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Most oil workers in the U.K. follow a \u201c2\/3\u201d work pattern \u2014 two weeks offshore followed by three weeks\u2019 downtime. That reflects the perilous nature of a job handling heavy machinery and flammable products, often in cramped conditions and extreme weather. But with the coronavirus crisis causing thousands of job losses, shifts for the remaining workers are being stretched.<\/p>\n
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Offshore personnel are having to stay on platforms \u201cright up to the limit,\u201d Jake Molloy, a regional organizer for the RMT union, said by phone. \u201cThe general public don\u2019t understand the stresses and strains of being offshore; three weeks would break me.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Around 7,500 jobs in the U.K. oil and gas industry have been lost amid the pandemic and 30,000 more are expected to go by the end of next year, according to trade body Oil & Gas U.K. Offshore workers may feel pressure to agree to longer shifts for fear of being among that number, said Dominic Pritchard, an organizer for the GMB union.<\/p>\n
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Offshore recruitment company Airswift dismissed the suggestion that operators are putting worker safety at risk.<\/p>\n
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\u201cSafety is the core value of every oil company,\u201d Paul Murphy, Airswift\u2019s recruitment director, said by phone. Most offshore personnel are \u201citching to get back and save their jobs,\u201d he said, insisting that improvements in technology and compliance have offset any increased risks from working 3\/3 shifts.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, research published by the Offshore Contractors\u2019 Association, which works with several trade unions, showed such shifts can increase fatigue and harm mental health and concentration, raising the risk of accidents.<\/p>\n
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Multiple exploration and production companies operating in the region were contacted for comment. All either declined to comment or didn\u2019t respond.<\/p>\n
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While the North Sea has a good safety record, \u201call the studies\u201d show 3\/3 shifts \u201cmost certainly do not make for a safer work environment,\u201d the GMB\u2019s Pritchard said. \u201cThere\u2019s a certain amount of opportunism coming during this moment of uncertainty,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not illegal, but it is immoral.\u201d<\/p>\n
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(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2020.<\/em><\/p>\n gCaptain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Most oil workers in the U.K. follow a \u201c2\/3\u201d work pattern \u2014 two weeks offshore followed by three weeks\u2019 downtime. That reflects the perilous nature of a job handling heavy machinery and flammable products, often in cramped conditions and extreme weather. But with the coronavirus crisis causing thousands of job losses, shifts for the remaining …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[9689,166,87,1933,997,6309,1761],"class_list":["post-14798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marine-world","tag-marooned","tag-oil","tag-risk","tag-safety","tag-sea","tag-unions","tag-workers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/14799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}