THE decision by oil giant BP to axe 300 North Sea jobs is a disgraceful reminder that, for transnational corporations, workers are simply numbers on a balance sheet.

BP is not some impoverished fly-by-night outfit that lives from hand to mouth.

It is a highly profitable organisation that has regularly outraged motorists and hauliers by insisting on raising prices to its franchised petrol stations, even as the company announces record profits.

In common with its rival Shell, BP made record profits of £9 billion in 2013-14, prompting calls for the Chancellor to impose a windfall excess profits tax.

Justifying the level of its income last year, a BP spokesman said that critics failed to take into account price fluctuation in the industry.
He added that BP had been “doing everything we can to reduce our costs to ensure we remain profitable when oil prices fall.”

So the 50 per cent dip in prices over the past six months or so came as no surprise to the oil majors because they were already taking steps to prepare for the new scenario.

BP is not alone in dumping its workforce to cut costs. Shell trimmed 250 jobs last August, with Chevron ditching 225 the previous month. Other companies have imposed salary freezes for staff and pay cuts for contractors.

It is unlikely that these staff reductions will be the end of the story unless there is political intervention.

The “great sympathy” offered by Energy Secretary Ed Davey to those losing their jobs won’t help workers to pay their mortgages and feed their families. Nor will it stem a potential jobs massacre.

There has to be more tangible support on the table to persuade BP not to dump its most valuable asset — its skilled workforce — and to ensure that the company continues operations in the North Sea.

Reducing employment and running down — or even mothballing — operations in the North Sea would be a disaster for the oil industry, especially for the workers and the wider population of Scotland.

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been pressing the conservative coalition in London to subsidise the offshore oil industry.

Her Energy Minister Fergus Ewing said: “We set out our proposals last week for an investment allowance, exploration tax credit to bring up the woeful level of exploration at present and also a removal of the 12 per cent hike in the supplementary charge on a timed basis.”

It’s the same old story. Big business will only be persuaded to act in the public interest if its shareholders are choked with gold while working people, of course, react best to the lash.

The government in Westminster should not simply hand over a blank cheque to BP and its fellow North Sea buccaneers.

We have seen four decades of these transnational corporations leading governments by the nose ever since Labour handed the industry over to the private sector.

We don’t need another cosy deal stitched up by government and companies that ignores the interests and needs of workers and the public.

No money should change hands without guarantees on jobs and continued production.

The safest approach would be to make funding available in return for a public stake in the companies rather than the kind of “help yourself please” bailout that enabled the banks to survive their own profligacy and continue to enrich themselves by exploiting the rest of us.