Union set for Grangemouth concession

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 24 Oktober 2013 | 15.36

23 October 2013 Last updated at 23:05 ET

Union leaders will make concessions to try to save Grangemouth petrochemical plant during a meeting with management.

All 800 employees were told they would lose their jobs when owner Ineos announced the closure of the facility.

Employees had rejected proposals by the firm to end their final salary pension scheme and cut shift allowances.

Ineos director, Tom Crotty, said the management team at Grangemouth would listen to what the union Unite would be saying.

He told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme: "If they believe there is substantial differences in where are are now then clearly they have a duty to take that back to the shareholders."

Unite remained hopeful, along with the Scottish and UK governments, that Ineos would reverse its decision.

However, the company had said while further meetings would be held in the coming days to discuss redundancies there were "no prospects" of returning to conciliation service Acas to revisit the decision to close the petrochemical plant.

Continue reading the main story
  • The dispute first flared up in the summer over the company's treatment of Unite official Stephen Deans, who has worked at Grangemouth for more than 20 years
  • He was accused of trying to rig the selection of a Labour candidate for the Falkirk seat at Westminster but was later cleared
  • But Ineos has been carrying out its own investigation into claims Mr Deans improperly used the refinery for union business. Its findings are due to be published on Friday
  • Unite members at Grangemouth had been due to strike last Sunday over Mr Dean's treatment
  • Ineos had closed the plant ahead of the industrial action and said it would not be restarting the facility even after the strike was called off
  • It said Grangemouth was losing huge amounts of money and faced going bust unless staff agreed to a survival plan
  • The proposals included changes to pay and conditions. They were rejected by about half of the site's workers
  • The decision that the petrochemical plant should close was taken at a meeting of Ineos shareholders, including chairman and founder Jim Ratcliffe, on Tuesday

Previously, Ineos said it was ready to invest £300m in Grangemouth if workers agreed to the new terms and conditions.

The company said it had decided to close the plant because half the workforce had refused to accept the cost-cutting plan essential for the facility's survival.

Mr Crotty said: "The shareholders, after the vote on Monday, and quite understandably, took a view that if the workforce had rejected that £300m investment then how were they going to go ahead and make it if the workforce were not behind that?"

About 800 of the 1,370 people directly employed at the Grangemouth complex work at the petrochemical plant, with many more working there as contractors.

The dispute at the site, near Falkirk, began over the treatment of a Unite union official and escalated to the threat of strike action.

This was dropped but the operator shut down the plant and issued an offer of revised terms and conditions in a "survival plan", which was rejected by union members.

Ineos chairman and founder Jim Ratcliffe had said at the weekend that if the petrochemical plant closed it was likely the neighbouring refinery would go as well.

The refinery provides most of the fuel to Scotland, the north of England and Northern Ireland.

Ineos had said liquidators for the petrochemical plant would be appointed within a week.

Unite's Scottish secretary Pat Rafferty said the union had made further proposals in an effort to "stave off catastrophic job losses".

Political moves

Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond spoke again to management and unions to try and seek further resolution. He also convened an emergency cabinet meeting with relevant ministers to discuss the on-going situation.

Afterwards he said there was still room for negotiation between both parties, particularly since Unite had put forward fresh proposals to the company.

Mr Salmond said: "We should give time for the proper consideration of this offer, especially given that we know an agreement between both sides was very close last week, and the prize is a viable future for Grangemouth.

"However, given that the current position is the one we always feared possible given the stalemate between the sides, if an agreement between Ineos and Unite is not possible then we will continue to pursue our contingency options of finding a buyer for the site."

Ministers - including the Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael and Energy Secretary Ed Davey - met in London to discuss this issue.

Mr Carmichael told the BBC's Newsnight Scotland programme that Mr Davey had a 40-minute "positive" talk with Mr Ratcliffe.


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