Workers responsible for constructing and maintaining some of the UK’s most critical infrastructure have voted to take strike action over a pay dispute
Employees at the Stanlow, Fawley, Valero, Grangemouth, and Mossmorran oil refineries have voted to take strike action, alongside workers at the Sellafield nuclear facility.
Drax and Hartlepool nuclear power station employees will also announce strike action in the coming days.
These workers, who fall under the National Agreement for the Engineering Construction Industry (NAECI), rejected a proposed pay increase of 8.5% for 2024 and 3.5% for 2025.
Despite a last-minute attempt by contractors to improve the offer to a 10% raise in January 2024, followed by a 5% increase in 2025, the workers still voted to strike.
The Blue Book agreement
The NAECI’s Blue Book agreement is 8,000 workers in this sector, nearly half employed at mainstream refinery and power station sites nationwide.
Workers are responsible for constructing new critical infrastructure and maintaining and repairing power stations, oil refineries, pharmaceutical plants, and petrochemical facilities.
The Blue Book sets employment terms for hourly-paid engineering construction workers across various projects in the UK. The NJC, representing employers (ECIA, TICA, Select) and unions (Unite the Union, GMB), manages the agreement and negotiations.
If the NAECI hasn’t been formally adopted at a specific site, individual contractors can register their workforce numbers with the NJC to use it.
The GMB will consider further strike action
Over 50 representatives from the GMB and Unite unions within the industry will convene to discuss their next course of action.
’Our members’ pay has fallen over 20 per cent behind inflation. The employers have forced our members into a position where they are taking part in industrial action ballots of this scale for the first time in their careers,” said Charlotte Brumpton-Childs, national officer at the GMB.
“The message from the workforce is loud and clear: value their work,” she concluded.
