15 November, 2010
In the first bi-lateral bargain since a 2006 binding government-arbitrated labour agreement, 420 offshore oil workers on the Hibernia platform in the North Atlantic scored a remarkable first-year pay gain in a four-year contract through their union, the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada.
The oil workers, employed by 14 separate oil-servicing companies under a common labour agreement led by ExxonMobil-controlled Hibernia Management Development Corp., won a minimum 8% pay gain and adjustment that is retroactive to 1 July 2009.
The first-year increase actually ranges from 4.5% to 12.5%, but for workers employed by companies on the platform in which the negotiated backpay increase was 4.5% to 7%, a lump sum payment was negotiated bringing the total pay gain to 8%. Noble Drilling, Weatherford Wellhead, Schlumberger Ltd., and Petroleum Geo-Services are just a few of the 14 companies that are signatory to CEP Local 2121’s common agreement.
In the second (2010), third, and fourth years of the contract, offshore workers will see wage increases equal to what the CEP negotiated in its national energy and chemicals pattern agreement in Canada. Those increases are 2.5%, 3%, and 3.25%.
CEP National Representative Brian Campbell
“We recouped in retroactive pay what the arbitration award did not give us,” said CEP National Representative Brian Campbell, referring to a 38-month initial agreement delivered through first-contract arbitration by the Labour Ministry of the province of Labrador/Newfoundland.
“There were some workers who were underpaid in the arbitration deal,” Campbell added, “and the 2009 pay gains and lump sums adjust that.” Campbell said other highlights of the new contract, approved by a 68% vote following a final ratification meeting on 5 November, includes increased day rates for salaried workers and a first-ever supplementary paid vacation.
Four of the service companies operate with salaried staff, and the day rate – or actual work days on the rig – was increased in the second and fourth years. Hibernia staff work a 21-day on, 21-day off schedule, and the new vacation scheme will allow workers to take a total 63-day hiatus each year.
Hibernia is located 315 kilometres southeast of St. John’s, Newfoundland. It is 33.1% owned by ExxonMobil, 26.9% by Chevron, 20% by Suncor Energy, 8.5% by the government’s Canadian Hibernia Holdings, 6.5% by Murphy Oil, and 5% by Statoil. In early November, reserve estimates of Hibernia’s fields were adjusted upward by 12% to show a reservoir of 1.395 billion barrels of oil.
In the offshore waters of North America, including the Gulf of Mexico, only two platforms are unionised – Hibernia and Terra Nova, also off Labrador/Newfoundland. Oil workers there are also represented by CEP Local 2121. The 180 workers of Terra Nova, in which the licensed operator is Canadian-based Suncor, are in the early stages of renewal bargaining on a contract which expired 1 October 2010.
Besides Suncor, which owns 34% of Terra Nova through its 2009 purchase of PetroCanada, other stakeholders include ExxonMobil (22%), Statoil (15%), Husky Energy (12.5%), Murphy Oil (10%), Mosbacher (3.5%), and Chevron (1%).