An Aberdeen-based oil company’s proposal to change its staff rota system has been criticised by unions as “a step back in time”.
Apache North Sea contract staff now work a two-weeks-on, two-weeks-off rotation on its Forties field platforms.
The company now wants to introduce a three-weeks-on, three-weeks-off system instead.
Apache North Sea’s production manager, Bill Logan, said yesterday the proposal was principally for safety reasons, although he agreed that there would be savings in helicopter crew-change flight costs.
But there could be a row brewing as unions are totally opposed to the move, which Jake Molloy, regional organiser in Aberdeen for the RMT union, said yesterday was a “step back in time”.
Mr Logan said: “If the North Sea industry is going to survive for the next 20 years we have to reduce the number of helicopters going backwards and forwards. This will help to reduce risks as well as costs.
“It is right for the business as 40% of our costs are in logistics. But we have not yet made a decision and are not committed.
“We have asked management at our contractors to look at the pros and cons and to come up with responses by the end of October. A number have already said ‘yes please’. If we were to go ahead we would look towards implementing changes in the first quarter of next year.”
Apache has 550-600 people in total working offshore on the Forties field, of whom about 200 are directly employed staff and the rest employed by contractors. Directly employed staff work a different shift pattern of two weeks on/three weeks off.
One of the contractors on the field is Petrofac, which has written to its workers on Forties to say it expects a decision on rotas to be made by Apache by the end of October. Petrofac also says Apache is in discussions with contractors about enhanced pay based on achievement of key objectives.
It adds that any changes proposed would go through a full consultation process between individual contracting companies and their respective staff.
Mr Molloy said workers on Forties were completely justified in expressing anger at the proposal. He said: “The workforce, to a man in every contractor company, do not want to go back to three weeks on/three weeks off.”
He pointed to the Health and Safety Executive’s “guidance for managing shiftwork and fatigue offshore” which has a section on “known hazards of shift-working offshore”. One of the hazards highlighted is “too long offshore without breaks”.