FIVE hundred Fawley Refinery contract workers today staged a mass walkout in a row over double standards.

They decided unanimously on a 24-hour stoppage in protest at different treatment meted out to workers who were caught breaking site rules by working at height without being properly clipped on to their safety harnesses.

Five contract workers have recently lost their jobs for that reason while a senior member of the permanent ExxonMobil staff stayed on after he was reported for the same thing.

It was alleged that the individual in question had been involved in the ordering off site of errant contract workers.

Unions including the GMB, Transport and General Workers' Union and Amicus AEEU were called in and the contractors were read a letter at this morning's mass meeting which outlined ExxonMobil's reasons for keeping their own staff member on and not reviewing the other cases.

The letter stressed that the Exxon worker had "always had the safety of others at the forefront of his thinking", but there were jeers at the points where it described his lapse as "clearly an oversight" and that the circumstances in his incident were "totally different" from at least one of the contractors' incident.

The letter was read by Bob Stokes of the GMB Union and he advised the workers against an immediate walk-out and called for more time to discuss the issue with Esso and ExxonMobil Chemical.

But after a sea of hands had shot into the sky in answer go the 24-hour walk-out call, he conceded: "The floor just took over the meeting and the feeling was very strong.

"I will now be taking the matter up with Exxon and will be speaking to the representatives of the other unions."

Later, one contract worker said: "It's one law for them and another law for us.

"There are five blokes who were already on the breadline and they've gone down the road. We're not asking for people to be allowed to break any rules, we're just asking for the ExxonMobil people to be treated in the same way as us."

Another worker said: "A lot of things have been eroded away from the contract workers over the last 15 years and this is just on e example of double standards. If we go into the canteen, it's £4 for a meal - but for an Exxon worker it's only £2."

An ExxonMobil spokesperson said the incidents had been properly investigated and the circumstances were different from the one which had sparked the protest.

He also stressed that in ordering people off the site for breaking the rules, Exxon had not sacked contractors. The questions of sackings was a matter for their specific employers, he said.