wcms_161662

161. Since 1999, a number of partnership agreements have been concluded between employers
in the United Kingdom offshore oil industry, where trade unions have had only a limited
presence. Some employers in the oil industry have made pre-emptive partnership deals
with unions before workers pursue statutory recognition. These deals have allowed
employers to exert more control over the unions that are recognized in the workplace 104
and, in some cases, have had the stated aim of preventing the independent Offshore
Industry Liaison Committee union from increasing its influence in the offshore oil
industry. 105
162. In May 2000, the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union (AEEU) and the GMB
general trade union signed a voluntary recognition agreement with the Offshore
Contractors’ Association. In addition to making the AEEU and the GMB the sole agents
for bargaining over pay and conditions, the agreement included arrangements for
consultation procedures and regular meetings. With the agreement encompassing the
majority of non-oil company personnel working on platforms, around half of the offshore
workforce was covered. Workers not covered include contract catering staff and those
directly employed by oil companies (e.g. management, office workers). According to the
AEEU, this has given the union the power to negotiate collectively over pay and has led to
improved information exchange. 106 Further, a voluntary recognition agreement between
the AEEU and the United Kingdom Drilling Contractors’ Association (UKDCA) granted
the union collective bargaining rights over wages, hours and holidays and gave the union
offshore facilities to aid recruitment activities. 107
163. When asked to consider the extent to which partnership agreements in the oil industry meet
accepted notions of good partnership, some experts argue that such voluntary agreements
can help to improve organizational performance and competitiveness through improved
cooperation between employers and unions. But workers have generally not gained much
from partnership agreements. The outcomes examined in numerous research projects
comprised standard industrial relations variables, namely wages, hours of work,
employment levels, profit rates and union density, and they were measured over a
two- to three-year period prior to the signing of a partnership agreement and for a number
of years afterwards. Overall, there were no significant differences between partnership and
non-partnership firms in employee wage rises, hours of work, paid holidays, union density
changes or rate of profits. 108 Nevertheless, the partnership agreement between the AEEU
and the UKDCA has gone some way to enhancing trust, with both parties working jointly
to provide shop-steward training and lifelong learning initiatives. However, the trade union
Employment Relations in the Asia-Pacific Region: Reflections and new directions (Routledge,
2007), pp. 104–108.
104 C. Woolfson and M. Beck: “Union recognition in Britain’s offshore oil and gas industry:
Implications of the Employment Relations Act 1999”, in Industrial Relations Journal, Vol. 35,
2004, pp. 344–358.
105 G. Martin et al.: “The uncertain road to partnership: An action reach perspective on ‘new
industrial relations’ in the UK offshore oil industry”, in Employee Relations, Vol. 25, No. 6, 2003,
pp. 594–612.
106 A. Cumbers: “Genuine renewal or pyrrhic victory? The scale of politics of trade union
recognition in the UK”, in Antipode (Blackwell Publishing, 2005), Vol. 37, No. 1, pp. 116–138.
107 G. Martin et. al.: op. cit.
108 J. Kelly: “Industrial relations approaches to employment relations”, in The Employment
Relationship – Examining psychological and contextual perspectives, 2004, p. 60.
72 TMOGE-R-[2008-12-0110-1]-En.doc/v3