Critical employees are "not required back" on the North Sea, RMT and OILC say.

9 November 2007

British offshore unions claim that three contractor employees have been blacklisted from a North Sea installation for challenging safety issues.

The Maersk subsidiary, Maersk Oil North Sea UK, is one of the companies being targeted.

The unions OILC and RMT are launching a name-and-shame campaign to combat workers being "NRBd" (not required back) on the platform Janice and other platforms in the North Sea.

The unions say there were a variety of reasons for someone receiving an NRB, including complaining about safety, being suspected of giving a tip-off to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) or being too trade union orientated.

The unions allege that, for over 30 years, contract workers have lived and worked in fear of such action by operators.

OILC General Secretary, Jake Molloy, estimated that the number of these blacklistings would have run into thousands over the life to date of the North Sea.

"The worker has virtually no means by which to challenge the actions of the operator. The contracts between operators and contractors always include a clause allowing the operator to deny anyone access to their installations and for any reason," according to two the unions.

According to BBC, industry leaders insist that the practise of issuing NRBs is not widespread on North Sea installations.