ROV and Diving Positions Available – 09 04 07

[luckyjim37]

[Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2007 9:26 am Post subject:

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"SAUSAGE ROLLS??

is there a problem with poles and the like taking over in the north sea? "

Poles are not really taking over the ROV dept yet and of late there seem to be more phillipino deck crews and stewards turning up.

The big invasion in the North sea is from our Antipidean friends returning from the far flung reaches of the empire and taking all our jobs.

[James McLauchlan]

Our Jobs?

You just have to look at how many countries UK ROV people work in and ask yourself who’s jobs we are taking when overseas.

On the ROV front if we can’t fill the slots with our own people (for any number of reasons) companies will simply use other nationalities. My guess is that our ‘Antipidean friends’ that you refer to are on the same rate as the UK sourced guys but are a lot more expensive to get to and from the job.

The only attraction I can see, from a company perspective, is that they will most likely do longer trips but that is another issue.

[luckyjim37]

Please don’t take that out of context James it was probably badly worded on my part.

I agree completely that ex-pat workers from around the world have in some areas become the dominant ROV staff. I have come accross very few singaporian ROV pilots or pilots from African countries but there are a lot of workers from other countries who work in these areas.

I have noticed and increase in the number of pilots from Austrailia and Brazil this year who are as you say costing companies more. My biggest and in fact only dislike I have of it, for want of a better word, is I have worked with a few Austrailians, New Zealanders and Canadians over the last couple of years through agencies who have had medicals and survivals paid for by the agency/company where as long term British agency workers do not get the same offers made with regard to these costly certificates.

I am all for working with anyone from anywhere but on an equal footing.

[Scott Beveridge]

Lucky,

One cuts ones own deals doesn’t one??? The companies of course, try to keep the costs down by any means… For example… Flights are one way of a list of many. The days of flying business class for flights more than 6 hours are long gone. Put up in hotel suites (yes, really!!!). If a company can save GBP 5.00 / day they will. The industry is as such where we, us working stiffs can and should make some realistic demands from the contractors…. uni0ns (har,har) anybody?? Especially for you guys who live / work in the UK and have to pay out your hard-earned cash to the govt (mostly…).

[luckyjim37]

It is not always that simple though. The companies according to one large agency which I will not name but most people know about them state that they agree rates with the companies at the start of the year and will not move on them.

Wether or not that is correct I do not know but that is what they state when you push for a little extra on the your day rate. Also when it comes to survivals and medicals they are not prepared to support you if you are a UK resident but I know for a fact of two Austrailians and one Kiwi who have had full Norwegian survivals and medicals paid for by a company whilst working for the agency.

When I asked for a comparable deal I was told the official line that they do not do that and rates are preset at the start of the year.

I decided after that to use my feet rather than have an argument and went to work elsewhere.

Maybe if agencies did not issue contracts telling the guys not to discuss day rates then we as an industry could stop all this positive discrimination in favour of some people and finally set a level playing field for all regardless of where you live.

I mean for example if a pilot was a philipino or a Brazilian he would be on a lesser rate than a north sea tiger from the UK you could pretty much bet you wage on that. But if you were an ex-pat living in the Philipines or Brazil you could be fairly certain to be on North sea rates.

This kind of thing should be sorted out once and for all one position one rate regardless of where you live or what your nationality is. This would prevent the market being flooded by cheap labour and stop all the bickering about day rates.

[Scott Beveridge]

It is not always that simple though. The companies according to one large agency which I will not name but most people know about them state that they agree rates with the companies at the start of the year and will not move on them.

………………………………………………………………

When I asked for a comparable deal I was told the official line that they do not do that and rates are preset at the start of the year.

………………………………………………………………

Maybe if agencies did not issue contracts telling the guys not to discuss day rates then we as an industry could stop all this positive discrimination in favour of some people and finally set a level playing field for all regardless of where you live.

I mean for example if a pilot was a philipino or a Brazilian he would be on a lesser rate than a north sea tiger from the UK you could pretty much bet you wage on that. But if you were an ex-pat living in the Philipines or Brazil you could be fairly certain to be on North sea rates.

This kind of thing should be sorted out once and for all one position one rate regardless of where you live or what your nationality is. This would prevent the market being flooded by cheap labour and stop all the bickering about day rates.

Lucky,

A bit pf a pipe dream there, don’t you think so?

In a certain thread reply of mine, I mentioned the fact that there may be a possible collusion between the ROV companies as well as the agencies… I said may…

One position, one rate?? Be realistic. It’s the experience level which should dictate the dayrate. And yes, there is discriminatory payrates for guys / gals from 3rd world / developing nations. There was another poster who noted that Subserv had a contract to train up to 150 Indian nationals. Read between the lines…

And as far as companies telling the contractors to keep it quiet about their dayrates… Tell em’ to stuff it! Use this forum for the dayrates! 😉

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