TRADE unions were drawing “new battle lines” in the fight for paid holidays for North Sea offshore workers last night after the UK Supreme Court dismissed their legal challenge.
Industrial action will be considered by union members at a series of meetings in the new year after their seven-year dispute in the courts came to an end.
The five Supreme Court justices who heard the unions’ appeal in October ruled yesterday that shift patterns in the offshore sector do not breach European rules.
Industry leaders hailed the decision as a victory for commonsense. They had argued that workers spent an average of at least 26 weeks a year onshore, which more than met the legal requirement for paid leave.
Union bosses said they were “shocked, disappointed and angry” at the ruling – and claimed shift workers in any sector could now have their holiday entitlement reduced.
RMT union organiser Jake Molloy said: “The industry should be hanging their heads in shame because they have effectively undone a lot of the good work done on health and safety in recent years.
“It will have a detrimental impact on relationships. If the reaction is anything to go by, morale is at an all-time low. The legal battle may have ended but I think there are going to be new battle lines drawn very soon.”
Malcolm Webb, chief executive of industry body Oil and Gas UK, said: “We are very pleased that the highest UK court, the Supreme Court, has upheld the previous rulings of the Court of Session and Employment Appeal Tribunal that time off work enjoyed by UK offshore oil and gas workers more than meets the minimum legal amount of annual leave that employers must provide their employees.
“Typical rotas worked offshore allow for over 26 weeks onshore, away from work, more than meeting the requirement of the working time directive to provide 5.6 weeks of annual leave.”
The test case centred on whether the leave period specified in EU working time rules had to be taken when employees would otherwise be expected to work. The industry’s lawyers argued that if the Supreme Court agreed with the unions that offshore workers were entitled to take holidays when they were supposed to be offshore, then teachers would have to be allowed four weeks off during term time.
The unions said offshore staff worked about 328 more hours a year than the average worker and they were contracted to be on shift for 26 weeks a year, so their holiday period could not be counted during time when they would be onshore anyway and not under a contract to work.
The verdict issued yesterday by Lords Hope, Brown, Mance, Kerr and Wilson rejected the unions’ argument, ruling that offshore workers were contracted for the entire year.
They added that “the facts of this case do not support the idea that the field break is not a genuine break or otherwise unreal. Nor has there been any suggestion that the pattern of working has had, or is liable to have, an adverse effect on the appellants’ health or safety.”
For these reasons the respondents were “entitled to insist that the appellants must take their paid annual leave during periods when they were onshore on field break”.
The justices upheld a ruling by the Court of Session in Edinburgh a year ago and decided not to refer the case to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg for a final decision.
Responding to the verdict, Donald MacKinnon, director of legal services at Law At Work, said: “Employers are likely to view this decision as a victory for commonsense.
“If the Supreme Court had found in favour of the employees it would have cost the offshore industry significant sums and could well have impacted on other employers who require employees to take annual leave at times they would not ordinarily be at work.”
Sean Saluja, of Paull and Williamsons, the legal firm which represented the employers, said: “The decision was a complete success for the employers, who we represented as part of a team, and we are delighted with the outcome.”
Recommended for you
