EnQuest who own the Sullom Voe terminal in Shetland is to cut its workforce by a quarter. There will now be a 6 weeks consultation period on the loss of 60 full time jobs and 20 other positions currently filled by contractors.

Sullom Voe by Mat Tuck

The company is also proposing to look again at the existing terms and conditions of the workforce in order to be ‘commercially competitive’ and have these changes in place by January 2020. EnQuest is also in talks with BP to continue exporting oil from the Clair Field west of Shetland and to stop oil potentially by-passing the terminal. EnQuest officially took over the terminal ending BP’s association with the site in December 2017.

Representing Unite members, the trade union has expressed its concerns with the announcement of job cuts.

John Clark, Unite regional industrial officer, said:

“There has been utter dismay and bemusement following the announcement by EnQuest to reduce the workforce by a quarter.

The sheer scale of the possible redundancies, which includes sixty full time employees and twenty contractors has taken everyone by surprise.

To add insult to injury, EnQuest are also proposing to weaken the existing terms and conditions of the workforce.

Unite will not stand idly by and allow jobs to be sacrificed to facilitate a competitive edge for other projects. We will explore every option including balloting our members for industrial action.”