Labour dispute

by the Norwegian Petroleum Museum

Two workers were dismissed on 3 July 1990 after they had failed to obey orders from the offshore field manager not to obstruct activity on the helideck and return to their work.

— 1000 OFS-organiserte som var offshore sperret helikopterdekkene og lammet all virksomhet offshore. HA 4. juli 1990

Physical force was used to prevent him from doing his job. According to Phillips, this represented a gross breach of employment regulations.

The background to this incident was the start of an illegal labour dispute on Ekofisk, the first of its kind there for nine years.

That in turn followed the government’s imposition of compulsory arbitration after just one day of strike action. Work on the helideck was obstructed so that helicopters were unable to land.

However, the stoppage was called off on Thursday 5 July. The Norwegian Labour Court declared it to be illegal and in breach of the collective pay agreement.

After the two workers were fired, the Ekofisk Committee union made efforts to get them reinstated. Agreement on a cooperation deal was reached with Phillips on 1 August.

Neither the union nor those concerned were to dispute that the dismissals was valid. The company would then see after 1 November whether they could be rescinded.

Furthermore, the Ekofisk Committee and its members would help to normalise conditions, and its executive would display a genuine willingness to cooperate on preventing future illegal strikes.

The union was to contribute positively to making Phillips a total quality company and to avoiding stoppages. Nor would it publicly criticise the company before the issue had been thoroughly discussed with management and the parties agreed that they disagreed.

Both the workers who had been fired were reinstated in due course, and were back on Ekofisk from 1 November.[REMOVE]Fotnote: PhillipsNytt nos 10, 11 and 15, 1990.