Grangemouth Union and Ineos at Loggerheads Again

The UK's Unite trade union is once more taking legal action against Ineos, owner of the Grangemouth, Scotland, petrochemical site. Charging Ineos leaked confidential emails, the union is believed to have reported Ineos to the UK's Information Commissioner and started High Court action against the company.

Local news reports said Unite's Scottish secretary Pat Rafferty, its legal director Howard Beckett and former union convenor Stevie Deans have all lodged requests under the Data Protection Act targeted at Ineos and its public relations firms Media Zoo and Portcullis.

Mark Lyon, a former Unite convenor at Grangemouth, dismissed after last autumn's labour dispute, also is said to have demanded that Ineos release data and information held on him.

Beckett told Scottish media that Ineos and its public relations agencies have "questions to answer about their actions and how confidential emails found their way into national newspapers."

He said the union "will pursue every legal option to force the parties to comply with the law and hand over the information that we, as individuals, are legally entitled to."

In a statement, Ineos said it has "not yet received any documentation but we are very confident that the company has done nothing wrong and will be fully vindicated in any court action."

Accusing the union of continuing to try to undermine the plant, Ineos said Unite "also attempted to sabotage" a new company initiative to set up a works council at the site "that embraces all workers," including the non-unionized, by  urging its members to boycott the process.