Union threatens strike at BP Rotterdam refinery

There will be strike action at BP's 393,700 b/d refinery in Rotterdam unless the company improves its pay offer to employees, according to trade union FNV.

The union has given BP a one month ultimatum and is awaiting a response. It said it will look at a strike if the company does not make a new offer complying with its demands by 11 December.

"Our members massively voted down an earlier offer from BP," said FNV director Egbert Schellenberg.

Among other things, the union wants BP to accelerate the progress of young employees to the higher pay grades, a 5pc pay rise for all its members at the refinery and improved compensation for overtime. The union negotiates on behalf of 500 of the refinery's 800 employees.

Rotterdam is the second largest refinery in Europe and accounts for nearly 3pc of the region's capacity. Co-ordinated strikes shut down all but one refinery in France in October, taking more than 900,000 b/d of capacity offline at one point, causing a severe shortage of fuels in France that sucked diesel out of the international markets and pushed regional prices to their highest ever premium over crude.

All the French strikes have now finished, but workers at Russian firm Lukoil's 320,000 b/d Priolo refinery in Sicily are planning a strike on 18 November, to protest uncertainty over the future of the site. That refinery is the second largest in the Mediterranean region.

By Benedict George