Third of workers to be axed at Lindsey Oil Refinery 'making a mockery of government promises'
A third of the workforce at Lindsey Oil Refinery is to be axed “making a mockery of government promises”.
The Official Receiver said 125 workers would be made redundant at the end of October, with 255 people left at the site at North Killingholme, in north Lincolnshire.
A statement from the Insolvency Service added: "This decision was not taken lightly and follows a thorough review of all aspects of the business, following its insolvency.
"The Insolvency Service will fully support employees subject to redundancy via the Redundancy Payments Service."
Unite claimed there have been at least two bids to "buy and operate the site as a going concern keeping a full workforce".
It said the government could have provided support to keep the terminal going. The Lindsey site was one of only five large oil refineries remaining in the UK after the recent closure of the Grangemouth plant in Scotland.
Lindsey, which supplied 25 per cent of the UK diesel market, supports 420 directly employed workers plus a further 500 contract jobs and potentially thousands in the supply chain.
The union believes that the insolvency firm FTI’s preferred bidder wishes to mothball the site and use it as a storage terminal for oil tankers.
Unite said closure “would gut jobs, harm the regional economy and compromise the UK’s ability to produce its own fuel”. It would also make the UK more reliant on imported fuel, impacting energy security.
It said a substantial amount of diesel is imported from Turkey and India and made from Russian crude.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “The government has been tin eared to the plight of workers at the second oil refinery facing closure in less than a year. This makes a mockery of government promises to protect workers and its plan for net zero.
“The government had promised to ensure that job focused bids would be the priority at Lindsey, yet prior to bids even being considered, they are already issuing redundancy notices.”
The Insolvency Service said the conduct of the company and its directors, following the refinery entering liquidation, remains the subject of an ongoing Insolvency Service investigation.