The offshore industry could be widely affected by the UK governments plan to amend the Working Time Directive law from the start of October. The intended plans could mean that oil and gas workers will be covered by EU rules which govern working hours and holidays, as reported in this week's edition of Upstream.
As of the 1st October 2006 the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) are considering extending the EU's Working Time regulations to cover all areas of the UK continental shelf. This would apply to workers outside the UK's 12-mile territorial limit, bringing knock-on effects to the North Sea production.
The UK Offshore Association (UKOOA) are anxious that full time staff could potentially be restricted to working just eight days per month, as time spent sleeping on long shifts could be classed as working hours. All of this could see a potential need for 20,000 further staff.
Paul Hollowell, offshore recruitment consultant at Faststream commented: "It's generally a skill-short market place, but regardless of the potential cut-back in working hours, companies will still have a big need for experienced staff. This could mean that these companies will have to look at more innovative and imaginative ways of recruiting, but also opens the door to a future generation of offshore staff who want to be involved within the industry".