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Wood Group's fire-and-rehire threat brings six days of strikes to Harbour Energy's platforms
Unite and RMT members will strike for six days on Harbour Energy's North Sea platforms, saying contractor Wood Group threatened to fire and rehire them. Harbour expects to maintain production, a forecast the RMT's open-ended overtime ban will test.
The Board Room · Leadership desk
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What happened
- Production, instrument and mechanical technicians began with a two-day walkout at midnight, and further stoppages are set for 20-21 October and 3-4 November.
- Affected installations include Harbour Energy's Britannia, Jasmine, Judy, Lomond and North Everest platforms.
- A separate strike by offshore workers at Apache has drawn a warning that it could severely disrupt UK fuel supplies.
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Why it matters
- exposure Harbour carries the output risk on its own platforms from another company's change to employment terms, and so far its public stance is to wait for the two sides to settle.
- constraint Because the overtime ban outlasts the strike calendar, pressure on operations continues after 4 November unless the parties reach a deal.
- contradiction Unite says disruption to Harbour's assets is inevitable while Harbour expects production to hold, so the first walkout is the earliest evidence for either forecast.
So far the dispute is contained. The unions say the changes affect "dozens of offshore workers" [2]. Wood Group says the action involves members "employed by Wood on one of our Harbour Energy contracts" [9] and follows "a recent consultation on changes to employment terms and conditions with employees" [10]. Three walkouts of two days each make up the six days on the calendar [13].
The saving and the risk fall on different companies. Wood is the employer seeking new terms. Harbour runs the platforms where the strikes land [3]. Harbour has kept its distance. "We are aware of discussions between Wood and its employees and we hope a constructive resolution can be reached," a Harbour spokesperson said [11]. The company added that it expects "to maintain safe and reliable operations and production across our business" [16].
Harbour has already made the skeptic's case: dozens of workers out for six days need not dent output. The unions answer with the overtime ban. The walkouts have end dates, but the RMT ban runs from 8 October "until further notice" [6]. Unless it is lifted, it outlasts the last scheduled stoppage on 4 November [14]. Harbour and the union now make opposite forecasts, and we do not know yet which is right. "Industrial action will inevitably impact the operation of Harbour Energy's offshore assets," said Vic Fraser, Unite industrial officer [15].
For Wood, the threat itself narrows the options. Unite says the company threatened fire-and-rehire notices as part of cutting pay and conditions [1]. "This is a profitable company and it is despicable that it is threatening to fire and rehire its workers," said Sharon Graham, Unite general secretary [12]. RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey said that "instead of working with the union to resolve these issues, the company has inflamed the situation by threatening the use of fire-and-rehire tactics" [8]. If Wood withdraws the threat, it loses leverage in its consultation. If it issues the notices, it escalates a dispute already running on a client's platforms. The choice Wood faces this quarter is whether a saving on one contract is worth friction with the company that runs those platforms. I'd expect the consequence to show up later, when Harbour next prices the work and weighs Wood against other contractors.
The wider claim, that contractor cost-cutting now puts UK offshore output at risk, needs more evidence than the record so far provides. The BBC report places the Wood action next to a warning that separate strike action by offshore workers at Apache could "severely disrupt" UK fuel supplies [7]. It does not say what the Apache dispute concerns, or whether contractor pay is part of it. On this evidence there is one contractor, one client contract and five named Harbour platforms [3] [9].
What to watch
- Whether Wood Group issues fire-and-rehire notices or withdraws the threat before the 20 October walkout.
- Any Harbour Energy production update for Britannia and the other affected platforms after the first walkout.
- What the Apache dispute concerns: evidence that it also turns on contractor pay would support a pattern across the basin.