Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Acas, the U.K.’s arbitration organization, said it will investigate unofficial strikes that started at a Total SA refinery in northeast England and spread to other energy facilities.

“Acas has been in touch with interested parties at the Lindsey refinery site with a view to establishing the facts behind the outbreak of the unofficial action,” the London-based group said today in an e-mail. No specific mediation talks are planned, spokeswoman Clare Carter said.

Contractors at the refinery walked out on Jan. 28 after an Italian company brought in its own workers. Protests spread to power and natural-gas plants in Scotland, Wales and northwest England. Sellafield Ltd. yesterday said 900 contract workers will tomorrow discuss possible strikes at its nuclear site.

Trade union Unite is in “constant talks” with the government to work out how to resolve the dispute, spokeswoman Pauline Doyle said today by phone. Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the British Broadcasting Corp. the measures taken by workers aren’t defensible.

Total spokesman Iain Hutchison said the company expects the protest at Lindsey to resume tomorrow.

Acas will talk to employers and unions about a wider enquiry into the issues around “contracting-out” on large construction projects, the group said in the statement.

Protests Spread

As well as strikes by about 600 workers at the Lindsey plant, protests spread to sites including BP Plc’s Forties Pipeline System and Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s St. Fergus gas terminal in Scotland on Jan. 30. Workers walked out at Scottish & Southern Plc’s Fiddler’s Ferry power station in Cheshire and RWE AG’s Aberthaw plant in Wales.

The companies said the strikes haven’t so far disrupted operations, with the contractors concerned mostly working on construction projects.

The industrial action isn’t sanctioned by Unite, though a it’s understandable in current circumstances, Derek Simpson, joint general-secretary of the Unite union, said in an interview with Sky TV. It has “been brewing” for some weeks, he said.

Brown, who in 2007 promised “British jobs for British workers,” today said walkouts are “not the right thing to do.”

“What we’ve got to do over time, as I’ve always said, is that where there are jobs in this country, we need people with the skills, developed in this country,” Brown said in an interview with the BBC’s Politics Show.

To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Dobson in London at pdobson2@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 1, 2009 10:26 EST