The switch to three week equal-time rotas is the biggest cause of angst among the North Sea workforce, the chaplain to the UK oil and gas industry said yesterday.
Reverend Gordon Craig said workers’ morale is low with many telling him they are treated like “worthless numbers.”
“I’ve visited installations with three on, three off shifts. You come off with folk who look like zombies,” Rev Craig said at the Oil and Gas UK annual conference in Aberdeen during a presentation series on workforce engagement. “It’s not that it isn’t achievable, but it takes people time to settle into a new rhythm. Some would prefer to take a drop in pay than change rotas because of the effect on their overall standard of life.”
He said the biggest problem was the impact the rota change had on workers’ dependents, rather than the workers themselves: “It’s usually easier to deal with a major change that affects us personally than change that’s causing distress to those around us.”
Jake Molloy, regional organiser for the RMT union, said he had concerns about the oil and gas industry due to a lack of communication between management and employees.
Mr Molloy said: “The workforce will deliver cost reductions if given the opportunity. It’s the fact that they’re not even being given the opportunity. Maybe it’s the case that workers do not see any way of being more efficient, but the fact that you’ve even asked is the key.”