FIGHTING FOR HOLIDAY RIGHTS FOR OFFSHORE WORKERS

RMT helpline 0800 3763706 :: june 2010 :: RMTnews 6 RMT has won recognition for cleaners working for Lightbridge Support Services on the Arriva Trains Wales contract. LSS have been involved with ATW for six years and in that time RMT membership at the company has steadily grown. Regional organiser Brendan Kelly said that RMT now has 70 per cent of the workforce in membership. “With this recognition agreement we are in a good position to improve upon this. “I would like to congratulate all of the members of this union employed by LSS, RMT officials and the members of the South Wales and West Regional Council for their hard work in securing this agreement. “This agreement gives our members at LSS added protection and security in a section of the union which is renowned for its poor pay, conditions and general treatment of employees,” he said. R MT is back in the courts, writes Jake Molloy, in the fight to try and secure holiday rights for offshore workers under the Working Time Regulations. The union is in the highest court in Scotland for the latest round, the Court of Session, and has engaged the services of Mr Aidan O’Neill QC to make the argument on behalf of oil workers. The case is being heard by three Judges, Lords Emslie and Eassie, along with Lady Paton. The arguments haven’t changed since the outset – the union maintains that your four weeks paid leave entitlement should be taken during a period when you would otherwise be working. The employers on the other hand want to re-designate part of your current field break entitlement and call it ‘holidays’. For an industry which claims “Safety is our number one priority”, the position the employers have adopted on working time is appalling. The regulations are derived from a European Health and Safety Directive specifically aimed at reducing long hours of work. No other high hazard industry works longer hours than those employed offshore. Counting only the very basic contractual hours, a worker will annually complete the equivalent of 52 weeks of 42-hour per week shifts. This doesn’t include training time, travel time, overtime, delays, or any other aspect of working time. And as we all know, all training is done during off-shift periods, all travel to and from offshore can add another half-day to work every trip, and lets not even mention delays. The union has spent a lot of time and money providing legal representation in this argument which goes back to 2003. Moreover, there is potentially another two stages to pass through, the Supreme Court and the European Courts, before we secure a hard and fast ruling on the issue. It will be several months before we get the ruling from the current proceedings which ended this month. Some of the more fortunate workers have suggested there’s no need to do this, because they already get leave through working different enhanced shift patterns like 2x3. However, what these workers currently enjoy is gifted by the oil company you’re fortunate enough to be working for. It can literally be taken away from you at the drop of a hat. Only by securing an enforceable ruling in law will the union be able to protect your rights to additional time off for holiday. We are determined to do this and we hope we can count on your continued support to make it happen. We would also like to think we could count on the support of those unfortunates who currently don’t get ‘gifted’ leave, and especially the drillers. And when the guy sitting next to you in the coffee shop uses that well worn line – ‘what’s the union ever done for me?’ point out that over £100,000 have been spent on their behalf on this important issue. FIGHTING FOR HOLIDAY RIGHTS FOR OFFSHORE WORKERS ARRIVA TRAINS WALES CLEANERS RECOGNISED