The two sides agreed a financial solution which is in line with the framework established centrally by the lead sector earlier this year. It also matches the settlement between Norwegian Oil and Gas and the Norwegian Union of Industry and Energy Workers (IE), the largest union in the oil service area.
Reached in October, the latter was negotiated in talks initially conducted in parallel with Safe. However, Safe broke off its negotiations and the issue was referred to mandatory mediation.
“We’re satisfied that we’ve succeeded in finding a solution with Safe on the well service agreement after a demanding mediation process which ran into overtime,” says chief negotiator Jan Hodneland at Norwegian Oil and Gas.
The primary reason why Safe withdrew from the initial talks was a local dispute between the union and Schlumberger Norge related to a special agreement with that company.
“This problem was also overcome in connection with the mediation, but made it even more demanding to find a solution for this part of the 2020 collective pay negotiations,” says Hodneland.
Safe has almost 700 members who are covered by the well service agreement. In all, just over 5 000 employees in various supplier companies are covered by the various collective pay settlements in the oil service area. These companies deliver services to oil company operations on offshore installations.
With the latest settlement, Norwegian Oil and Gas has completed this year’s collective pay talks in the various agreement areas.
Further information from:
Leif Harald Halvorsen, manager, membership relations, Norwegian Oil and Gas Association, mobile: +47 91 70 15 15, e-mail: lhh@norog.no.
