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ITF delegation raises concerns about Mexico’s offshore sector
10 Agosto 2010
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| Gerson Obed Vega Ibarra (right) with the ITF Delegation: (from left) Ysmael García Muñoz, ministerial notetaker, Roar Holtet and Norrie McVicar. | |
A delegation from the ITF Congress yesterday met Gerson Obed Vega Ibarra, deputy director of the General Office of Exploration and Exploitation of Hydrocarbons at Mexico’s Ministry of Energy, to discuss ITF concerns about human rights violations and the lack of a proper health and safety regime in the country’s offshore oil and gas sector.
ITF concerns were presented to the International Forum on Maritime Offshore Industry held in Mexico City in October last year.
The discussions yesterday took into account the conclusions of the international forum, which broadly reflected the findings of the ITF commissioned report by Ana Lilia Pérez, “Campeche Basin: Paradigm of Labour Exploitation”. In addition, the meeting examined mechanisms to improve local and international industrial relations and to develop a model which would bring about best global practice in the Mexican offshore oil and gas industry.
The ITF delegation, which consisted of Norrie McVicar, chair of the ITF offshore task force group, Ysmael García Muñoz of the OCPNRM Mexican seafarers’ union and Roar Holtet of the Norwegian Indistri Energi union, were informed that new structures were being put into place to deal with the current problems of the sector. The energy, labour, maritime and transport ministries would coordinate their activities to improve health and safety at work, along with the development of emergency response training and good labour practices.
The ITF delegation welcomed these new developments, but invited the deputy director general to give serious consideration to the involvement and views of the independent and democratic union affiliates of the ITF in Mexico.
Norrie McVicar said after the meeting that he was pleased with the positive response from the deputy director general and looked forward to continuing the dialogue in the interests of Mexican offshore workers.
He added: “We also underlined the importance of meeting the requirements of International Labour Organization instruments and its concept of social dialogue and decent work. The ITF agreed to submit its proposals on how this should work, using best practice from around the world.”
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