Sullom Voe Terminal restructuring rejected by union members

Members of the Unite union at Sullom Voe Terminal have rejected proposals by EnQuest to restructure the company.

In a consultative ballot, 93 per cent of Unite members voted to reject EnQuest’s proposed changes to terms and conditions.

Ninety-seven per cent of members also opposed the company’s proposed changes to the organisation.

There are currently around 250 workers based at the terminal, of which ownership passed from BP to EnQuest in December 2017.

EnQuest announced in July that it planned to cut its workforce by a quarter. The company held a six-week consultation on the reduction of 60 full-time employees and 20 contractor positions.

The company also proposed the renegotiation of the existing terms and conditions of the workforce by January 2020 in order to be “commercially competitive”.

Unite regional industrial officer John Clark said: “Members have emphatically rejected the proposed changes at Sullom Voe by EnQuest.

“The announcement by the company in July to reduce the workforce by a quarter and to significantly weaken the existing terms and conditions took everyone by surprise.

“Unite pledged to do everything we could to support the workforce following this all-out attack, which is why we have been consulting with our members through this difficult period on the next steps.

“The fierce opposition to EnQuest’s proposals now means that we move to the next stage in the dispute process before we reach the stage of possibly balloting for industrial action.”

• More in next week’s Shetland Times.