Even though O2 UK is going to be offering the new iPhone 4, it appears all is not rosy in the O2 garden, as a potential industrial dispute is waiting to happen in the wings over a disputed pay rise of 2 percent.

According to an article over on Mobile Today, the Communication Workers Union has warned that O2 is on a slippery slope to a “damaging dispute” unless they improve on their 2 percent pay offer.

Apparently the Communication Workers Union predicts their members will reject O2‘s offer in a consultative ballot that ends on the 29th of June, and says O2 staff are angry at the 2 percent offer mainly due to a pay settlement of some 4.3 percent at Telefonica owned Manx Telecom.

Ian Cuthbert, assistant secretary of the Communication Workers Union has said, “We’re confident that’s not the case. We believe our members are genuinely angry and disappointed that the better relations achieved with O2 following last year’s pay round has been needlessly squandered. The CWU negotiating team unanimously believes that offer is shabby – equating to less than half the benchmark inflation rate which was 4.4 per cent in March, with RPI even higher now.”