Around 140 UK North Sea workers employed by energy services company Petrofac are being balloted for strike action in a dispute over pay.
The Unite trade union said if the industrial action goes ahead it will have a major impact on the maintenance and running of Repsol’s North Sea platforms and the Flotta oil terminal in Scotland.
The ballot, closing on October 27, includes deck crew, platers, pipe fitters, electricians and riggers working on oil and gas fields Arbroath, Auk, Claymore, Clyde, Fulmar, Montrose, Piper, Saltire and Tartan and the Bleo Holm FPSO.
FPSO.The move follows Unite members rejecting a 3% pay offer with the broader measure of inflation standing at 12.3% and rising.
Unite has made a series of demands including the restoration of the onshore training day and medical payments along with the reinstatement of a 10% salary deduction worth up to £7,000. The salary cut was made in 2020 at the outset of the covid pandemic.
“The workforce have been left with no option but to vote in a ballot over strike action. The main issue our members are furious about is the 10% salary reduction in 2020 which has not been addressed. Operators are drowning in the profits they are making yet our members are seeing next to nothing. In fact, they are being offered a real terms pay cut.” said John Boland, Unite industrial officer.
