Deal hope in foreign workers row

Workers say the action is not racist, but about discrimination against Britons

A possible solution to the row over the use of foreign staff at the Lindsey Oil Refinery in Lincolnshire will be put to union leaders later.

It follows talks aimed at settling the dispute which have been chaired by conciliation service Acas.

It said conclusions reached on Tuesday would be discussed with unions and a mass meeting of workers.

A GMB union source told the BBC that the proposed deal offered half of the disputed 200 jobs to UK workers.

The row broke out at the Lindsey plant, which is owned by French company Total, last week.

Workers there are angry that a contract for work to expand the refinery was sub-contracted by Total's main contractor - engineering firm Jacobs - to an Italian company, IREM, which decided to use its own workforce of Italian and Portuguese labour.

Total insists it is not discriminating against British workers and that the decision to award the contract was fair.

But protests at Lindsey have spread across the UK with workers at sites in Plymouth, Fife, Cheshire, North Yorkshire, Essex and Hampshire holding unofficial walkouts in solidarity.

Jobs shared

Talks involving the main parties in the dispute began on Monday at a hotel near Grimsby.

On Tuesday night, Acas released a statement saying: "Conclusions are to be discussed with a large group of local trade union officials first thing tomorrow morning.

"This will be followed by a mass meeting of the workforce."

Union sources told the BBC that the deal appeared to offer 50% of the jobs to British workers.

But the source added that "the devil will be in the detail", which union officials are yet to see.

Crowds of demonstrators gathered outside the Lindsey plant on Tuesday, where strike committee member Phil Whitehurst said he and his colleagues were convinced of their case.

He said they had nothing against the foreign workers at the centre of the dispute.

SUPPORT PROTESTS 1. Stanlow oil refinery 2. Longannet power station 3. Drax power station 4. Coryton oil refinery 5. Langage power station 6. Marchwood power station 7. Fawley oil refinery 8-12: Torness power station [8]; Mossmorran chemical plant [9]; Aberthaw power station [10]; South Hook natural gas terminal [11]; ICI chemical refinery [12] 13-17: Corus steel plant [13]; Fiddler's Ferry power station [14]; AES Kilroot power station [15]; Cockenzie power station [16]; Sellafield nuclear site [17] 18-22: Heysham nuclear power station [18]; Staythorpe power station [19]; Didcot power station [20] Grangemouth oil refinery [21]; St Fergus gas plant [22]

"People have said it's racist. It's not. We're not part of the BNP. I've shunned the BNP away from here," he said.

"It's about British workers getting access to a British construction site."

The protesters agreed to reconvene at 0700 GMT on Wednesday.

The CBI has backed the company at the centre of the dispute and both Labour MPs and union leaders have dismissed claims that striking workers are guilty of xenophobia.

Derek Simpson, the joint leader of Unite, said: "The unofficial action taking place across the UK is not about race or immigration, it's about class.

"It's about employers who exploit workers regardless of their nationality by undercutting their hard won pay and conditions."

A Labour MP has put down a Commons early day motion "deploring" the use of foreign workers at the Lindsey refinery.

The motion from John Mann - MP for Bassetlaw, Nottinghamshire - congratulated unions for "exposing this exploitation and the absence of equal opportunities to apply for all jobs".

On Tuesday, some 600 workers at Langage power station, near Plymouth, walked out over the row, as did up to 500 at Shell's Stanlow refinery, Cheshire.

Some workers at Drax Power Station, near Selby in North Yorkshire, have also continued to strike, following a walk-out by 150 contractors there on Monday.

So too have hundreds of contractors at Coryton oil refinery in Thurrock, Essex, and in Hampshire at an Esso refinery in Fawley and at Marchwood Power Station.

Contractors at Longannet power station in Fife voted on Tuesday to continue their support, but about 500 returned to work at Grangemouth oil refinery in central Scotland.