13 December, 2012Representatives of the oil multinational Statoil and IndustriALL Global Union signed an agreement on 11 December 2012 committing the company to promote human rights, health and safety and environment issues at their operations across the globe.
The signing ceremony took place at the International Labour Office in Geneva. The agreement was signed by Siv Oftedal, Vice President Human Resources of Statoil, Leif Sande, President of Industri Energy Union and Jyrki Raina, General Secretary of the IndustriALL Global Union.
Siv Oftedal, Vice President Human Resources of Statoil commented, “Our corporate employee relations strategy and action plans reflects Statoil’s ambition for international growth. The content of the agreement is in line with the way we operate in Norway and how we would like to be recognized where we are present as a company. It is difficult to attribute a priority to a specific subject covered in this agreement. However, human rights, including the right of every employee to be represented by a union of his or her own choice and the basic trade union rights as defined by ILO Convention 87 and 98 covering freedom of association and the right to organise, as well as the commitment to provide a safe and healthy work environment are elements of vital importance to Statoil. In addition, our company takes pride in honouring local laws and practices, thus ensuring that we act as a responsible employer and a social citizen.”
From his side Leif Sande added, “For us the most important thing is that Statoil makes a commitment towards a system of cooperation through which they accept trade union rights. By doing this the company can lift standards around the world where they have their operations.”
Jyrki Raina, praised the fruitful cooperation started by the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Union (ICEM), a co-founder of IndustriALL, back in July 1998, stating, “this Global Framework Agreement remains a benchmark and good example for multinational companies not only in oil and gas sector, but also in other industries.”
Text of the agreement does not include any considerable changes from the earlier agreement and will be available on the IndustriALL website soon.