Norway oil firms, workers agree wage deal in principle, avert strike for now (updated)

Orron Energy AB

12/06/2022 11:32

(Adds details, quotes)
    OSLO, June 12 (Reuters) - Norwegian oil firms and employees
have agreed in principle a new wage deal, avoiding for now a
strike at nine fields that could have hit the country's
petroleum output, employers and two unions said on Sunday.
    Two of the three unions that negotiated with oil firms will
seek approval from their members before they formally approve
the deal, the lobby representing employers and one union leader
told Reuters.
    "Agreement. No strike. But Lederne and Safe (trade unions)
send the results to a referendum (of) their members," a
spokesman for the Norwegian oil and gas lobby said. 
    "They will have to answer (by) June 30."
    Some 845 workers out of about 7,500 employees on offshore
platforms had planned strike action from June 12 if the annual
pay negotiations with employers failed, trade unions Safe,
Industri Energi and Lederne had said.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2XX1R6
    The largest of the three unions, Industri Energi, has agreed
a wage deal and will not seek approval from its members, it said
in a statement.
     The leader of the Safe union said it would seek the
go-ahead of its members before approving the negotiated deal.
    "Safe has come to the conclusion that we will ask our
members before we either sign or go on strike," Hilde-Marit
Rysst told Reuters.
    The third union, Lederne, was not immediately available for
comment.
    The oil industry lobby, the Norwegian Oil and Gas
Association (NOG), had said a strike "could affect" output but
declined to say by how much.
    All three labour unions had said they would, at least
initially, seek to prevent a cut in Norway's natural gas export
at a time of tight supply in Europe.
    The Industri Energi union had said it would also seek to
shield crude oil production from impact, while Lederne said its
members would target oil. Safe had not said whether a strike by
its members would have an impact on oil output.
    Norway pumps just over 4 million barrels of oil equivalent
per day, half in the form of crude and other liquids and half
from natural gas, making it a major global energy supplier.

 (Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis and Gwladys Fouche, editing by
Terje Solsvik, Catherine Evans and Ed Osmond)
 ((terje.solsvik@thomsonreuters.com; +47 918 666 70))