adver earlier this month: “We had three days of some disruption from associates worried about the cost of living.

“I talked to the associates myself and I understand their concerns. “As a thank you, we are giving an extra £500 across the UK between now and Christmas on top of the pay rise we gave this year.

“I don’t decide the pay across the UK, but I did listen to them and fed back what they were saying.

“We had strong feedback from associates, that they were finding the cost of living quite difficult, so that’s why we are giving them a bonus going into Christmas.”