LONDON, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Hundreds of maintenance workersemployed by Wood Group on Shell's North Seaplatforms started a 48-hour strike on Thursday over a paydispute but field production or maintenance schedules were notaffected, Shell said.
Two of the affected Shell oil and gas platforms, Nelson andShearwater, are currently on outage for planned maintenanceunrelated to the strike, a spokesman said.
Workers stationed on these platforms who have gone on strikehave been replaced by others through changes in work schedules,he added.
"We expect the stoppages to be completed by the early partof next week," he said.
Over 400 workers are taking part in the second strike actionin just one week over protests against pay cuts and changes inwork schedules on the back of cost savings across the industry.
On July 26, the same workers downed tools for 24 hours inwhat was the first North Sea strike action undertaken by Unitemembers in 28 years.
As many as 120,000 oil workers are expected to have losttheir jobs by the end of this year in an industry-wide clampingdown on costs as weak oil prices have reduced profits.
Wood Group said it had agreed to suspend the changes to payand working schedules to allow further discussions withemployees and unions.
"We are hugely disappointed that industrial action isprogressing despite the significant movements made," said DaveStewart, Wood Group's chief executive for its eastern regionbusiness.
"The unions remain available for serious and meaningfultalks," said Mick Cash, general secretary of RMT union. (Reporting by Karolin Schaps; Editing by Adrian Croft)
Wood Group (J) (WG.)