Wage cut: UK union not happy with BP plans
UK union not happy with BP's plan
One of the main unions representing the UK offshore oil and gas industry responded angrily today to plans from oil giant BP and its contractors to reduce wages in order to cut costs.
A BP spokeswoman said the changes still honor existing pay agreements and cutting costs is important for the future of the business.
"Our North Sea business is not sustainable at current oil and gas prices. We need to take action to protect activity levels and jobs," she said.
But Willie Wallace, regional officer for Unite in Aberdeen, Scotland, said oil companies had "conveniently forgotten the record profits they made last year on the back of high oil prices and now that the oil price has fallen they want to attack our members' well earned wages."
"BP are looking to make significant savings in the North Sea and they are asking our members to bear the brunt of the cost savings" through measures including wage cuts, said Wallace. "Our members offshore have already reacted with anger at the level of the proposed cuts."
The BP spokeswoman said that over the years, BP had paid certain discretionary payments, a Dow Jones Newswire report said.
"In the past, all OCA workers would get paid one hour overtime whether they worked it or not ... now we will only pay for overtime or a night shift when it is actually worked," she said.
Workers will meet in the next few weeks to determine their response to the plan, the Unite union said.
The cuts will affect around 800 workers for contractors AMEC, John Wood Group, Sparrows Offshore, RBG, BIS Salamis, PSN and Cape, Wallace said.
The contractors have begun a 90-day consultation with their workers on the proposals.
Construction projects at power plants, chemical plants, refineries and gas import terminals were affected last week when more than 4000 contractors staged unofficial strike action to protest job losses at Total's Lindsey oil refinery in eastern England.