Another round of oil and gas industry collective pay talks in Norway, and another breakdown.

The fourth, and final round of collective pay talks held this week between employers and workers employed in the oilfield services sector have hit a standstill.

Namely, the Norwegian Union of Energy Workers (Safe) has reportedly opted to break off talks while the Norwegian Union of Industry and Energy Workers (Industry Energy) postponed its discussions.

“The distance between the parties was too great where Safe was concerned,” says Jan Hodneland, lead negotiator for the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association. “The economics of the settlement were crucial to the failure to find solutions.

The latest round of talks covered around 6,000 employees working in various oilfield services companies. The wage talks were previously held with land workers, onshore bases workers, and offshore workers. Collective pay talks held with the workers in onshore bases, and offshore workers collapsed. The deal was reached with land-based workers.

Regarding the latest round of talks Hodneland said: “Safe’s overall demands demonstrate that it does not share our perception of reality with regard to the demanding position in which the oil and gas industry finds itself.”

A settlement of the well service agreement with Safe will accordingly be sought through mediation. Same goes for the offshore workers and those working in onshore bases.

“Where Industry Energy is concerned, the negotiations have been demanding but we have agreed to suspend the talks for now and resume at a later date,” reports Hodneland. “We don’t know yet when that will be.”

According to info on the Industri Energi’s website, the union plans to wait and see how the mediation with other parties goes, before taking further action.

This is the fourth and last of the collective pay agreements being negotiated by Norwegian Oil and Gas this year. Talks on the land base and offshore agreements have broken down and gone to mediation. A settlement was reached for the land agreements.

Source: www.offshoreenergytoday.com

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