Wood Group, trade unions suspend strikes on Shell’s North Sea platforms

Wood Group and trade unions have agreed to suspend upcoming strikes. SocialistWorker.co.uk photo.

Wood Group employees dispute pay cuts, working conditions

Aug 11 (Reuters) – Wood Group and trade unions Unite and RMT have agreed to suspend strikes announced on Tuesday and restart the process to resolve a dispute over pay cuts and working conditions for Wood Group workers employed on Shell’s North Sea oil and gas platforms.

The trade unions said they had planned strikes by workers of Wood Group, an energy services company, on Curlew, Brent Alpha, Brent Bravo, Nelson, Gannet, Shearwater, Brent Charlie platforms starting Aug. 15 through Sept. 3.

A Shell spokesman said the company encourages Wood Group’s employees and management to continue their discussions in an effort to reach agreement.

Hundreds of maintenance workers on North Sea platforms had started a 48-hour strike over a pay dispute but field production or maintenance schedules were not affected, Shell said on Aug. 4.

As many as 120,000 oil workers are expected to have lost their jobs by the end of this year in an industry-wide clampdown on costs as weak oil prices have reduced profits.

(Reporting by Rama Venkat Raman in Bengaluru; Editing by Grant McCool and Leslie Adler)