Foinaven workers announce strike

The Petrojarl Foinaven.

Unite the union has confirmed a huge majority of its members on the Foinaven floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) have voted to take strike action.

The Foinaven field is situated approximately 120 miles to the west of Shetland.

Production from the field was suspended in 2021 and the FPSO is currently in the process of being removed from the site.

Unison says the dispute centres on offshore members being given a significantly inferior redundancy package compared with the onshore workforce of Altera, the vessel’s operating firm.

A total 84 per cent of the union’s members participated in the vote, with 96 per cent of those voting to go on strike as of 5th August.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Our offshore members working on the Foinaven FPSO vessel are rightly aggrieved at being treated as second class workers by Altera.

“Unite will challenge the company on this. We don’t do our members being treated as ‘second class’. All our members are asking for, is parity in the redundancy package due to the contract coming to an end.”

It has emerged that Altera onshore staff are set to receive redundancy payments of one month’s salary for each completed year of service up to a maximum of one years salary. Meanwhile, offshore workers were being offered basic statutory redundancy.

Altera has been contacted for comment.