Oil wages deadlock
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IT WAS STILL deadlock this week in the oil tanker drivers' wage negotiations, with neither Shell, Esso, nor Texaco being prepared to increase their 8.1 per cent final offers.
Both sides at Shell met at the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service last Saturday, and the TGWU offered a cosmetic change in its 11 per cent claim, by reducing it to 9.99 per cent on the £105 basic rate and £10 productivity payment. The union also offered to accept a two-hour reduction of the working week, in which the drivers forfeit one tea break a day, thus sharing the reduction equally between drivers and company.
A Shell spokesman told CM that the company is prepared to make a move on two significant, but undisclosed items in the claim, but not on such substantive matters as the 8.1 per cent final offer.
Senior stewards of the company were due to meet on Thursday to discuss the latest developments, and TGWU commercial group secretary Jack Ashwell told CM that the drivers are very incensed by the company's stance. Neither side is understood to see any scope for further involvement of ACAS.
The union met Texaco and Esso on Monday this week, but neither company increased its offer, which is in line with the settlement agreed already at BP, but which is less than last summer's settlement at Mobil.