Thousands of offshore workers could down tools in a dispute over terms and conditions.

Members of trade union Unite are to be asked whether there should be a ballot for industrial action.

More than 5000 contractors will be affected, including electricians, plumbers, mechanics and riggers.

Unite has claimed that the Offshore Contractors Association (OCA) is using the slump in oil prices to "railroad through" changes to working practices.

The OCA looks after the interests of dozens of companies that employ offshore workers.

They have proposed to change shift patterns from two weeks on and three weeks off to three weeks on and three weeks off.

Unite claims the OCA also plans to cut pension payments, sick pay and holiday leave.

Aberdeen-based Regional Officer Willie Wallace said: "The changes are just getting imposed on the workforce, pushed mainly by the oil companies, but they're pushing the contractors who are doing their bidding.

"In the OCA agreement you have ten main contractor companies and forty different associate companies. It's an agreement that covers all construction and maintenance work offshore, in both the northern and southern sectors.

"The OCA represents the contractors that carry out work on the rigs for the oil companies. It's the oil companies that are coming to the contractors and saying we need to make these changes and the contractors are coming to us and our members and saying this is what we're looking to do. There is very little meaningful discussion.

"The Offshore Contractors Agreement covers between 8,000 and 10,000 people. We have the bulk of them as members, something like 5,000, certainly the majority of them."

The workers will now be asked to take part in a consultative ballot which could progress to an industrial ballot if a majority backs the union's stance.

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Source: Herald Scotland