Bitter dispute at biofuels site ‘could deter key investors’

A PROLONGED industrial dispute at a £200m biofuels site could put off future investors in the Humber’s growing renewable energy sector, a company chief warned.

The claim by the managing director of Vivergo Fuels, Dave Richards, followed the arrest of a national trades union official at Saltend, near Hull.

Phil Whitehurst, from the GMB, was held by Humberside Police for an alleged breach of the Public Order Act.

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The move came as Vivergo, in which oil giant BP is a shareholder, announced it had improved the financial offer to hundreds of men who were laid off in March.

It adds £500 to the £3,500 tax-free sum already on the table and comes on top of £1.2m paid out by Redhall Engineering to 370 workers, more than £7,000 per worker.

The dispute began after Redhall’s contract was terminated in March. According to Vivergo, the mechanical and piping work was significantly behind schedule. The daily protest has seen work on the construction site stop completely in recent weeks.

Mr Richards said: “Any investor coming to the area is going to look at it and say, do we want to go through the same thing?

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“This is our final offer and one we feel to be very generous. If it is not accepted and the protests continue, this will pose a serious risk to the jobs of the further 500 contracted workers on our construction site as well as having the potential to affect any future investments in this area.”

However, the GMB complained of “provocative and overbearing policing” and said it would challenge any charge through the courts.

It also warned of a national day of action involving thousands of workers from power station and oil refinery sites across the country – potentially the worst outbreak of industrial unrest since a row over foreign labour at the Lindsey oil refinery in North Lincolnshire two years ago. The GMB’s legal officer Maria Ludkin said: “GMB members who have been locked out of the site since March have been engaged in lawful, legal protest against BP and the main contractors.

“Every attempt by the union to get BP to reopen the site has been met with a blank refusal to even acknowledge that these workers have rights which are being trampled upon.

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“GMB will challenge any charge in the courts and is preparing a complaint to the Police Complaints Authority, in relation to the provocative and overbearing policing of this dispute.”

Chief executive of BP Biofuels Philip New told a conference at Hull University that the plant – which should open by spring 2012 – would be the country’s largest producer of biofuels as well as source of animal feeds and will ultimately be retrofitted to become Europe’s first producer of biobutanol using wheat as a feedstock.

Mr New said they were commissioning a demonstration plant in process technology for biobutanol at the BP site, which was an “absolute world first”. He said: “It will be at the absolute cutting edge of biofuels.”

Biobutanol is considered superior to ethanol which in high concentrations can damage engine parts over time.

Police said a 56-year-old man from South Yorkshire was arrested after being warned several times that the number of protesters exceeded the prescribed 20, agreed on the Section 14 notices.