RMT slams SS7 on pay/conditions through hiring cheap labour

[James McLauchlan]

Official RMT News release : 07-10-2009

RMT slams major North Sea engineering and construction company Subsea 7 over “race to the bottom” on jobs and pay

OFFSHORE ENERGY union RMT today slammed the major subsea engineering and construction company Subsea 7 for engaging in a “race to the bottom” on pay and conditions through the hiring of cheap, overseas labour which has put jobs and conditions in the North Sea field under threat.

Subsea 7 delivered global pre tax profits of $425 million in 2008 with the bulk of the money – $235 million – being delivered from their North Sea operations.
Now the company are re-paying the hard work of their North Sea staff by threatening to dump them out of their jobs and hiring in cheap labour from overseas.

RMT have pledged an all-out fight to save jobs and to protect pay and conditions in the North Sea field and have warned Subsea 7 that they will mobilise a global trade union fightabck against the company. RMT are demanding immediate talks with Subsea 7 on the attack on jobs, pay and conditions.

In a letter to Subsea 7 management, RMT members say clearly: “If you think that we will idly sit back and allow you to remove our livelihoods without a fight you are very much mistaken.”

Bob Crow, RMT General Secretary, said:

“RMT members employed by Subsea 7 are clearly angry at what is tantamount to social dumping regarding the decision by the company to replace them with cheaper labour from other countries.

“We will not sit back while this highly-profitable, global company replace our members with cheap labour at the stroke of a pen. As well as causing anger and resentment within the Subsea 7 workforce these actions are setting alarm bells ringing right across the offshore industry.

“We will have no hesitation in mobilising a global trade union campaign exposing the activities of Subsea 7 and would urge the company to make immediate arrangements to meet with RMT representatives to discuss their intentions and the impact on their UK workforce.”
ENDS

Source of original article:
RMT slams major North Sea engineering and construction company Subsea 7 over “race to the bottom” on jobs and pay

Admin edit: 09-10-2009
This article was also published by ‘The Press and Journal’ (06-10-2009)
It is available for download as a .pdf file (581kb) further down this thread.

[Scott Beveridge]

James,

Ya’ know I’ve only got aboot 2 yrs. and a bit before I get out of this soon-to-be-in-a-sorry-state of an industry.

I sometimes wonder why I should care about the younger pups when they don’t or hardly give a damn about their own future…. Should I consider taking on the ever-present "I’m awright Jack" attitude of the majority of people in this industry and say farq ya’ all? OR…. get really involved and start a new (key word plonkers….) movement / group / ……. fill in the blank …… ???? perhaps a no-brainer….

[James McLauchlan]

I sometimes wonder why I should care about the younger pups when they don’t or hardly give a damn about their own future….

I’ll bet the companies just love them all the way to the bank 🙂

[Anonymous]

The integration of cheaper labour at Subsea 7 has been happening for the last 8 months and the policy is well known in the industry. Its good news that the RMT is now threatening to mobilize a trade union campaign to expose this activity.

After this policy has been exposed… it will be interesting to see what plans the RMT have next

[Scott Beveridge]

The integration of cheaper labour at Subsea 7 has been happening for the last 8 months and the policy is well known in the industry. Its good news that the RMT is now threatening to mobilize a trade union campaign to expose this activity.

After this policy has been exposed… it will be interesting to see what plans the RMT have next

RCV-225,

You forgot to mention what the "older" SS7 hands (if any still there) will threaten to do once they wake up and smell the coffee…. Or are they on a higher plain and not affected at all? Awright Jack!!!!!!!

[Mike Kidd]

The complacency about not joining the union seems to be more with the younger guys in SS7 who probably are more at risk as it will take a few years for the cheap labour to filter thru and get advanced to Sub Eng and above.

[Anonymous]

The older hands at SS7 as you put it, dont fear their jobs or shouldn’t do anyway. More of an issue with having to work with weaker, less experianced crews, but thats been an issue for some time. I sadly believe its a case of working with these new ROV crews, or well find Supervisors that can. Of course many guys who have worked middle-east and far-east have worked with mixed bag for years. Perhaps folk are just not happy to see it in the North Sea.

The introduction of cheaper ROV P/T’s has been met with near silence, not much protest beyond the Offshore Manager level. The idea that these guys would withdraw labour or protest to save a bunch of P/T’s is laughable. Its totally an alright-jack industry. From as far back as I can remember, everyone is on different money, confidential day-rate contracts, doing what they can to get the best deal/boat/shift…yeah its totally an alright jack industry. As anyone who has been shafted in the past will agree.

[quaich]

As an older hand I don’t fear for my job in the short term. Long term is a different matter.
SS7 say they have no plans to replace supv and above with these guys.
Do you believe them ?
Trust has gone out the window.
What else will SS7 think of to save money ?
If you’d told me last year we’d be having this debate I’d have laughed at you. I can’t believe what the company has turned into and certainly isn’t the same company I joined all those years ago.

Think of it this way. Protesting for P/T’s isn’t about saving P/T’s. It’s about protecting your future in the long term.
Withdrawing labour is an absolute last resort. If it came to that tough decisions will have to be made. It wouldn’t benefit us or the company but I’d like to think common sense will prevail and we won’t be going down that road.

Your post worries me.
Do you work in Westhill by any chance ?

[James McLauchlan]

SS7 say they have no plans to replace supv and above with these guys.
Do you believe them ?

No – Not at all. Why should anyone belive that?
Based on recent events – Even some SS7 ‘die hard loyal troops‘ must be starting to suspect this is the way it’s going in the longer term.

Trust has gone out the window.

Definitely – Many will be/are shell shocked at this total disregard to, so called, valued employees.

What else will SS7 think of to save money ?

Replace supervisors and above with these people once they are trained up. Not right now but watch that space.

Do people believe what they are being told by SS7 company management?
If I were an SS7 employee no amount of management re-assurance to the contrary would dissuade me from this concept of them replacing UK personnel with cheaper foreign imports. Look what they have done already! Some months back SS7 management were asked directly, by an appointed representative of the RMT, if they had any intention of replacing UK labour with cheap foreign labour. I was advised that SS7 categorically replied that they were not.

Yeah… right!

[Scott Beveridge]

Each and every one of them get exactly what they deserve…. Be it management or the guys offshore…. farqem’

[Scott Beveridge]

And that means you C.G. – plonker extraordinaire!!! Yes, please black ball me – again.

[Anonymous]

The devil is in the detail. I dont believe SS7 have replaced any staff with cheaper foreign labour. As for casual labour and agency hands. Quite a few of those positions have been filled with cheaper workers and will continue to do so.

I can only speak of SS7 construction work, but the majority of the time SS7 have staff personnel in key roles. I wouldn’t worry about being replaced by cheaper labour if your staff with SS7. Thats best left to agency hands and other causal workers who believe they have a moral right to work for a certain company. Those in staff positions should worry more about this winter and 2010. Its not going to a bumper year, thats for sure. Those agency hands and day-raters that have not been asked back, give Sonsub a call.

[James McLauchlan]

The older hands at SS7 as you put it, don’t fear their jobs or shouldn’t do anyway.

That’s a very short sighted statement, but I guess that falls in line with SS7 management policy, so comes as no surprise.

Of course they should fear for their jobs. Why on earth shouldn’t they?
They may be older hands but they may also wish to keep working for many more years to come.

At this moment in time if I were working in any position at SS7 I wouldn’t be looking to strike.
Instead, I’d be looking to withdraw my labour by leaving the company and taking my experience elsewhere. I would certainly not pay any attention to 225 suggesting to SS7 staffers to expect a lean winter/lean 2010.
That’s just a delaying tactic to keep you around long enough for their needs.
Oil has been on the rise all year. That alone will bring work in the next 12-24 months. Plus there are always plenty of company start-ups out there that would be more than happy to take on experienced people and pay them well for it.

I’d be too embarrassed to be associated with such an outfit.
Hopefully people are leaving in droves, but I suspect that may not be the case though.

Look for a more user friendly company to work with, rather than put up with management policies that have no long term view on anything and only one short term view…. and that’s purely profit driven.
Subsea7 deserve to lose all the experience they have, and about as fast as they dropped all those reliable people in it themselves.

Supervisors need not worry?
The current policy (and it has been stated as such already) of replacing trainees with cheap foreign labour is short sighted to say the least.

Where are all these supervisor type people going to come from in future if there are no longer UK based trainees gaining experience to become P/T’s and then supervisors?

What happens when the existing supervisors leave the system.. who will they be replaced by? It doesn’t take an idiot to work that one out. But for those that struggle with the concept…. They will be replaced by non other than experienced PT’s who in turn will be replaced by experienced trainees who come from where??

Therefore, it stands to reason that any management statement suggesting that Supervisors need not worry about their jobs, is nothing other than a smoke screen put up to enable the company to get these cheaper people experienced enough to do the replacing, but on about 20% of the salary.
They will say anything right now to keep the supervisory experience in place for the moment until such times as it’s deemed as no longer needed.

The rate people are promoted these days makes than an event likely to happen sooner, rather than later.

The devil is in the detail. I dont believe SS7 have replaced any staff with cheaper foreign labour. As for casual labour and agency hands. Quite a few of those positions have been filled with cheaper workers and will continue to do so.

So, previously SS7 ROV trainees were not staff then? Or, is it based on the ever so clever ‘The devil is in the detail.’ expression … Promote the existing UK sourced trainees up to P/T and employ new cheaper trainees from overseas. Ergo, SS7 management can sleep easily at night, knowing that they didn’t put anyone from the UK out of a job, just didn’t employ any to train up in the first place.

I would guess that the new Filipino trainees are not SS7 staff either. They would most likely be employed through a Filipino agency, as is the norm in such cases.

Therefore, I would suggest that SS7 staff have most likely been replaced by agency people…. it just depends how you package it. No matter how it is packaged, we can all see what the intended path is…. do over your own countrymen in favour of making more profit for shareholders.

One thing for sure is that the company management would not be so keen on cutting costs if it was them being replaced!

[Anonymous]

I dont know if SS7 trainee P/T’s are staff. By staff I mean they have a contact of employment and a salary plus benefits. I presume they are day rate, with the possibilty of a staff position at a later date. Your either staff or day rate in my book. No such thing as "trainee staff" if thats what you mean. No staff have been replaced by cheaper labour.

Like most compaines SS7 has a balance of personnel. Agencies and agency hands are there for the good times, not the bad. Day rate personnel will not be required back if SS7 core perssonel need the days and certain day rate positions will be replaced by cheaper alternatives.

Perhaps folk that think senior SS7 staff will rally round the day rate lads and help secure their jobs, taken by staff or cheap labour. Thats probably as likely as finding a chest full of gold coins next time the ROV is in the water. But there will always be dreamers.

[quaich]

225 I suspect we’ve both seen a lot of changes with SS7 but the latest is astounding. Tell me do you honestly agree with the policy of recruiting cheap foreign trainees to be used instead of trainees on UK rates ?
I know we struggle to get good trainees from our shores but this is tantamount to slave labour.

Why should staff not be concerned about their long term future with SS7 ?
Sell the idea to me because I’ll be straight with you I’m struggling to understand why you think there is no threat to all of us.

Do you have any idea how much an adverse effect on morale this sorry state of affairs is having ?
Does the company care about morale ?

The integration of cheaper labour at Subsea 7 has been happening for the last 8 months and the policy is well known in the industry. Its good news that the RMT is now threatening to mobilize a trade union campaign to expose this activity.

After this policy has been exposed… it will be interesting to see what plans the RMT have next

If you are who I think you might be why is it good news to SS7 management ?

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