Unofficial strike series in Britain ends after refinery deal

Jun 26, 2009, 9:50 GMT

London - A series of unofficial strikes at a Total-owned oil refinery in Britain came to an end Friday after a deal was agreed to resolve a bitter row over job guarantees.

Employers and trade union leaders at the Lindsey plant, in Lincolnshire, eastern Britain, signed the deal late Thursday after thousands of workers at other plants in Britain had come out in support during the last week.

Trade unions said the deal involved the reinstatement of 647 workers at the oil refinery who were sacked for taking unofficial action in protest at the laying off of 51 employees by a sub-contractor some 10 days ago.

'The employers have agreed to reinstate all the sacked workers. We welcome the part the employers played in agreeing these proposals,' said a statement from the Unite trade union.

It is believed the 51 workers will also be offered jobs as part of the agreement. Unions were also reported to have won assurances that thousands of workers at power stations and oil and gas terminals who took sympathy action will not be victimised.

The Lindsey plant has been troubled by the issue of hiring foreign contract workers on a building site, with trade unions insisting that they had been given guarantees that no British workers would be laid off while foreign labour was deployed at the site.

French-owned Total had denied that such an agreement existed. Supplies were at no point affected by the protests, which also spread to the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing site in north-west Britain.