TALKS AIM TO HALT REFINERY STRIKE

Officials from the Unite trade union will meet bosses from Ineos, which owns the site, at the London offices of Acas in a bid to head off a planned two-day stoppage by up to 1,200 workers on Sunday and Monday.

It is believed that Acas chairman Ed Sweeney invited both sides to hold fresh talks to try to resolve a bitter row over pensions.

The union called the strike in protest at plans by Ineos to end the company's final salary pension scheme for new workers and to make other changes.

The company has started shutting down the Grangemouth refinery, the biggest in Scotland, and has warned of fuel shortages from Friday if the strike goes ahead.

Ineos said earlier it had made a number of concessions to the union which it said represented a "significant improvement" on its initial proposals.

Chief executive Tom Crotty said: "The proposed new scheme for existing workers will continue to be amongst the most generous in the country."

Ineos said it was planning to delay the introduction of contributions from the workers to the pension scheme so that these were phased in at 1% a year over six years from April next year.

The initial proposal was 2% a year for three years. The company said it was also improving proposals for redundancy payments and making a number of other changes.

But sources at Unite said there was nothing new in the company's statement adding that the union continued to press for the proposals to be withdrawn before any fresh talks could be held.