In what it said was an effort to prevent another Grangemouth-style stand-off between business and trade unions, the Scottish government is setting up an independent task force aimed at promoting a better working environment.

Finance Secretary John Swinney said the project called Working Together aims to encourage cooperation between unions and employers, "to increase production and provide security for workers."

The group to be chaired by former Scottish enterprise minister Jim Mather is scheduled to make its first report in July of this year. Mather said an important part of the group's work would focus on workplace democracy and diversity, including the participation of women.

A dispute between management of chemical group Ineos and the trade union United nearly caused the mammoth petrochemical complex to be shut down in October of last year.

More recently, a YouTube video produced by Ineos' public relations partner Media Zoo, presenting the company's side of the dispute, has ruffled some feathers within the workforce, and the trade union Unite is meanwhile said it will sue Ineos for unfair dismissal of union convenor Mark Lyon.