RATES OF PAY & CONDITIONS OF SERVICE 2024 – OFFSHORE DIVING INDUSTRY AGREEMENT

Our Ref: SH/0001/ODIA

 

10 May 2024

 

 

Dear RMT Member

 

RATES OF PAY & CONDITIONS OF SERVICE 2024 – OFFSHORE DIVING INDUSTRY AGREEMENT

 

You and your colleagues delivered an overwhelming rejection of the last offer from the employers. The ODIA signatories have been left in no doubt that their offers to date are not acceptable to you and your colleagues and therefore we continue to press them for significant improvements. Arrangements are currently being made to get back round the table with the employers and as soon as I have details of these discussions, I will keep you advised.

 

Your union is also keeping under consideration all options open to us going forward and this includes the possibility of balloting all those who are directly employed by the employers as well as canvassing the day raters on what action they can take in this campaign.

 

While there are a number of obstacles to face for a union and its members on the right to take industrial action, they are not all insurmountable and all tactics and strategies we can use are currently under consideration.

 

We are all aware that discussions and debates have and are taking place among the members with regards to a possible ballot for industrial action and where each individual stands if that were to be the case and on what action you could all take. The long-standing advice from our solicitors and the long-standing position your union has taken over many years is that, while the legal definition of who is a “worker” and who is an “employee” has been subject of court orders and judicial decisions, what has not changed in recent years – and what, in fact, has got more strict as more anti-union legislation has appeared on the statute books – is that a union can only instruct members to strike if it has legally balloted them and the union can only ballot those members whose employers have been notified it is balloting. This means that it is only those who are directly employed by the various signatories who can be balloted and thus who can be instructed to take strike action. The difference with day raters is that they are contracted to carry out work for the signatories, not employed. There is a difference here and it is not related to whether someone can be defined as a “worker” but whether they can be defined as an “employee.” Those who are self-employed are not employees and therefore cannot be instructed to take industrial action and neither they nor this union will then be protected under industrial action legislation.

 

On the other hand, for a self-employed worker not to take up an offer of work or not to turn up for work on certain days or at certain times, is a matter for them as individuals and not something which can be governed by union instructions or industrial action legislation.

 

I understand there are frustrations among certain sections of the membership over the perceived lack of momentum in this dispute. I am not sure where that frustration comes from as the union has been on the front foot at every step and issued communications to members whenever any developments arose. And, at the point where the employers did finally put a revised and improved offer on the table, your union’s National Executive Committee decided as early as it could to put that offer out to members in a referendum and I thank all those who took part. It was, incidentally, one of the highest participation rates this union has seen in a referendum for some time. It is now only just over week since that referendum has concluded and arranging meetings with multiple employers is not an easy or quick task to resolve.

 

I would add that the momentum is with you and your colleagues anyway, as the employers now need to address the overwhelming rejection of their offer and come up with improvements. We are not meekly walking away from this dispute, so the ball is quite firmly in the bosses’ court as they know you and your colleagues are not willing to work for inadequate reward.

 

I will keep you advised of any further developments in this dispute and let you know when further meeting with the employers take place and on any further offers tabled.

 

Stick with your union and stick together!

 

Yours sincerely

 

Michael Lynch

General Secretary