Contractors at the Lindsey Oil Refinery in Lincolnshire that have been on unofficial strike for the last week have returned to work following a meeting with the site’s owner Total.

The workers had gone on strike in protest at sub-contractor IREM’s plans to use foreign labour at the refinery.

But following talks between Total and the Unite and GMB unions, mediated by Acas, it has been announced that 101 new jobs will be made available to British workers on the same project.

The additional workers will be employed in new positions and work alongside IREM and its permanent workforce. Total says that there will be no redundancies as a result of this.

Total said in a statement: “We would like to highlight again that we have not, and will not, discriminate against British companies and British workers.

However the Unite union said the situation that led to the strikes at Lindsey is part of a “much wider programme that will not go away when the unofficial strikers go back to work”.

Joint general secretary Derek Simpson said: "The problem is not workers from other European countries working in the UK, nor is it about foreign contractors winning contracts in the UK. The problem is that employers are excluding UK workers from even applying for work on these contracts.

"The flexible labour market is a one-way street that only benefits the employers. We have seen the backlash as the recession bites. The government must act to level the playing field for UK workers,” he added.

Acas said it would be looking into the contractual arrangements, tendering processes, minutes of meetings and operation of the national and local agreements to determine what happened. It will publish a report in the next few weeks.