EVERYONE working in the offshore oil industry has a part to play in driving up safety standards, delegates at a conference in Edinburgh were told yesterday.
Nearly 200 delegates from the offshore workforce attended the Play Your Part Offshore Workforce Involvement Day, organised by the Workforce Involvement Group, a sub-group of the Offshore Industry Advisory Committee (OIAC).
Ian Whewell, Aberdeen-based head of the Health and Safety Executive’s offshore division and OIAC chairman, said: “It is essential that the offshore workforce is fully involved and is enabled to play its part in securing improvements in safety. In the year when we remember the 20th anniversary of the Piper Alpha tragedy it is opportune to remember the importance Lord Cullen attached to this in his report on the disaster.”
Danny Carrigan, a non-executive member of the HSE board, said: “The offshore industry is facing growing challenges: ageing installations, changing ownership and management, worker skill shortages and inexperience and lack of corporate memory by managers.
“Companies should develop approaches based on collaboration and trust, use the knowledge and experience of the workforce, and learn lessons from incidents by fully involving the workforce in investigations. The offshore workforce is not only the eyes and ears of the offshore industry, but also the means by which the most effective communications can be achieved and good and best practice identified and shared.”
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