Industrial action by North Sea workers in a dispute over pay has been suspended to allow fresh talks.
Workers employed by the Wood Group on Shell platforms have launched a series of strikes in protest at plans to cut pay.
Mick Cash, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, said in a message to members: "Following further discussions with the company I am pleased to announce that Wood Group have agreed to stop the implementation of the current proposals to allow fresh engagement and talks.
"As a result of this welcome development your National Executive Committee has decided to suspend all industrial action in this dispute to allow these discussions to take place. Therefore members must work normally.
"Talks will begin next week which we hope will bring about a satisfactory resolution and I will keep members informed as matters progress."
A later statement issued jointly by Wood Group and the Unite and RMT unions said the talks will start next week.
It read: "All parties recognise that the challenges we are facing in the North Sea are both real and serious and there is acceptance that change is required and will happen.
"These fresh talks will allow all parties to bring ideas to the table and provide opportunities for employees in particular, along with unions and management, to contribute to a mutually successful outcome and demonstrate leadership in shaping the future of the North Sea.
"We believe that this collaborative approach to addressing the challenging and well-publicised situation in the oil and gas sector is the best way for us to resolve this current dispute and contribute to creating a sustainable model for the North Sea.
"For these talks to be successful, it is essential to create a constructive environment in which they can take place. Wood Group has therefore agreed to stop the implementation of the current proposal for the duration of this fresh engagement and talks, and in response to this RMT and Unite have agreed to suspend any further strike action for the duration of this fresh engagement and talks."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel