From 1st September more than 300 union members at Fawley, covered by the National Agreement for the Engineering Construction Industry (NAECI), will receive a £1.63 hourly bonus payment.
The deal follows a series of strikes at Fawley last autumn.
The same £1.63 an hour bonus payment will also be paid to more than 100 workers operating under the civils engineering agreement at the ExxonMobil refinery. In addition, a further eight workers who are not part of either agreement will get the payment.
The current agreement is for the bonus to be paid for four months until the end of December but union reps are already preparing to mount a campaign to maintain the payments for a longer period.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “The bonus payment deal at Fawley is an excellent example of how Unite’s focus on jobs, pay and conditions is having a direct financial benefit for our members.”
Unite regional officer Malcolm Bonnett said: “This deal would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of Unite’s reps and members at Fawley, Unite is determined to build on this deal and to continue to increase its industrial strength on the project.”
Meanwhile at Essar’s Stanlow Oil refinery in Ellsemere Port, an essential maintenance shutdown has been cancelled for fear of it being interrupted by industrial action, the GMB union reports. Up to 1,000 workers were due to work on the Ellsemere Port shutdown and they are currently in dispute with their employer.
GMB members involved in the project, also covered by the NAECI national agreement, voted to turn down a pay deal of 8.5% for 2024 and 3.5% for 2025. A strike vote begins next month.
ExxonMobil’s petrochemical plant in Mossmorran has also been hit by industrial action. Unite members working for Altrad, Bilfinger and Kaefer last week downed tools over health and safety warning signals and procedures not being in working operation across the plant – and the workforce not being informed.
The trades union has received reports from workers of broken alarm systems.
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