Norwegian safety regulators have ordered Netherlands contractor NEM to provide documentation on the employment terms for contract workers at Mongstad, and the Dutch have three days to comply.

Norway’s Petroleum Safety Authority said a visit to Mongstad in early October revealed NEM employed workers from staffing agencies.

“When the company was unable to document the employment terms for these workers —written contracts of employment, pay slips (plus) agreements on meeting travel, subsistence and accommodation expenses — the PSA gave oral notice on 7 October of an order to obtain these documents,” a statement from the authorities said.

The law requires employers in Norway to provide all benefits for workers under full-time hire.

StatoilHydro is the responsible operator of the Mongstad plant, although Dong Energy is the construction client for the power station being built at the site. Both StatoilHydro and Dong Energy are responsible for ensuring contractors are in compliance of employment and safety regulations, which are closely linked in Norway.

While the PSA issued a warning to NEM, Norway’s unions work in tandem with safety regulators in Norway to raise levels of safety. Scandoil.com affiliate Scandinavian Oil-Gas Magazine has reported extensively how unions in Norway cite labour violations in Norway under the reasonable belief that well-looked-after workers are safe workers, and that well-paid Norwegian oil-industry jobs are threatened by lower-paid foreign contractors in Norway.

The PSA, meanwhile, has told NEM they must meet the deadline to disclose worker details, or risk being forced off the Mongstad site under Norway’s Working Environment Act. The Law gives safety regulators the right to supervise pay and working conditions for foreign workers.

Foreign workers outside the oil and gas industry are seldom provided the same protections as Norwegian workers, although a union-inspired crackdown on Norwegian construction sites forced Norway’s builders to raise the salaries of Polish carpenters, formers and electricians to the Norwegian norm.

Tags: StatoilHydro