Union recognition in Britain's offshore oil and gas industry: implications of the Employment Relations Act 1999

• Author: Matthias Beck,Charles Woolfson
• Date: 01 July 2004
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2338.2004.00318.x
• Published date: 01 July 2004

Union recognition in Britain’s offshore oil

and gas industry: implications of the

Employment Relations Act 1999

Charles Woolfson and Matthias Beck

ABSTRACT

The Employment Relations Act 1999 (ERA) has provided trade unions in the

UK with new opportunities for achieving recognition. After a long history of anti-

unionism in the offshore oil and gas industry, employers have voluntarily ceded recog-

nition to Trades Union Congress (TUC)-affiliated trade unions.The legitimacy of this

recognition process has been contested by the non-TUC Offshore Industry Liaison

Committee (OILC), an offshore workers’ union, seeking to act as a recognised bar-

gaining agent. The ERA may be promoting ‘business friendly’ agreements at the

expense of claims to recognition of other bargaining agents and of democratic

employee choice.

INTRODUCTION

Historically, employment relations in the UK offshore oil industry have been charac-

terised by a marked hostility of employers towards collective bargaining and trade

union recognition. This article, firstly, briefly explores the evolution of union avoid-

ance strategies since the establishment of the offshore oil and gas industry in the UK

sector of the North Sea. Secondly, renewed attempts by trade unions to obtain recog-

nition after the 1988 Piper Alpha oil rig disaster are discussed. In this context, the

strong linkage between safety and industrial relations in this industry is noted. The

perceived failure of Trades Union Congress (TUC)-affiliated unions to address ade-

quately issues of representation and health and safety in the industry is identified as

the catalyst for the formation of the non-TUC trade union for offshore workers, the

Offshore Industry Liaison Committee (OILC). In the third and final section,

the impact of the Employment Relations Act 1999 (ERA) on union recognition in

the offshore industry is examined. It is argued that the prospect of enforced statutory

recognition has led employers to develop pre-emptive partnership-style relationships

with TUC-affiliated trade unions in order to exclude the competitor OILC union from

❏Charles Woolfson is Marie Curie Chair, EuroFaculty, University of Latvia. Matthias Beck is Research

Professor of Risk Management, Glasgow Caledonian University.Correspondence should be addressed to

Charles Woolfson, School of Law, University of Glasgow, Lilybank House, Bute Gardens, Glasgow G12

8RT, Scotland, UK; c.a.woolfson@socsci.gla.ac.uk

Industrial Relations Journal 35:4

ISSN 0019-8692

© Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2004, 9600 Garsington Road,Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main St., Malden, MA 02148,

USA.