London - Britain Friday faced escalating protests by workers at oil refineries after French company Total sacked some 900 workers following days of unofficial strike action at a refinery in Lincolnshire, eastern Britain.

The dismissal notices were sent out late Thursday after some 1,200 workers walked out last week in a dispute over 51 redundancies at the Lindsey oil refinery, the third-largest in Britain.

They claim that an agreement with Total, saying that there would be no job cuts at the plant while foreign workers were being employed there, had been broken. Total denies that such an agreement existed.

In a statement, Total said the workers had been involved in "an unofficial, illegal walk out.

"Total can confirm, with regret, that our contractors have now started the process of ending the current employment contracts for their workforce on the HDS-3 construction project," the company said.

Total said it had "repeatedly sought to encourage the workforce to return to work so that proper negotiations can take place".

The union Unite called for negotiations to end the dispute and accused Total of having refused to discuss it.

The Lindsey plant was at the centre of an unofficial strike earlier this year over the employment of "non-British" workers.

A a representative of Unite said staff had believed there was a local agreement in place not to cut any jobs while those foreign contactors were employed. (dpa)