Kaefer maintenance and repair contractors based at the Mossmorran plant started strike action this week.

Contractors, including scaffold inspectors and supervisors, riggers and rigging supervisors, forklift drivers, general assistants, and mechanical supervisors, walked out on Monday, with picket lines at both Mossmorran and Braefoot Bay.

Around 150 Kaefer workers based at Mossmorran NGL plant, as well as the St Fergus gas plant near Peterhead, have taken strike action, with their union Unite saying that without these essential workers, production will be severely impacted.

The industrial action, which ends on Monday, December 4, also involves a continuous overtime ban for 12 weeks. Unite’s members returned a 75 per cent yes vote for strike action.

The dispute centres on the contractor Kaefer not making a cost-of-living payment for 2023.

Unite says its membership has been left with "no option" but to take strike action in response to Kaefer’s failure to make such a payment, and it is blaming the operator Shell for the stand-off.

Sharon Graham, Unite general secretary, said: “Unite members employed by Kaefer at the Mossmorran and St Fergus plants have their union’s complete support as they start strike action.

"Kaefer and the operator Shell, who funds any deal, have refused to make our members a cost-of-living payment. To fund such a payment would be a tiny drop in Shell’s multi-billion-pound profit ocean.

"Unite will back our Kaefer members all the way in their fight for better jobs, pay and conditions.”

Unite said the workers’ pay was linked to the National Agreement for Engineering Construction Industry (NAECI) pay award. NAECI workers secured a supplementary cost of living payment of an extra £1 for every hour worked between January and the end of June 2023. After that date the supplementary payment became 75 pence an hour.

The payment was made following a NAECI pay increase of just 2.5 per cent for 2023.

The Mossmorran and St Fergus Kaefer contractors did not receive the supplementary cost of living payment.

Bob MacGregor, Unite industrial officer, added: “The Kaefer contractors based at Mossmorran and St Fergus deserve a cost of living payment. It’s a damning indictment on both Kaefer and Shell that our members have been forced into taking strike action to get a payment.

“Shell, who own the plants, is amassing billions in the bank and Kaefer is also profitable. We will not rule out further action unless the company gets back round the negotiating table.”