UNION LEADERS welcomed the decision by strikers at the Lindsey Oil Refinery in Lincolnshire to return to work yesterday after the conclusion of a deal to resolve the protest against the use of “foreign” labour on a new contract there.
The agreement should enable British workers to be considered for some 102 jobs previously intended for the Italian subcontractor’s permanent workforce.
The deal was described by Derek Simpson, joint leader of the Unite union, as “a good deal which establishes the principle of fair access for UK workers on British construction sites”.
Relief for prime minister Gordon Brown and the government was tempered, however, by Mr Simpson’s warning that the Lindsey dispute was part of “a wider problem” around the EU’s posted worker directive guaranteeing the free movement of services.
As attention shifted to another dispute, at Staythorpe in Nottinghamshire, Mr Simpson said: “There are still employers who are excluding UK workers from even applying for work on construction projects. No European worker should be barred from applying for a British job and absolutely no British worker should be barred from applying for a British job.”
Business minister Pat McFadden strongly defended the free movement of labour during questions in the House of Commons, telling MPs: “The recent report of the European Commission showed there are 47,000 UK-posted workers in the rest of the EU, three times more than the 15,000 posted workers from the rest of the EU working here in the UK.”
However, the confusion about the government’s interpretation and expectation of the EU directive was again evident as Mr McFadden said they had been told all subcontractors at Lindsey were required to pay according to industry-agreed rates.