Oil, gas and energy employees in Norway are to receive a pay increase of NOK19,700 (£1,791.92) after trade unions reached an agreement today (Tuesday 4 June 2019).
The pay deal was negotiated between the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association, a professional body and employers’ association for oil and supplier organisations, and the Norwegian Organisation of Managers and Executives, also known as Lederne, which represents a total of 17,000 members who are engineers or who have management responsibilities. The discussions began on Monday 3 June 2019.
The deal confirms an offer made to unions on 8 May 2019; this proposed a pay increase of NOK19,700, a NOK3 (£0.27) rise in the pay rates for shift work, night shifts and conference supplements, and a NOK50 (£4.55) increase in the supplement pay for working on public holidays. The offer corresponds with a 3.2% framework that was set by lead sectors earlier this year.
The parties further agreed that discussions will continue up to 30 September 2019, with the aim of clarifying how pay negotiations function and decide how local pay talks and committee work will relate to new forms of collaboration and operation.
The deal averts strike action planned by Lederne, which represents around 1,000 of the 7,500-strong unionised workforce covered by offshore agreements. The organisation gave notice that 198 staff would strike across seven operating sites from Monday 3 June 2019 at the earliest.
Jan Hodneland, lead negotiator at Norwegian Oil and Gas Association, said: “These talks have been very demanding, but agreement was eventually reached on a financial framework which corresponds with the offer made in the pay talks during May and which has already been awarded to the Norwegian Union of Industry and Energy Workers and Energy Works and the Norwegian Union of Energy Workers (Safe).”