BP PAYS SHAREHOLDERS AND SACKS WORKERS

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/august 2020 :: RMTnews 9 R MT has condemned energy giant BP for announcing 10,000 job cuts shortly after the company paid out a share dividend which totalled over £1.5 billion. The cuts, which came after BP placed a moratorium on any job losses for three months in March, represent over 15 per cent of the global workforce of more than 70,000. The union said that hard working BP staff had endured four years and more of austerity and cuts associated with the downturn which the industry was just coming out of before the Covid-19 pandemic began. To be faced with further attrition now is a devastating blow for this workforce and for workers across the energy industry. RMT general secretary Mick Cash said that RMT and other offshore unions have been warning the government for months of the need for an urgent plan to protect offshore jobs and skills from the double whammy of Coronavirus and depressed oil prices. “An offshore jobs taskforce needs to be appointed immediately, including the trade unions to prevent this catastrophic loss of jobs and skills to the national economy. “Offshore workers will not be made to pay for successive government's failure to tax and regulate North Sea oil and gas companies in a sustainable manner. Policies must be adopted, and quickly to secure a just transition to a net zero carbon economy,” he said. RMT regional organiser Jake Molloy also said that it was a slap in the face for BP employees. “10,000 jobs, coming off the back of that big dividend that BP paid the shareholders is a real slap in the face to loyal employees, loyal workers across their operations. “That absolutely does not add up that you’re paying out huge dividends whilst you’re cutting thousands from your payroll. “BP should be looking themselves in the mirror today with that news and asking themselves ‘is this what this business is about?’ “If it is, who would want to work for a company that treats them like that? That’s quite shocking,” he said. (1) Shipping Minister Kelly Tolhurst’s Written Answer (51906) to Karl Turner on 9 June states that: “Two Public Service Obligation (PSO) Agreements were awarded to P&O Ferries on routes from the Port of Hull. The value of the awards will depend on actual revenues and service level requirements during operation. The estimated value of these PSO Agreements at the point of contract award have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union and are as follows: · PSO Agreement between Hull and Europoort Rotterdam: £3,504,249, – this has since been revised to £4,779,369. · PSO Agreement between Hull and Zeebrugge: £1,842,210.” (2) Critical Freight Grant (CFG) funding to each operator on each route is in the table below. Total CFG to P&O Ferries is currently £14.825m, 41 per cent of the total pot to date. MT has condemned energy the Covid-19 pandemic began. catastrophic loss of jobs and BP paid the shareholders is a BP PAYS SHAREHOLDERS AND SACKS WORKERS