Tanker drivers servicing the BP Grangemouth oil refinery have voted to strike at the end of the week in a dispute over cuts to their pensions and pay.
The Unite union said its members would be staging a walkout for three full days beginning in the early hours of Friday morning.
The strike is expected to severely disrupt motorists by affecting fuel supplies to BP petrol station forecourts across Scotland and the North of England.
The industrial action is also expected to hit supplies to the aviation industry and could result in the grounding of some flights.
Notifying BP that discontinuous strike action will commence from 4am on Friday, Unite also said workers have voted to ban overtime after the industrial action ends at 8am on Monday morning.
The move follows a 90% vote in favour of strike action by 42 LGV tanker drivers balloted, to defend their pension rights and in protest at the loss of a company share-match scheme as a result of the imminent aviation contract transfer from existing employer BP Oil UK to another firm DH.
Although legislation protects employees’ pay and conditions, if they are transferred by their employer to a new company, their pensions are not protected.
A third of workers on the aviation contract at Grangemouth stand to lose up to £13,000 a year from their pension on retirement and the remaining two-thirds could lose upwards of £1,400 a year from their basic earnings due to the loss of the share-match scheme.
Unite regional industrial officer Tony Trench said: “It’s an outrage that BP, a multi-national giant which earns billions every year, is exploiting the UK’s weak employment laws to effectively swindle workers out of their retirement savings and future earnings.”
BP, which posted profits of more than £7.6 billion in 2012, said it is working to minimise any potential disruption which the industrial action could cause.
A spokesman for BP said: “Our priority remains the safe delivery of fuel products to all our customers.
“We have been working to, and continue to work to minimise any potential disruption the industrial action planned for this weekend at Grangemouth could cause.”