About 400 North Sea oil workers have gone on strike for 24 hours over plans to cut their pay and allowances. Members of the RMT and Unite unions employed by the Wood Group on Shell platforms have walked out. The seven Shell platforms involved are Shearwater, Gannet, Nelson, Curlew, Brent Alpha, Brent Bravo and Brent Charlie. Wood Group provides maintenance and construction services to the installations
The unions claim workers could suffer a cut to their pay and allowances of up to 30%. Workers are also disgruntled that a two-week working cycle has been changed to a three-week cycle. leaving many away from their families for a longer time.
RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: "After savage redundancies and attacks on workload and working conditions, this group of offshore workers are now told that they are going to be railroaded into accepting pay cuts of up to 30%. We are well aware that the company chief executive has had a pay increase of 28% to bring him up to £600,000. It is obscene that while the top bosses are lining their own pockets they are kicking the workforce from pillar to post. This brave group of workers are taking a stand against the greed and savagery that is a mark of corporate Britain in 2016."
John Boland, Unite regional officer said: "This dispute is the first in the North Sea in three decades and shows the strength of feeling of our members who feel backed into a corner and left with no other option but to use their industrial strength to make Wood Group listen. Our members have been faced with changes to shift patterns which have seen them working longer offshore for the same pay, as well as having three rounds of redundancies imposed on them. This attack on their pay and allowances has pushed our members too far this time."
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