Subsea7 using cheap labour?

[weeman]

Spoke to an old mate who works with SS7 and he says there is unrest within the ranks about SS7 policy (and that this has been confirmed by the HR manager) of replacing all specialities onboard their vessels with cheaper labour from the far-east through Anglo-eastern, primarily the philipines at the moment and their managment has had several visits to Manila to facilitate this.
He says that the riggers are already well on the way to being replaced and that ROV and co-ordinators are next, had a quick look on AE website and they are asking for ROV and co-ordinators out of manila
Apparently several vessels have received filipino agency ROV trainees who are being paid $48/day and will rise $20 when qualified.
Had a quick look through the forums for any news of this but not much about, there is a rumbling on oilbeefhooked that says they are down-manning salaried PT’s to keep these trainies on, but it soon turned into a union gripe.

so come on S-Club-7 boys and girls can anyone comfirm this or add fuel to the fire?

Im wondering what the consequences will be to the rest of us if this is true and works out well for SS7, remember the death of the merchant navy?

weeman

[WestRov]

I have a friend that works for S7 in West Africa. He told that there is major unrest in the teams down there with many guys looking to leave.

Also heard the cheap labour rumour but he couldn’t confirm it.

[Scott Beveridge]

It sounds like SS7 believe in the adage, "Life is cheap". Maybe they are having to pay more insurance so they are getting cheap labor….

[James McLauchlan]

I have a friend that works for S7 in West Africa. He told that there is major unrest in the teams down there with many guys looking to leave.

Which may play right into SS7’s hands.

[ROV_Monkey]

I can confirm the fact that S7 have employed filipino ROV trainees, I have met one

Apparently several vessels have received filipino agency ROV trainees who are being paid $48/day and will rise $20 when qualified.

Of course this all hinges on the current S7 assessors assesing the filipinos as being competent

😈

Monkey

[James McLauchlan]

I can confirm the fact that S7 have employed filipino ROV trainees, I have met one

Can you confirm if he above are being employed in the North Sea?

[SS7]

Hi All, i am a SS7 employee and am joining this debate as a conduit for the things i am hearing on a daily basis from friends on vessels affected, so forgive me if im a bit vague at times.(big brother is watching)

The company is going to great efforts to make their employees think they are lucky to be employed in the "current market conditions"?. The company is constantly pushing the line of cost cutting to keep the company competative which is fair enough but this latest step is felt to be a step to far and shortsighted in the longterm. You just have to look at what has happened to the cheap labour being used in the scottish fishing industry
http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1258556?UserKey=
I have met in passing but not worked with these guys myself but have spoken to many guys that have and i have been sent an email exchange between supervisors and managment confirming the companies intention to hire only filipinos for ROV, Co-ordinator, Riggers, ships engineers, survey, equipment engineers i.e. all disciplines.
I to have looked on Anglo-eastern website and they are asking for the above disciplines but it doesnt confirm any companies.

James
Does west of shetland count?

I can confirm that they are down-manning guys to keep these guys on, this happened when a vessel went into norway and they down manned 2 staff salaried Pilot techs, it was widely believed that this was a financial decision ($48 v £280) but many onboard speculated it was because these guys came into the UK on tourist visas, worked in the base and then joined a vessel going west of shetland which then went to work in norway and if they had been down manned there would have been some explaining to be done by the company as to why these guys were in Norway and if they were tourists how did they get out of the UK. Either theory seems plausible to me.

The word from guys who worked with them was that they were ok technical but the guys soon got sick of having to repeat things due to poor english! This sets off the loudest alarm bells for me!
Most guys are pushing the line of increasing the new starts wages above slave labour rates, but there are some who are becoming very angry about it and are starting to make little or no effort with these guys as they feel they are training these guys to take their jobs! (merchant navy quoted as an example)

SS7Boy

[mind-when-this-was-fields]

When companies are blatantly using the current economic climate to basically shaft their workers at any opportunity well…..what price loyalty??
I was one of the so called ‘on the fence sitters’ as I was not hearing anything from the OILC.
But you will be pleased to hear gents that as soon as I am back from my relaxing break I will be signing up………….
So over to-
A. the rest of the undecided and
B. the Union!!
The union is only as strong as its members an old rep once told me………

[ROV_Monkey]

ROV_Monkey wrote:
I can confirm the fact that S7 have employed filipino ROV trainees, I have met one

Can you confirm if he above are being employed in the North Sea?

James,
Check your PMs

Monkey

[James McLauchlan]

ROV_Monkey wrote:
I can confirm the fact that S7 have employed filipino ROV trainees, I have met one

Can you confirm if he above are being employed in the North Sea?

James,
Check your PMs

Monkey

Done :tup:

[Pat_the_Rat]

Heard that SS7 are always looking for good trainees, preferred background, short order cooks or bouncers.
Recently SS7 headhunters have been spotted near retirement homes. Up to 75 years old no problem, if physical still fit.
The pension though gets deducted from the day rate. SS7 probably pay s100 peanuts for a trainee, deduct the pension. Leaves the old folks still 50 peanuts per day. Must be good for the shareholder value.

Copied from a newspaper: Subsea 7 second quarter earnings for 2009 outperformed even the most optimistic projections.

I hope they get to pay the bill sooner or later, the way they are doing it. Pay the people, who do the work as less as possible. Hopefully loose some contracts.

😡 😡 😡

[dandydon]

A did a brief stint on a SS7 boat a few months back, a guid lads ken but,… a couldna believe the brainwashin the staffers have got, they’ll simply no leave, nae matter how much they get deeply shufted, subsea must hae a spell on thum. Either that or the’re a sh1t scared on a big move ken
😛

[HelpMaBoab]

Hey Dandy,
It’s called institutionalisation (Jeezo does that word exist).
Also they are feart of the big world out there, it is the same with OI guys, they would rather stay with the devil they know, even though they are getting treated a lot worse than other companies out there, especially with the economic situation the way it is.
Anyway, leave the jobworths alone.
Remember though, these high volume companies are very profit driven, and that means if they can swap out $500 per day P/T’s for $68 per day Filipinos they will and there is Jack Sh1t we can do about it.

Except of course join the Uni@n.

It is your livelyhood that is at stake here, remember nobody is indespensible. Especially when hard cash is involved,

You know it makes sense, otherwise get ready to retrain for something else onshore. (OOps the East Europeans have those jobs sown up).

😀 😀

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