News / Gas plant industrial relations crisis averted
AN INDUSTRIAL relations crisis at the Shetland Gas Plant was averted on Friday after a group of around 60 scaffolders and labourers said they had been sacked by their employer.
By late afternoon chief contractor Petrofac said no one had been sacked and the trade union Unite was sending its regional organiser to the islands to resolve the situation.
The crisis began when disgruntled workmen employed by scaffolding contractor Bilfinger refused to work beyond 1pm, which they insisted was all their contracts required of them on a Friday.
The men told Shetland News their actions stemmed from anger with changes brought in since they returned to work after the Christmas and New Year break, which involved sharing rooms and losing washing time.
They added that they were now being forced to travel to and from work and change in and out of their working clothes during their own time when they were not being paid.
Two years ago there were protests about sharing twin rooms at the 450-room Sella Ness accommodation block, with workers complaining of lack of sleep. Industrial action over travel payments was also resolved at the time.
A spokesman for the group said they were having to share even though half the rooms in the buiding were now lying empty after the workforce was reduced.
“As a body of men we thought we would just work our contracted hours today, but they said if you leave at 1pm we will sack you,” the spokesman said.
“They would not provide a bus so we have had to walk the one and a half miles back to Sella Ness with the traffic going past us and it teeming down with rain.
“But we don’t think we have done anything wrong because we have worked our contracted hours.”
The company disputes this, saying the men are contracted to work until 5pm on a Friday.
Within three hours of the incident blowing up, the trade union and management had resolved the situation temporarily with work scheduled to return to normal on Saturday.
Unite regional organiser John Boland will meet management on site on Monday afternoon to resolve the issue.
Boland said: “I think we have got things calmed down a wee bit and the guys will be working as per normal over the weekend.”
Petrofac, meanwhile, insisted that it had sacked no one from the site, pointing out that the men in question were employed by Bilfinger Industrial Services.
Bilfinger was unavailable for comment on Friday afternoon.
In February Petrofac announced it had lost £300 million on the Shetland Gas Plant contract, which had a budget of £800 million to construct.
The plant started producing gas that month, around 18 months behind schedule, but the building project has not been completed.
This year the company introduced transitional arrangements, changing the terms and conditions under which the contract is to be completed.
Become a member of Shetland News
Shetland News is asking its many readers to consider paying for membership to get additional features and services: -
- Remove non-local ads;
- Bookmark posts to read later;
- Exclusive curated weekly newsletter;
- Hide membership messages;
- Comments open for discussion.
If you appreciate what we do and feel strongly about impartial local journalism, then please become a member of Shetland News by either making a single payment, or setting up a monthly, quarterly or yearly subscription.
Already a member? Sign in to hide this message.
