Ineos lambasts Unite as furious pay row erupts

Union will ballot workers on direct action if company doesn’t roll back

Strike action at Scotland’s largest industrial complex looked inevitable last night after petrochemicals giant Ineos effectively drummed Unite the union off site.

The pair are at loggerheads over a pay deal for workers in the chemicals and infrastructure units at Grangemouth.

In a letter to staff seen by The Courier, Ineos said it would no longer work with Unite and would instead unilaterally impose its proposed pay award.

The company said the move would see the majority of staff within the units receive a pay award in excess of 17% in their April wage slip.

However, Unite, which is seeking a 3.25% pay award, blasted the company and said if there was no U-turn it would ballot its workers for industrial action.

It said Ineos had offered a 2.8% rise for newer staff and a 1.4% lump sum for employees with longer service.

“If there’s to be reasonable balance and fairness in the workplace, Ineos needs to recognise that workers have a right to a collective, democratic voice through their union,” Unite’s Scottish Secretary Pat Rafferty said.

“Employers can’t just go ahead and do what they like without consultation and negotiation.

“If Ineos doesn’t change its mind, we will simply go through the normal legal procedures, and push for an independent ballot of workers.

“When that happens, we are confident of the outcome.

“Workers know that the only effective way they can protect themselves is to stand strong and united in a democratic union that works for them.”

The dispute has echoes of previous industrial unrest in 2008 and in 2013.

During the latter row, Ineos boss Jim Ratcliffe ordered the closure of the troubled site, threatening thousands of jobs in the process.

The company eventually rolled back on the closure decision when Unite agreed to its demands, but tensions have simmered ever since.

Ineos said it had agreed with Unite at the start of the pay negotiations last year that Mark Lyon – a central figure in the 2013 dispute – would play no part in this review.

In his letter to staff, John McNally, CEO of Ineos O&P UK, said it had since emerged that Mr Lyon was effectively leading the Unite negotiation team.

He alleged Mr Lyon’s first action in the current dispute was to “avoid a meaningful vote” on Ineos’s pay offer and delay a resolution being made.

The company, which has brought forward a £450 million investment package in Grangemouth since the 2013 dispute, said it was no longer willing to work with Unite and had terminated two collective bargaining agreements.

“We will defend your right to be represented by a union, although other options such as through a works council can be envisaged, but not by Unite,” Mr McNally wrote.

“Not by a union that denigrates individual employees of our company at a public meeting. Not by a union that has an agenda of revenge against Ineos.

“And not by a union that uses our employees as pawns in a bigger political game.”

Ineos boss Jim Ratcliffe, top, and Mark Lyon, who is said to be leading the Unite negotiations.