£200,000 redundancy payments for oil workers

[KentPhilip]

http://www.contractoruk.com/news/003611.html

This is one of the stories in the news section of contractoruk.com about workers being made redundant from Shell oil. Oil workers are getting £200,000 payments, but IT workers are "only" getting £50,000.
The unions are annoyed about it.

How on earth, or why on earth does a company choose to make such huge redundancy payments to workers? Why do they choose to pay so much, but much less to other workers?

And following on from that, I don't think £50,000 is all that bad for the IT workers. I got £14K after 4 years service and I thought that was quite good, so I don't understand why the Shell IT workers are complaining.
How do companies work out what redundancy payments to make?

[snaw]

I'm guessing you don't want to go pissing off your core workforce, the oil workers, who happen to be heavily unionised as well. IT workers on the other hand ...

[Sysman]

When petrol tanker drivers were employed directly by the oil companies they had a very strong union and got paid very well indeed. To slash a payroll like that by replacing them with subcontractors, the oil companies could afford a lot of money in redundancy and/or early retirement payouts.

[Sockpuppet]

A lot of petrol tanker drivers are still very well payed.

[KentPhilip]

A lot of petrol tanker drivers are still very well payed.

I can imagine. How much are we talking here? £50K?

Just out of idle curiosity what is the normal result of a tanker driver involved in a crash that was their fault. Are they routinely fired, or do they get warnings? (Assuming they survive that is)

[thunderlizard]

"Redundancy packages of £50,000 are being offered to the company’s IT staff, dwarfing the £200,000 packages it has pledged to its offshore oil rig workers."

that's not what I'd call "dwarfing"!

[KentPhilip]

"Redundancy packages of £50,000 are being offered to the company’s IT staff, dwarfing the £200,000 packages it has pledged to its offshore oil rig workers."

that's not what I'd call "dwarfing"!

huh?

it doesn't say that in the article. What have you been smoking?

[AtW]

I think they will have 40% tax on any redundancy payment greater than £30k.