About 250 members of the RMT - the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers - have voted for industrial action as a result of changes they say will compromise passenger safety, lead to a cut in jobs and reduce pay. But DLR owner Serco Docklands says the proposals are to make passengers more secure by increasing the number of staff at stations.

The company says under the current plans some existing staff would increase their time on trains and 15 fresh recruits would work only on stations. They would be recruited on new pay and terms and conditions.

The company insists there would be no loss of pay and no redundancies for station staff.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said the plans "were dangerous nonsense" that would result in experienced, skilled staff spending less time at stations.

He said: "Serco are misleading the travelling public when they say they will have more people on duty because they know they will have fewer people with the skills and experience to deal with an emergency.

"Serco's penny-pinching is so bad they have even withdrawn their sweetener of early retirement and redundancy and for some of our members these plans mean a £5,000 pay cut and a pay freeze until 2010."

Serco managing director Tony Thomas said: "We are astonished to hear the union have rejected this new proposal out of hand and have announced a strike date."

He said he believed many members of staff were happy with the plans."

He added: "We have contingency plans in place and I would like to reassure our passengers that we will minimise the disruption to services should the strike go ahead."

Serco claims DLR services will run to all destinations on Monday but service frequency may be affected.