Norway’s oil and gas industry could be hit by a surprise move by the country’s parliament, which appears poised to rule in January that the Working Environment Act should apply to project personnel on multi-purpose support vessels operating on the Norwegian continental shelf.
Oilfield service companies — having won several recent court cases against the Industri Energi (IE) union involving disputes over workers’ rights on MSVs — seemed confident that personnel on these vessels would not be protected by Norway’s stringent Working Environment Act, but rather only under international maritime law.
