Unite claims ExxonMobil and contractors failing in ‘authorized obligation’ to guard and pay employees

Round 200 members of Unite the union had withdrawn their labour over well being and security considerations at ExxonMobil’s petrochemical plant in Mossmorran, the union reported on 17 August.

Unite stated employees downed instruments on Tuesday (15 August) over well being and security warning indicators and procedures not being in full working operation throughout the plant and the workforce not being knowledgeable of this, or any procedures put in place to guard them.

The commerce union stated it had acquired experiences from employees citing repeated examples over a yr that alarm programs usually are not working in areas on the petrochemical plant and employees not being notified. That is legally required within the occasion of any leakages, blasts or publicity to hazardous supplies and chemical substances on the plant.

Unite’s members had subsequently withdrawn their labour below the phrases of UK laws, Employment Rights Act 1996 Part 44 and 100. The laws states that employees have the ‘proper’ to withdraw from, and to refuse to return to a office that’s unsafe, with out being topic to any detriment together with the lack of wages.

“ExxonMobil and the contractors are up to now, refusing to pay the employees following the withdrawal of labour below the laws’s phrases.”

Unite common secretary Sharon Graham stated: “Unite will robustly defend the authorized proper of our members to withdraw their labour over well being and security considerations at ExxonMobil’s Mossmorran plant. It’s fully unacceptable that the corporate and the varied contractors on website are refusing to pay our members their wages. It is a authorized obligation and never open to interpretation. Our members will probably be receiving their union’s unflinching help.”

Unite’s members at ExxonMobil’s plant are employed on building engineering upkeep contracts and they’re cut up between totally different contractors on the plant: Altrad, Bilfinger, and Kaefer.

The commerce union was additional calling on the Well being and Security Government to right away examine. There have been numerous recorded incidents on the plant over security, the chance of air pollution and environmental injury.

Bob MacGregor, Unite industrial officer, added: “Unite’s members working for Altrad, Bilfinger, and Kaefer on the Mossmorran plant are rightly livid at probably being uncovered to harmful chemical substances on account of failings within the plant’s security procedures.”

“So as to add insult to damage, ExxonMobil and the contractors are refusing to pay the wages of the employees following the withdrawal of labour on well being and security grounds. This isn’t an remoted incident, these security breaches and failings have been ongoing for round a yr and nothing up to now has been resolved.”

“That’s why Unite is looking for the Well being and Security Government to urgently intervene as a result of seriousness of the claims, and the chequered historical past of the plant.”