Offshore drilling workers plan strike in UK – union

(Reuters) – Labour union Unite Scotland said on Wednesday that more than 300 offshore drilling and contract maintenance workers employed by companies including Maersk and Odfjell have backed a strike action in the UK.

The Unite union said the industrial action comes after the workers rejected a 5% pay offer from the companies, which also include Archer UK Ltd and Transocean Onshore Support Services Ltd.

The union said the strike will involve a series of 48-hour stoppages every second week for the first eight weeks starting on Oct. 20 and Oct. 21.

A further series of stoppages of will take place on Nov. 3-4, Nov. 17-8 and Dec. 15-16, and could thereafter escalate to an all-out strike action, Unite said.

(Reporting by Sinchita Mitra in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)