NORTH Sea oil giant Wood Group will cut rates paid to contractors, it announced yesterday in what Unite called “another blow” for workers.

The 9 per cent pay fall will affect around 200 of Wood Group’s contractors and is the third cut since 2014.

Wood Group Britain and Africa managing director James Crawford said the decision has not been taken lightly, but believed “it is the right one to proactively meet the continuing cost and resourcing challenges affecting the UK North Sea oil and gas sector.”

However Unite regional officer John Boland said it was “another blow” for members in the Wood Group “who have already suffered cuts to their rates of up to 20 per cent, in the worst case examples, over the last two years.”

Mr Boland said Unite feared that the “latest cut will spark another domino effect across offshore contractor firms, intensifying the pace of a race to the bottom on jobs, pay, skills and working-time.”

He warned that “the consequences for employment standards in the offshore sector could be dire where the future outlook is fewer employees working longer and harder for less.

Mr Boland added that Unite has warned the British and Scottish governments repeatedly “about the seriousness of what is happening in our oil and gas sector but the responses so far have amounted to sticking a plaster on a gaping wound.”