ISSUE 37
The bulletin of
- The offshore energy branch of
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH NOK ER NOK Branch
March 2022
RMT protest at Bute House Edinburgh
RMT fighting for standards We’ve been missing a few months, mainly because we’ve been busy trying to deal with the problems impacting members across the sector. An obvious one has been the so-called ‘rules’ around Covid, rules that change virtually every other day! On top of that, the oil companies and contractors all have their own interpretation of the rules! Is it, full pay, or half pay? Or, at the bottom of the food chain, it’s been nothing more than SSP! When does it apply? Why can’t I get offshore? Do I get paid to isolate? The questions have been endless and the answers hard to come by because we don’t have a standard approach across the sector. RMT has been calling for a standard approach and to have those ‘standards’ written into contracts. Workers should know what to expect, employers should know what to apply, we should be prepared for any further variant or a return to restrictions. We shouldn’t have ‘key workers’ being treated differently, with a “them and us” approach, it breeds contempt and leads to under reporting.
Email: oilc@rmt.org.uk
Away from Covid top of our agenda has been the training scandal that is unfolding for offshore energy workers. RMT has been campaigning for a standard approach across the sector that lets workers move around without having to pay through the nose to do so! We have taken our demands for a ‘Just Transition’ to Edinburgh and London, highlighting there is absolutely nothing “JUST” about what is going on, as our member describes on page 2 of this edition! It is a complete and utter injustice that workers are having to pay for their own training and have no assurance of work!
This situation is made worse by the fact that workers from other regions of the world continue to be exploited on appalling rates of pay in the sector. As we go to press we have uncovered news of workers employed on a Wind Farm off the coast of Scotland being paid $2,800 US for a month of 12-hour shifts! Do the sums, it works out at just over £6-per hour! So redundant oil and gas workers are being forced to spend the little money they get when terminated on training courses to try and secure employment in renewables as part of the so-called “Just Transition”. At the same time there are workers on these projects being brought half-way round the world to be paid virtual slave labour rates! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! RMT is demanding this scandal is addressed. We are demanding the implementation of a “Standard” an “Offshore Passport” that lets workers move across the sector. RMT is demanding an end to the exploitation of foreign nationals and a regulated approach through licenses that prevents low pay. Join us in our fight, join RMT.