Working time arrangements and safety for offshore workers in the North Sea

Abstract The risk level in the Norwegian offshore industry is higher to day than in the period 1996–1998. Towards the end of the last century there were negotiations between the employers' and employees' unions about changing the working time arrangements and possible negative or positive effects on safety were discussed. The work arrangement for offshore workers at the Norwegian part of the North Sea has, up till 2002, been asymmetric with 2 weeks offshore work, then 3 weeks free period at home, 2 weeks offshore and 4 weeks at home. The proposed new working time arrangement—which was obtained by negotiations in 2002—is symmetric with 2 weeks offshore and a 4 weeks free period each time. Our research question was if 4 versus 3 weeks at home had any impact on the accident level. To answer this question, methodological triangulation was used. Thirty offshore workers on three different platforms in the North Sea owned by three different companies were interviewed about their subjective perceptions of the relationships between safety and 4 versus 3 weeks at home. In addition to that, SYNERGI accident data from the same platforms were combined with work schedule lists from the personnel systems in each of the companies. Almost all the respondents wanted the new working arrangement and they subjectively saw no relationship between safety and 4 versus 3 weeks at home. This lack of relationship between accident level and safety was confirmed by the quantitative data.