Talks due over refinery strikes

Workers are angry at the use of foreign labour

Talks between both sides in the dispute over foreign workers at the Lyndsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire will begin on Monday morning, the BBC has learnt.

The news comes as Business Secretary Lord Mandelson urged workers planning to take "sympathy strike" action on Monday to call off their protests.

The government has also said it might challenge EU law to stop cheap foreign labour "undercutting" British workers.

It said European Court of Justice rulings had "undermined" protections.

The developments come in the wake of wildcat strikes across the UK over the use of foreign labour at a Total-owned oil refinery.

Changing EU law would need the agreement of other member states and could take years to get through and the Lib Dems warned challenging EU labour laws would be a "huge, self-defeating step too far".

Discrimination claim

Speaking on BBC One's Andrew Marr show, Health Secretary Alan Johnson, a former trade union leader, said: "If workers are being brought across here on worse terms and conditions to actually get jobs in front of British workers, on the basis of dumbing down the terms and conditions, that would be wrong and I can understand the anger about that."

He said both the government and trade unions strongly backed EU laws on the free movement of labour but that some of the protections in EU law may have been "undermined" by recent judgements in the European Court of Justice.

Hundreds walked out last week in a series of strikes around the UK in protest at the use of Italian and Portuguese labour at the Lindsey refinery.

Mr Brown says the government will help workers facing redundancy

There is concern industrial action could flare up again this week.

Contractors at nuclear power sites in Sellafield in Cumbria and Heysham in Lancashire, are due to decide whether to join the unofficial walkouts.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown told BBC One's Politics show he understood workers' fears over jobs, but said walkouts were "not the right thing to do".

Lord Mandelson said he hoped the strikes would be called off after Total issued a statement maintaining that firms from the UK were not barred from bidding for subcontracts.

The firm said it sub-contracted "on a fair and non-discriminatory basis" and that wage rates were the same as for equivalent jobs on site.

Labour laws

It would work with sub-contractors to ensure British workers were treated fairly, it added.

Lord Mandelson said arguments over rulings by the European Court were a separate issue.

The European Court of Justice has recently provided interpretations of the EU's Posted Workers Directive, which seeks to ensure companies cannot use foreign employees to get round domestic labour laws and pay rates.

Its rulings suggest a company should be free to decide how it is staffed and free to provide the services it wishes.

The most significant concerned a Latvian company, Laval, which had a contract to build schools in Sweden.

This form of contract clearly cannot go on Frank Field, Labour MP Brown criticises wildcat strikes

Laval claimed its freedom to use a Latvian workforce was being inhibited by attempts to block the move by Swedish unions. Its complaint was upheld.

Unions in the UK suggest this ruling has now enabled foreign companies to discriminate against British workers for jobs.

Former Labour minister Frank Field, co-chairman of a cross-party group on immigration, urged Mr Brown to push for a change in EU law to protect workers.

"This form of contract clearly cannot go on - where contracts are awarded and there's free movement of companies but those companies then restrict who can apply for those jobs.

"That clearly has got to change and tomorrow [Monday] I hope he'll make an announcement, saying that if that is the law, then the law in the European Union is actually going to be changed."

Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party, which campaigns for Britain's exit from the EU, said: "'British jobs for British workers' will only happen when Britain is run by and for Britons."

'Massive influx'

But the Lib Dems warned against any move by the government to exempt Britain from EU employment laws.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said: "The truth is that twice as many British people live and work in the EU than EU citizens work here. Any attempt to ban EU citizens from jobs in Britain would be a massive own goal.

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"If every EU country followed suit, we would have to cope with a massive influx of British people who work overseas.

"Pulling out of the labour rules in Europe would be a huge, self-defeating step too far."

The Conservatives said they understood people's fears about unemployment but said strikes were "not the way forward".

Shadow foreign secretary William Hague said the Conservatives "strongly supported" the free movement of Labour within the EU.

But he said the British government was not doing enough to protect and create jobs, such as by offering tax rebates to firms who take on people who have been out of work for three months, as the Tories propose.