Friday 20 December 2013

Oil & Gas UK responds to Unite’s Back Home Safe campaign

Oil & Gas UK can confirm it has received Unite’s Back Home Safe petition. Unite representatives play a much valued role in the work of the Step Change in Safety Helicopter Task Group (HTG) which has been set up specifically to: • Monitor the progress of the investigation • Listen to the workforce and understand their concerns • Identify safety improvements and communicate progress • Engage with the independent reviews; and • Ensure that all recommendations from the various inquiries are shared across industry

Accordingly, as outlined in a letter to Len McCluskey, General Secretary of Unite dated Thursday 14 November and as reiterated in a subsequent meeting with Assistant General Secretary Tony Burke, Oil & Gas UK is puzzled as to why Unite is running this separate campaign given its involvement in the HTG and considering the fact that many of the issues raised by the campaign have already been, or currently are, in the process of being addressed by the appropriate organisation with the remit and power to implement changes.

Implementation of safety recommendations from past incidents are largely the responsibility of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), and the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA). Oil & Gas UK is not aware of any recommendation that has not been acted upon.  In a meeting with Oil & Gas UK today, Unite officer Tommy Campbell accepted that responsibility for implementing most of the recommendations from previous incidents lay with other authorities. Mr Campbell also emphasised the value of the ongoing partnership between Unite and Oil & Gas UK.

For any other queries, please contact Oil & Gas UK press officer Lucy Gordon at lgordon@oilandgasuk.co.uk.