| Construction workers, who face up to 30 per cent pay cuts because rogue employers are tearing up long held national agreements, will be demonstrating outside the Lindsey oil refinery and the next door Conoco Phillips refinery on Monday 26 September. Hundreds of workers, members of the country’s largest trade union, Unite, will be staging their protest at Total’s Lindsey oil refinery, Eastfield Road, North Killingholme, Immingham, North Lincolnshire, between 6.30am and 8am. Construction workers at the neighbouring Conoco Phillips refinery site will also be demonstrating at the same time. The two refineries combined are the largest producers of oil in the UK. Workers are angry over plans by Balfour Beatty and another seven breakaway construction companies, which impose semi-skilled grades in the mechanical and electrical sector. This move will decimate the sector leading to skilled workers being forced to work on semi-skilled grades and losing a third of their pay. Unite regional officer Chris Weldon said: ”Construction workers cannot afford to lose a third of their income. They have families to support and mortgages to pay. That is why workers are so determined to defend what they have. ”The companies that are playing hardball with our members are profitable. Their directors are receiving huge pay rises, yet they expect their highly skilled workforce to take swingeing pay cuts. ”This attack is going to cause unnecessary industrial unrest. These employers need to stop bullying their workers and negotiate with Unite.” Workers in five of the eight breakaway companies have been written to by their managers with a stark choice - sign new contracts on much inferior pay, and terms and conditions or face the sack on 7 December. The employers want to withdraw from five long-held agreements and replace them with a new agreement which will allow employers to introduce semi-skilled grades and dictate rather than negotiate on pay, holiday entitlement, overtime, and what constitutes away work. But five of the eight have upped the stakes. Balfour Beatty, Crown House Technologies, Spie Matthew Hall, Shepherd Engineering Services and NG Bailey have issued Unite with legal notice of their intention to dismiss, with notice, thousands of employees before re-engaging them on new inferior contracts. ENDS Notes to news editors: For further information, please contact Unite communication officer Liane Groves on 07793 661657 and or Unite regional officers Chris Weldon on 07958 701268 or Steve Syson on 07960 091887. The eight major break-away contractors currently involved are: Balfour Beatty Engineering Services Limited; N G Bailey Building Services; Crown House Technologies; Gratte Brothers; MJN Colston Limited; Spie Matthew Hall; Shepherd Engineering Services (SES); T.Clarke PLC Unite has been told by these major employers that they will no longer be party to the following agreements: JIB (Joint Industry Board for the Electrical Contracting Industry); SJIB (Scottish Joint Industry Board for the Electrical Contracting Industry); JIB-PMES (Joint Industry Board for Plumbing Mechanical Engineering Services in England and Wales); SNIJIB (Scottish and Northern Ireland Joint Industry Board for the Plumbing Industry); HVAC (National Agreement for the Heating, Ventilating, Air Conditioning, Piping and Domestic Engineering Industry); MPA (Major Projects Agreement) |