POLICE IN HUNT FOR OIL PLANT SABOTEUR
Ineos call in officers after worker shuts down plant
A DISGRUNTLED worker who sparked an emergency shutdown at Grangemouth refinery is being hunted by police.
Parent company Ineos, owned by billionaire tycoon Jim Ratcliffe, called in officers after an investigation into the incident.
A shutdown button on refinery equipment was activated on Wednesday – forcing a temporary closure of part of the plant.
Bosses believe the move was “a deliberate and malicious action”.
But they said it had not put staff or the plant at risk.
Police confirmed yesterday that inquiries into the alleged act of sabotage are “ongoing”.
A Grangemouth site spokesman said: “The emergency stop buttons are designed to shut down a piece of machinery or plant safely and efficiently, which is precisely what happened.”
A police spokesman said: “We have been made aware of an incident at a commercial premises in Grangemouth.”
Relations between staff and management at the refinery have been fraught in recent years.
Workers were forced to concede pay freezes and an end to final salary pensions after Ratcliffe, 64, closed the plant and threatened to walk away.
Last week, we revealed how the firm offered a wage rise of just 1.4 per cent to Grangemouth workers while bosses’ pay rocketed by 73 per cent for 2016.