While the Norwegian oil and gas employers have reached a pay deal with offshore supply base workers over the weekend, the strike threat in Norway now looms from the offshore workers.

Namely, Roy Aleksandersen, 1st Deputy Chairman of SAFE, one of the Norwegian workers’ unions, has notified the national mediator that SAFE will start a strike among 79 of its members from midnight, Tuesday, June, 21 if the mediation between SAFE and Norwegian Shipowners Association, NSA, don’t result in agreement.

The notification applies for all SAFE-members on the rigs «Rowan Viking» and «Rowan Gorilla» who are employed in Rowan Norway Ltd. and catering company Sodexo.

The mediation begins in Oslo on Monday, June 20, with mediation deadline at midnight on Tuesday, June 21. If the mediator does not succeed in getting the parties to reach an agreement, the strike will be a fact from that hour, SAFE said.

“We, of course, hope that the mediation will be successful, and a conflict thereby avoided. The limited numbers of possible workers in strike according to SAFEs first outtake reflects this. But if the NSA maintains its massive assault on our current collective agreement, and a strike materialize, we have four days’ notice before we can expand the strike to more companies and installations,” said Aleksandersen.

Source: www.offshoreenergytoday.com