Hoyer drivers have put their employer on notice of 14 days of strike action after the company refused to back down on plans to make six drivers redundant at the Stanlow oil refinery.

The Unite union said the strikes, on days spread across November, would cause considerable disruption to fuel supplies but it had no option but to press ahead.

Unite said Hoyer customers that are set to be affected included Shell, Esso, BP, Essar, Euro Garages, Greenenergy and Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

Hoyer is proposing to make six of the 28 drivers employed on the contract at the refinery redundant and the union said the company was increasingly turning to agency drivers to fulfil its delivery requirements.

Steve Gerrard, Unite regional officer, said: “Unite’s members have delivered a stunning mandate in favour of industrial action.

“Despite Unite giving Hoyer every opportunity to resolve this dispute through negotiations, it has refused to do so and as a consequence and as a last resort Unite has announced strike dates.

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“Our members regret that their action will cause considerable disruption to fuel deliveries but believe they have no other option in order to save their jobs.”

He added: “Fuel tanker drivers are frontline workers and throughout this pandemic their work has ensured that other frontline workers can continue to go to work.

“They deserve to be treated better than this.”

Responding, a Hoyer spokesperson said: “We can confirm that we have received notification of industrial action at our parking location in Cheshire which will result in a small number of our fuel tankers not operating on the nominated days. However, we will be implementing detailed contingency plans to ensure any action has a negligible impact on our operations.

“We remain committed to engaging with the union representatives regarding any meaningful and realistic proposals that can be put forward in order to mitigate the redundancies. However, the challenge remains that these jobs rely directly on people returning to driving their cars and flying in planes at 'normal' levels - things which are simply beyond our control."

In a previous statement on 6 October, Hoyer confirmed that the redundancies were as a result of a “dramatic reduction” in its retail and aviation fuel volumes.

“Furthermore, our retail fuel volumes dropped to just 30% of normal levels, more recently settling at around 85%,” said a spokeswoman.

“The further tightening of lockdown restrictions will in no way improve these current volumes whilst it is clear we will not return to normal for at least the next 12 months, if at all.”