{"id":4665,"date":"2015-07-06T16:37:35","date_gmt":"2015-07-06T15:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=4665"},"modified":"2015-07-06T16:37:35","modified_gmt":"2015-07-06T15:37:35","slug":"safety-commitment-questioned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=4665","title":{"rendered":"Safety commitment questioned"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Today, Monday July 6 marks the <span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">tragic<\/span> anniversary of the\u00c2\u00a0Piper Alpha oil rig explosion which claimed the lives of 167 workers and devastated a community. It happened 27 years ago in <span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">1988<\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The disaster saw the North Sea platform engulfed in a ball of flames after a gas leak ignited. <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">It robbed 167 lives but devastated hundreds more. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Unite believes that\u00c2\u00a0on this anniversary management should consider a rethink on changes to offshore work rotas. <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Unite has demanded that new shift rotas and other changes imposed by the oil companies are removed in the interests of the health and safety of workers.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn the aftermath of Piper Alpha there was, quite rightly, a focus on the need to maintain the highest standards of health and safety,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Pat Rafferty, Unite regional secretary. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn our view that commitment on the part of the employers is now under question,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The oil companies are trying to impose new shift rotas and other changes which force workers to work offshore for longer periods and could have an effect on morale. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u015bPiper Alpha\u00c2\u00a0is now compounding the situation by refusing to honour agreed wage increases and cut terms and conditions \u00e2\u20ac\u201c all of which is seriously damaging workforce morale in one of our most dangerous industries,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 added Pat.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The North Sea oil production platform, located 120 miles Northeast of Aberdeen, began production in 1976 and converted to gas production later on.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn remembering those who lost their lives the employers should reinforce their commitment to health and safety standards and recognise that such standards are threatened by effects on morale and longer working periods,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Pat.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey must honour the agreements they made on wages and move away from the imposition of longer offshore working,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today, Monday July 6 marks the tragic anniversary of the\u00c2\u00a0Piper Alpha oil rig explosion which claimed the lives of 167 workers and devastated a community. It happened 27 years ago in 1988. &nbsp; The disaster saw the North Sea platform engulfed in a ball of flames after a gas leak ignited. It robbed 167 lives [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4668,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"wps_subtitle":"Piper Alpha: shift changes could affect safety ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4665"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4665"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4674,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4665\/revisions\/4674"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}